1-18-10
Well, I never thought I would make it this far. I have been having a horrible time saying goodbye to all my family and friends. I have had wonderful people who had to say goodbye to me in the past week, and it has been really hard to say goodbye to all of them.
In the course of a couple days, I have been packing, repacking, shifting, replacing, taking out, putting in, and everything else I can think of to make sure I had 2 bags that were less than 23 kilos and 2 carry on bags. I don’t even know if I made it. I have always prided myself in packing light. Well, not this time. I feel like I am packing for the winter storm.
My mom brought out a scale for me to weigh myself, and then weigh me carrying a bag to find the difference in weight. The problem was, the scale went berserk. It kept changing my weight every time I went on the scale, my weight changed. It looked like I gained a couple pounds, then lost those pounds plus a few more all in the span of a couple minutes. I know my weight doesn’t fluxuate that much. So we really couldn’t depend on the scale to help me.
There was really bad weather earlier today. Fortunately, on the drive, it was clear. We arrived at the airport, but decided to park the car and walk the luggage over to the terminal. So we went in the parking structure, and couldn’t find any parking. We went around and around, up, then down, and all over the place looking for a parking space. We finally found a place to park, but of course had no idea where we were. We went to the elevator and pushed the button and waited. We waited for a long time, and realized the elevator was broken. So we had to go down the stairs. I had my backpack and the BIG bag. Mom had my other carry on and the other bag. We got the luggage to the outside and just walked in a straight line.
After about 15 minutes of wandering, we asked for directions. The person said we had to go through the parking lot and go to the opposite side of the airport…of course. So we went through the parking lot, but there was a fork in the road and we had to choose which way to go. So we went one way. We ended up at the same terminal we started at to ask for directions! So then we went back through the parking lot, in the opposite direction and kept walking. We, again ended up at the same spot again! We could not figure out how we could go in the opposite direction and somehow get turned around.
Anyway, we decided to turn left and keep walking until we could ask someone else for directions. We kept walking until we got to a sign of arrivals. Air Tahiti Nui was not listed, naturally.
I have to say, there is nothing like getting lost, in my family, that puts the mind and my nerves at ease. By this time, my mom and I were laughing hysterically. We eventually composed ourselves and found someone who told us we needed to go upstairs. So, we went upstairs. Someone immediately came to us and asked where we needed to go. We told her, and she pointed us in the right direction. We did make it, rubbery arms, red faces, and sweaty…so much for my nice shower!
So I went to the counter and they took my funny looking ticket, accepted my visa, and weight my luggage…all went smoothly. Whew!
The next task was to X-RAY my luggage. The line was extremely long, but was moving fairly quickly. The people would pick up the luggage, put it on a cart, and the people would move on their way. The luggage started getting backed up. Sooooo…they stopped the line, with my mom and I at the front. We waited 30 minutes while they were getting the luggage through. In the meantime, we noticed the person who was supposed to be examining the luggage had her back to the screen. Hmmmm…makes me feel safe. Also, all the flight crew got to go right to the front of the line, which backed up the luggage even more and we continued to wait. It was fun. I also noticed how they hurl the luggage onto the cart. All that was going though my head was, “I didn’t have anything breakable…did I?”
So when we finally got through that line, we went upstairs to the bathroom. We had already been there a long time. Then we went back downstairs where we had to say goodbye. Mom told me she would stay until she couldn’t see me anymore. She was true to her word. Every once in a while I would look back and she would immediately wave, which made me wave and laugh. I had just turned around from her as I was laughing when I had to give the guy my passport. He told me, “Just keep smiling.” Well, I actually had to smile to keep myself from crying at that point.
Then I got to take off my shoes and everything else and went to find my gate. Of course I started at the very first gate, and I had to go to the very last gate! I guess I got there really early, because by the time I got there, they were still boarding last minute passengers for Sydney. So I had to sit down. Of course, this was the only gate that did not possess any seats…at all! So I sat on the floor to wait.
I then heard an announcement, but could not understand it at all. All of a sudden, everyone started standing up and leaving. So I stood up, too. I overheard someone mention another gate, so I went to the TV screen to see my flight. It said it was arriving on time, but the gate hadn’t changed. There was another guy who was also staring intently on the screen trying to figure out what was going on, so at least I wasn’t the only one who had no idea what was going on.
The screen suddenly changed and I did have to go to another gate. So I found a seat, and waited again. A little bit later, someone asked me, “Aren’t we supposed to board 1 hour before departure?” I asked him what time it was and it was 11:20 pm. We were supposed to leave 11:55 pm…and the plane was not even there yet. The screen still said we were leaving on time.
It wasn’t until 11:50 that we finally saw the plane. Still the screen said On Time. Don’t know how that works. They told us that we would be boarding in 10 minutes. Well, those 10 minutes lasted for a long time. The screen finally changed to 12:15 departure On Time. That still did not make sense since it was then 12:10. We finally started boarding at 12:20…and took off at 12:55…so only an hour late.
Interesting to hear what happened after I could see you no longer. One hour late--not good for on time.
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