Land Ho!

Look, Massachusetts! I have arrived to the North American continent! I was so excited when I saw this piece of land. After sitting in the plane for about eight or so hours, it was great to see that we were almost to Philadelphia.

During the whole flight from Barcelona to Philly, I was mostly asleep. I had originally planned to read my book, Angels & Demons, so that I could go see the movie, but I was too sick to concentrate on reading. I brought a roll of pink toilet paper with me from my Bordeaux home and I was close to finishing it. My runny nose was a well of mucous and sickness. Not fun while flying.

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Well to begin my day and for that matter, it was a long day. I didn't sleep the night before since we had scheduled to leave my Bordeaux home at 3 in the morning. We walked out of the house, I locked the door, stuck the key in an envelope and placed it in the mailbox. The taxi promptly came and I could tell it was it from the headlights shining around the corner. Rosine first told me that Jacques would take me to the airport, but she then said in a note that an important obligation came up. Sadly, I was unable to say goodbye to Jacques and Rosine in person. Because of the holiday, Rosine left early to go to her son or daughter's place and Jacques had been gone for close to a month and a half. He was staying at their other house in Mimi (I think).

Anyway, we got to the airport at about 3:20. We were the first travelers there. We were so early that everything was closed. We took a nap on benches and waited until the check-in desks were open. As we were waiting, I went to check on the monitors what hall I should check-in. I couldn't find my flight. I was a bit concerned, so I went online and checked my flight number and etc. Fortunately, the airport and free wi-fi (out of all the airports i've been to, the bordeaux airport is the only airport with free wi-fi).

Check-in opened at about 5. We checked-in and we spoke the to lady behind the counter in English. I told her my flight was non-existent on the screen and she told me to go talk to the Air France people at the neighboring desks. I went over and my brother waited for me. I spoke to the people in French and the lady that was helping me was incapable of completing the problem by herself, so she called her colleague over to help. They worked away and tried to resolved the problem. They said that my flight was cancelled and that my travel agency (Expedia) should have notified me. They may have notified me and I failed to do anything. I did get some e-mails that they're were some changes, but I just thought it was just a flight number change (which was a case for my flight from Philly to LA).

Anyway, as they worked the lady that I went to first was getting frustrated and dropped some inappropriate language and the lady watching right next to her, said to her that I could understand what they were saying. She specifically said, "Il vous entend." (He understands you.) They got their act together and finally said, maybe you should go get a café while we finish resolving the problem. I didn't want to get a café so I just went to the benches and called home via Skype. I told my mom what was going on and so forth.

They finished working everything out and they said I would be flying to Lyon in order to get to Barcelona, so that I could fly to Philadelphia and then to my final destination of Los Angeles. This meant four flights!! It was a good thing, we got an early start. If I didn't leave my brother at 3, I would have been unable to catch the flight to Lyon which was at 6:45.

The Lyon airport was no stranger. I had flown there with Alicia for our trip to Italy back in February, so it was rather easy to navigate the airport. I even "met" some Americans. They saw my passport and the man whispered "an American" to his wife. It was like making a friend. haha, except we didn't speak to each other. Well, fast forward to Barcelona. Second time flying to the Barcelona airport (first time four years ago). I didn't really like that airport. I couldn't find my gate. I ended up walking down the whole terminal, just to walk down the other end. When I got to the right gate, I was just in time for boarding.

After 9 hours in the plane, I finally arrive at Philadelphia. I go through customs, I declare my goods. I lose a can of corned beef and I go on my way. I met up with my brother who had arrived about an hour earlier and was staying at the USO. The Philadelphia airport had brought memories from when I first arrived there back in January. I remembered where I had my last American meal of Chik Fil-A and where I had sat on the floor to use the free wi-fi internet. It's hard to believe I was back after five months. Time flies by so fast.

Well, we both went to our gate. We waited a while, boarded, then de-boarded. There was something wrong with a computer on the plane and they had to fix it for a couple of hours. They also said they could find another plane, but they managed to fix our original plane in about 45 minutes. I was so glad that they were able to fix it rather quickly. We boarded again. I took a little nap. Waited for the stewards to come around, ordered an apple juice and then popped open my last tylenol night capsules. I drank them and knocked out for the duration of the flight, which was 6 hours. If I was asleep for that flight, I would have lost it, since I was so tired and so sick.

After, four flights and more than about 30 hours traveling, I was finally home. What a great feeling to be on my home turf. It's been such a great experience being abroad. I am so lucky.