Home: A Series of Ridiculous Events

Never in my life have I experienced a day as completely unrealistic as this. Oh wait, make that two days...or actually, 61 hours.

I've been considering for a few days how best to write this entry. The whole situation was so ridiculously humorous that I'm worried that I can't give it justice with my measly writing skills. I think, for the sake of time and space, I may just make a list. I really don't need to add commentary. The timeline speaks for itself.

Saturday, December 19, 2009:

7:45am France time (1:45am Virginia time)- Leave house with dreadful anticipation of the long day ahead. Already know about blizzard conditions and flight from Washington DC to Roanoke being rebooked for the next afternoon.

8:20- Watch host father uncharacteristically get into a shouting match with a horribly obnoxious driver at the airport in Marseille.

8:35- Remove 1 kilo worth of Christmas presents from my 50 pound suitcase at check in.

9:00- Make it to the gate after successfully passing though security.

9:30- Run into a German friend from language school who ends up being on my flight to Frankfurt.

10:00- Board first plane.

10:25- Warn flight attendant I only have 40 minutes in between flights. Will I make it?

10:30- Take off. So far, so good.

10:40, 11:00, 11:30- Flight attendant returns to me multiple times with positive information about our flight time and gate, therefore assuring me I would arrive in plenty of time for my connecting flight.

12:15- Deplane and run through airport.

12:35- Flight attendant was right. Arrive in plenty of time for flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC.

1:00- Board plane.

2:00- Take off, an hour late. This is perhaps the key moment of the entire experience.

For the next 8 hours- Sleep, listen to iPod, read New Moon, sleep, talk to woman beside me who is an English as a second language teacher, decide maybe I really don't want to be a teacher, sleep.

4:00 Virginia time- Fly over Washington and begin descent. Miles to destination: 32.

4:02- Miles to destination: 392. What?

4:03- Pilot on loudspeaker speaks a lot of German. Half the passengers look startled. The rest have no idea what he said.

4:04- In English, "You may have noticed we have again begun to ascend. It seems the visibility is too low on the runway because of the blizzard. For your safety, we are flying to Charlotte, North Carolina."

4:05- I am really bummed. I learn later that if we had left on time, we would have been able to land.

5:30- We land in Charlotte. I am almost glad of the diversion because we flew through sunset and I was in the sky as it turned rose and I watched rainbows play in the vapors coming off of the wing.

5:32- I call home. I am thinking, I really hope they decided not to pick me up in DC. Mom answers. I breathe a sigh of relief. She says, "Oh good timing! It took him 8 hours through the snow, ice, and car wrecks but your dad just got to the airport to pick you up. You will have to stay there tonight though because they just closed 81 South." "Oh no Mom! I'm in Charlotte." Silence. "I guess your dad is going to have to stay at the airport by himself. Wait, what are you doing in Charlotte??"

An hour and a half later- We are still sitting on the tarmac. We are informed that customs will not let us off the plane. We are going to Atlanta, Georgia. "Um, hey Mom, I'm heading further south..."

8:00pm- Land in Atlanta. Thank God for cheerful southern airport workers. So maybe customs guys aren't the nicest but everyone else sure was helpful.

Between 8:00 and 9:30- Go through security (to leave the airport? still haven't figured that one out), claim 50 pound luggage, re-check luggage, take train to other side of airport, re-claim luggage (we still haven't figured this system out either), get in line for hotel vouchers.

Around this time is when specific time is difficult to remember. By now, we were functioning only on lunch, a snack, and a lot of confusing hours without sleep. I will make up times for the sake of explanation. It will be close enough.

9:45- Strike up a conversation with some people in line. Meet Eddie (British guy who's lived in Turkey his whole life, who's mother is Greek, who's mother tongue is somehow French, who works for an Italian spice export company, who calls me Kary, who makes fun of my French, and who has a daughter my age, i.e. my adopted father for the rest of the trip. He has been travelling from Turkey since Friday morning and has not changed his socks.) and Emily (About my age, veterinarian, lives in DC, coming back from visiting her sister and new niece in Austria.)

10:45- Reach the front of mega-long line (our plane had over 400 passengers). Get hotel and food vouchers. Apparently look somewhat anxious despite feeling surprisingly calm. Go with Eddie and Emily to shuttle to go to hotel.

11:30- Finally get on shuttle. Atlanta is freezing by the way and by the size of most of our coats, I don't think we were expecting to be waiting outside for 45 minutes. Cough that I finally got rid of comes back with a vengeance.

12:00am- Stand in line at Clarion South waiting for a room. It is too late to use the $25 food voucher for dinner. We are all starving and on the edge of passing out from dehydration. Emily calls the Lufthansa number they said to contact for flight information. They are closed. We could call again at 8:00am.

12:45- Eddie and I get to the front of the line. Emily is at the desk getting checked in. The hotel's internet dies. The front desk people freak out. Emily gets a room. Eddie and I go to the desk. The front desk people are very sweet and extremely apologetic. They only know of two clean rooms and since the internet is down, they can't figure out which other rooms are open. They bargain with each other and finally Eddie and I get the last two keys. I feel briefly sorry for the people behind me but with the exhaustion, that soon passes and I only feel relief.

1:00- Leave my room with the door open in search of the drink machine. Return with Fanta Orange in hand to hear Eddie (who's room is across from mine) frantically calling, "Kary, Kary, your door is open!" He thinks I'm inside and don't know. He doesn't want to come in but he is scared I'll leave it like that all night. He is panicking. He is also probably waking up everyone in the hotel. I run to assure him I am ok. I then gulp down half the can of soda.

1:30- I take a shower. That makes the whole day seem better. For some reason my feet had chosen that day to reek to high heaven.

2:00- I pass out in a nice squishy American bed after a 26 hour long day.

Sunday, December 20, 2009:

(Supposed to be at church this morning, playing violin and visiting friends.)

8:57am- I awake to my mom calling the room. "Why aren't you awake? Your dad is still at the airport and we need you to figure out what's going to happen with your flight!"

9:15-9:30- I am on hold with the airline. Never get to talk to anyone. Even Lufthansa doesn't know what's going on.

9:30- I meet Eddie for breakfast and hear all the rumors about when/if flights were leaving.

10:00- I think I offend a German woman by the fact that I don't drink coffee. It's ok. In the end she is happy to take mine since I obviously would let it go to waste.

10:45- Leave in a taxi with luggage, Eddie, and a new friend who works in the US consulate in Chile. We get to know each other well in such tight quarters.

11:00- Get in line for Lufthansa flight LH418D.

11:30- Cheer when we all hear that they have finally allowed our flight to go back to DC directly at 4:00. We aren't licensed to fly between states and they were threatening to make us fly back to Frankfurt and then back.

2:00- After 3 hours, get to the front of the line. Receive new, ghetto-looking boarding pass and food voucher and check huge bag.

2:20- Eddie and I feel bad for security when we have to take off our shoes. Also, the metal detector man makes fun of my pink-toed socks.

2:45- Finally eat good, real food. Also randomly see someone I worked with at Doe River Gorge in line with me at the Chinese restaurant.

4:00- Meet back with Emily and another German friend and board plane. We leave mostly on schedule.

5:30- I am ecstatic! We land and I am about to see my dad who, bless his heart, has been waiting for me since 3:00 the previous day.

6:00- We find out there are so many planes on the tarmac, we are going to be waiting at least an hour in the plane before we can park at a gate.

6:45- Our crew leaves because they have to go back to Frankfurt. I later learn that Frankfurt's airports are now closed and I feel bad for the crew who are stuck again.

7:30- We still haven't moved so they bring us the mobile lounges that transport us to the terminal.

8:00- I see my dad!

9:00- German Lufthansa woman cries as she tells us the plane is still not parked and our bags are still on the plane. It has been a rough few days for Lufthansa.

9:30- We eat scones and coffee/smoothies from Starbucks for dinner.

10:00- We are still hanging out with Eddie and his daughter waiting for our bags.

11:00- The bags start going around carousel 10, after we had been told it would be 11, 12, or 13. We were just excited to see bags. Everyone cheered each time someone found their bag.

11:30- The carousel stops. There are tons of bags left from all the people who decided to give up and go home. The five hour drive doesn't give us that option. We all help take those bags off. We wait for the carousel to start again. It doesn't. I have been very calm about the whole experience but at this point, I, and many others around me, almost lose it.

12:00am- Apparently a little Hispanic lady heard something about the other 200 bags being stuck in customs on the international side, where they shouldn't be. She makes a guy go find them. Ten minutes later, the carousel starts again. We are too tired to cheer but finally everyone is happy. I hardly believe my eyes when I see my bag go by. I watch it and then say, "Dad, that one might be mine. Can you check?" He sprints and hauls it off. Finally!!

12:30- We get lost on the way to the hotel which should be 2 minutes away. Despite it all, I am thinking how much I appreciate Lufthansa's level of service, our crew's great attitudes, and the family-like camaraderie that developed between the 400 of us on the flight.

2:00- We have found the hotel and we pass out, once again, without real supper.

Monday, December 21, 2009:

(I am supposed to be on my way to Tennessee to visit college friends.)

We get up, eat a good breakfast, and drive five hours on perfect, clear roads.

3:00pm- We pull into the driveway. Dad decides to take a few minutes to smash down some of the snow in the driveway with the car wheel. We drive backward and forward...in the driveway. Finally I say, "Really? REALLY?" He understands and lets me out of the car. I go in and I am home!!!!