Thursday, May 21, 2009
I can’t believe it’s already May 21 – when I was buying my plane tickets to come here that sounded SO far away but here it is already! When I list off everything I’ve done and seen since January I can’t believe how much I’ve accomplished and experienced but at the same time I have lots more on my list of things to see and do. I’m just so thankful for all of the opportunities that I’ve had.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – I’m totally bipolar about today: can’t wait to get home and see everyone but extremely sad to leave Granada and all the people here. I’m so happy that my experience here was totally different from Mexico and I’m thrilled that I became so attached here instead of just looking forward to getting home. I know everyone says they’ll come back someday and rarely follow through but I really really want to bring my students here – I’ve already started planning it!
Ok so my alarm went off before 5:00am but I was up after only one snooze (REALLY impressive – just ask Taylor who had to listen to my beeping alllll morning long every single morning) I got ready then we had breakfast and I said my goodbyes to Juli Juli. I didn’t have anything particularly inspiring to say and she was pretty much still asleep so it was short and sweet. I gave her the candle I brought and the magnetic picture frame and I think she was pretty happy with them. I got in the elevator with all of my bags and prayed that I wouldn’t get stuck! (The elevator breaks all the time and people get trapped inside a lot) Thankfully I made it out ok and Taylor was there to help me with my luggage which was unbelievably heavy. When we were leaving our apartment complex we heard someone tssssssh tsssssh-ing us and we looked up to see Julia waving like crazy from the balcony and blowing me a kiss. :) I’m so glad Taylor decided to go to the airport with us because there’s no way I would’ve made the 6:25 bus without her. I couldn’t stack my duffle on top of my rolling bag because they were so heavy it almost broke my arm off so one of us rolled and the other lugged my 45 lb bag along with my backpack. Since there weren’t any cars out we went straight down the middle of the roads and took the most direct route possible but by the time we finally made it there our hands were aching, we were exhausted and in a full sweat. Not exactly what I was hoping for at 6:00am! We met up with Whitney, Kristin, and Cassandra (who was also coming to the airport to say goodbye) a couple stops later and we were the first ones in line at the check-in counter.
After the walk to the bus stop I knew my bags were definitely close to the limit but once we weighed them I found out that I was way over on my big bag. There’s no way I was going to pay €50 so I spent a solid half hour scrounging for anything heavy in the big bag to switch with anything light in the little one and I crammed socks and underwear into every crevice in that bag – it was bursting at the seams! There wasn’t much to switch so my last resort was to take my green blanket out of my carry-on, carry it all the way to DSM and fill my backpack with all the clothes I could. When I finally checked in the guy looked at my final destination and said, “Iowa?” Umm, yep. “My brother lived there for a while.” Turns out his brother, Juan, taught Spanish at Central a few years ago! How crazy! Thank goodness we had a connection because he was way nicer to me than the other guy was to Whitney and Kristin. He got me my boarding passes all the way through Chicago and my bags checked all the way to Des Moines! I don’t think he even weighed my bags because I set them both on the scale at the same time, he tagged them, and put them through. They were 44.4 kilos total and you’re allowed 23 per bag. That being said, I’m fairly positive the big one was overweight but I’m not complaining!
After we were all checked in we saw around laughing at everyone else who had to wait in a super long line and stress about their bags. We saw Mitch and José come in and it was so cute, he kept looking back at Mitch as he left. He came over and said goodbye to us and said we were always welcome in his home and that we’ll go for another hike when we return :) We finally said goodbye to Taylor and Cassandra and everyone had a pretty tough time with that. We went through security then sat at our gate until it was time to board.
The first flight went well – I even saw them load my small bag into the plane which was a good sign. There were quite a few Central people on that flight and it was nice to all be together. It was a short flight, only about an hour until we were in Madrid. I had plenty of time since my connecting flight was later than the rest of the group so I just wandered around and killed some time after they went to their gate. I blew the rest of my Euros on snacks and ended up paying 3.70 for a stupid bag of Doritos! Once we finally boarded we spent 45 minutes on the runway which was ridiculous. I took a nap and woke up before we were even in the air – how depressing! I sat next to a nice Colombian couple who were traveling Europe for a month to celebrate their 35th anniversary. When I told them I was studying in “Graná” they had no idea what I was talking about and I realized how my accent had drastically changed in a few short months. I understood most of what they said but it was funny how different the dialects are sometimes.
We finally got to London and I was a little tricked by the one hour time difference and even though we landed a lot later than planned I was ok because I had a pretty long layover. I walked down to the waiting area and planned to sit in a chair right by the screen that shows the gates (I still can’t believe they don’t assign gates until 30 minutes before boarding). Anyway, right by where I was planning to sit was Danielle Larimer, a girl from Central who was in my French class last semester. She was on her way home from Wales and happened to be on our same flight to Chicago – what a small world. We looked a couple rows over and found the rest of the Central group from Granada and once we were all rounded up we went to our gate. I must have been in a totally different part of Heathrow because it looked completely different than it did in January. Guess that’s not too hard to do considering that it’s HUGE.
So we finally boarded the plane and I sat next to a cute couple on their way to “holiday” in Chicago for a week. The lady was from Australia and the guy was from London and we had a pleasant trip together. However, we sat on the runway for 40 minutes waiting to take off… not good. I tried not to think too hard about it or get myself worried about my next connection because I had plenty of time later to do so and I needed some rest. The exact flight on the way there was 6 hours but apparently the reverse trip is 8 ½ because of headwinds and air currents and whatnot. I had prepared myself to think that it was only going to be six, saying that it wouldn’t be too bad, I’d be there in no time, etc. but two and a half extra hours was not helpful. I definitely got restless and my legs cramped up pretty bad. However, we had tons of good food which was nice. I had some pasta thing, chocolate cake, a roll, and salad for dinner and enjoyed every last bit. I slept through the next meal which was a couple hours later but snatched it to go since I would probably need it for my long night ahead. Speaking of, I forgot to mention that Whitney and Mitch paid me a visit over in 22A about halfway through and they had obviously been thinking and talking about the impending “situation” of potentially missing our next flight. I got out my information and found out that our flights were scheduled to take off at the same time. They seemed convinced that we wouldn’t make it but I wasn’t so sure. I really wanted to get home so I thought I could give it a shot – you see people running like crazy through airports all the time, I might as well do it once in my life, right? We tried to ask the flight attendants some stuff but they weren’t particularly helpful.
Flying over Chicago at night was so pretty all lit up J I got really excited when I saw Navy Pier, downtown, but especially the baseball fields. It was obvious that I was back in the US of A. We finally landed but it took forever to actually get off the plane since it was so big. I flipped on my phone – what a wonderful feeling! I had a voicemail from Mandy welcoming me back then I called Dad and Mom to warn them that I might not be there that night – aka don’t come to the airport unless I say otherwise. I also texted Rob and had some serious issues… the setup for texting was different on my Spanish phone and I honestly felt like my thumbs were clubs – it was so awkward! Ok so I finally got off the plane, shouted goodbye and got some good lucks from my friends and started to jog through the airport. I got to the luggage claim thing and debated for a few minutes whether to wait for mine or just ditch it. First, there was a chance my bags wouldn’t even be there; second, in Granada they told me that I wouldn’t have to collect my bags until Des Moines; and third, I figured they would be sent to Des Moines the next day since I made sure to put my information all over them. I decided to just wait for them because I had ALL of my stuff in there and I wanted to give everyone their souvenirs right away and that’s something I couldn’t replace if I never got my luggage. Either way I was probably going to miss my flight so I would rather have everything with me … also needed a change of clothes and underwear since I’d been wearing the same thing for almost 24 hours.
I finally spotted both of my bags and probably squealed like a little girl (Kylee is a perfect example, actually!). There were a couple workers moving the bags to the side of the turnstile when they got jammed up and when he went to move mine he reached for my luggage tag and tried to yank it. Obviously the tag snapped right off and I didn’t have nice words for him and yes, I said them out loud because I wanted to know how ridiculous he was being – this is his job, he has plenty of experience with moving luggage around and I think he should know not to pull luggage tags of 50 lb bags..common sense. Ok so then I went through customs which was pretty quick and I saw a sign for an American Airlines desk but when I went around the corner there was nobody there. I decided to hop on the tram and check in at my terminal.
So when I finally got to the desk I was exhausted and a little sweaty from lugging my bags all around the world. I still couldn’t stack the little one on the big one because it was too heavy and it kept tipping over so I had to carry it on my shoulder. I went up to the lady, handed her my passport, and as soon as she found out which flight I was on she told me there was no way I would make it. She could tell I was in a hurry so she tried and tried but the computer system had blocked off more passengers ONE MINUTE before I got there. Even if I could’ve gotten checked in my bags wouldn’t have made it, I still had to go through security, run to the right gate, and get onto the plane. She said if I would’ve been there 15 minutes earlier I might have had a chance but I should definitely give up at this point. I was really upset and probably a little teary-eyed and I’m glad she was really nice about everything. She got me set up for a flight early the next morning and told me to be there at 5:45 because they would be swamped. Yay, another early start.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention – she seemed really surprised that I even thought I had a shot. “Didn’t they tell you that you wouldn’t make it?” Umm, WHO? T5 was more or less empty and everyone I talked to said absolutely nothing. Also, there seemed to be some tension between BA and AA – she called to ask what in the world made us 45 minutes late landing and they pretty much had no answer.
Ok so I asked about a hotel room/meal ticket for the night and she said that I would have to go to the British Airways desk to get those since it was their fault that I missed my connection. Aka back in terminal 5 right where I came from.. The problem? They close right after the last flight gets in and there’s no way I would make it back in time before they shut down for the night. Wonderful. I wasn’t about to pay $60 or $90 for the places they suggested for me and I definitely wasn’t going to by myself a meal. I wasn’t even hungry and I had plenty of stuff stashed away.
I was mentally preparing myself for a possible night at the airport when I called Whitney and Mitch. They were still at T5 and thankfully they got meal tickets and a hotel room for free! I didn’t care that I would probably be sleeping on the floor or a rollaway; at least I had somewhere to go besides T3. Whitney’s dad offered to come get us but since we all had early morning flights and ended up getting hotel rooms it definitely wasn’t worth it since we would probably get back at the same time anyway and it was a waste of gas. So, I said thanks to the lady at the counter and the couple next to me (with whom I made friends during this madness) and found out they were being put up in the same hotel. They were supposed to be on the flight back to London but had been bumped off for no reason so they were spending the night in Chicago too. The guy offered to help me with my bags but at that point I wasn’t too worried about it after everything that had just gone down. He insisted and his wife told me, “don’t be foolish” so I let him carry my little bag all the way through the tram and to the hotel (which was connected to the airport). How sweet!
When I got to the lobby of the Hilton Whitney and Mitch were just getting their room keys and putting their luggage on a cart. The lady at the desk told me to do the same and the bellhop would bring our bags up to our rooms soon. A) Wow, luggage service? Hostel life sucks in comparison. B) I was assuming that I would have to sneak in since I wasn’t about to pay for the room and didn’t have a voucher but the lady at the desk didn’t say anything and when Whitney asked she said she didn’t even need to see my passport. Nice.
So we headed up to our rooms (they got separate ones, thank goodness – aka I had a bed!) and I definitely squealed for the second time in an hour. Huge comfy beds, fluffy pillows, a big screen tv, a nice shower, CLEAN, etc. It was just your basic Hilton but to us it was the most luxurious thing we’d seen in quite some time.
Immediately we headed down to the restaurant in the lobby to have some dinner while we waited for our bags to get there and SURPRISE they got three meal vouchers somehow! Each of us was allowed $30 and even though it was a pretty upscale place, it was still a sports bar type restaurant and I would’ve had to stretch quite a bit to spend all of that. We all ordered cheeseburgers and fries and I absolutely destroyed mine. It was so thick and juicy and cheesy and heavenly. We gave our tickets to the waiter and he asked if we wanted dessert or anything but we were stuffed so we said no. He offered to give us some dessert to go since we still had lots of money left and we gave in. Chocolate cake, cheesecake, or tiramisu? We’ll take one of each please.
I made some phone calls - Mom and Dad, Mandy, Laura, and Roberta and I was so happy to talk to everyone and use my American phone with free nights and weekends. Even though I was really sad that I wasn’t home it sounded like everyone (besides Rob) would be at the airport in the morning – yay!
We all came back up and showered, rearranged some stuff, and dug through our suitcases for some pajamas and toiletries. We watched a little TV (in English with no British accent!) and had a dessert party. They were beautifully prepared and garnished with flower petals, whipped cream, fruit, etc. and they were as delicious as they looked. We were still stuffed and they were huge and between the three of us we couldn’t finish any of them. Thanks British Airways! After that Whitney and I crawled in our amazing beds and talked for a little while until we fell asleep around 12:30
All in all, missing the flight wasn’t bad. I know it would’ve been nice to get home after such a long trip (today and since January) and I really missed my family and Rob but I think spending the night in that hotel was good for all three of us. It gave us a chance to slow down the reverse culture shock a little bit and go through the first phase together instead of at home. We got a good meal, had a good night’s sleep (even though it was only a few hours), and had a chance to shower and freshen up before going home. The best part? It was all free.
