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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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Alright, I am alive. I seriously just got internet about an hour ago. I thought to myself that I could always go into an internet cafe, but I held off cause why would I want to pay 1lb for 15 minutes. Okay so my story would have to start the airport, so enjoy. I sat in the Little Rock airport thinking to myself, "finally, I can stop talking about this trip with all my friends, finally I can actually make good on my word." I must say I was tired, but I didn't sleep on the flight to Charlotte. While I was in the terminal, I thought I saw Jacob Coleman (related to the Coleman dairy family). We had had several classes together over the years, but it had been a while since I had seen him last, so I was reluctant to start out so early in the day with a case of mistaken identity, so I kept my mouth shut.
It all kinda got hectic at Charlotte. I had 30 minutes to get to my next flight out to JFK. I didn't run, but I did walk briskley. My connecting flight was in a terminal opposite to the one that I had arrived in. I blessed the moving walkways and actually became one of the first people to board my flight. I touched down in JFK around 11am. By that point, Jacob and I had identified each other and had decided it was best to navigate the rest of this trip together. We stood chatting at the baggage claim (I switched carriers and they made me recollect my baggage), it was obvious that US Airways had lost several flights worth of luggage thanks to the 6 foot high walls of luggage laying arounf the room. It was a disconcerting sight. The baggage claim belt started and then for 15 minutes there was nothing and then it shut off again. The angst in the room was palpable. This ukranian woman who spoke little english and whose first time in america was quite obvious, turned to me very distressed and asked me, "Is it come again." I told her I'd look into it. I did, I was told to wait longer, which was no skin off my nose since I had a 9 hour layover to look forward to.
The luggage came and we went out to hop the train to our terminal that would take us to London. On the train I met a new york girl that had on a Little Rock sweat shirt. Somehow UALR had lured her to Arkansas for law school. Jacob and I laughed cause we never knew Little Rock apparel even existed. When we got to the chech in counters at our terminal, we found much to our dissapointment that Virgin was due to check baggage for another 4 hours. We stood around for a while trying to decide what to do with our luggage. At about this time, my Rick Steve's money belt failed me. The zipper broke and it became impossible to remove my important passport and other such documents. I asked the cops if it was okay that I got out my Leatherman multi-tool. Upon assurances that they wouldn't arrest me, I took out the pocket sized scissors and cut the money belt open. We ate lunch, walked around for a while and finally checked our baggage. In waiting for 8 hours I did about everything to stave off boredom. Somehow my ipod battery was drained so I was left to my own devices. By the time that other kids started showing up at my gate, I was quite stir crazy. I must have seemed quite odd to them, cause I introduced myself to just about everybody and made friends very quickly.
So we got on the plane and I have to say the plane seats seemed smaller than last year, but luckily I was in an aisle seat so i could stretch out a little more. I instantly met Tyler and Nicole, two awesome people, and we all had a great conversation for the hour it took the plane to actually leave the terminal. Of course we then spent another hour slowly taxiing around the airport. Jacob said he woke up and was amazed how smooth the flight was and then he realized we were still on the ground. The next 6 hours were hell. I wanted to go to sleep, but never got all the way there, it was just a sort of catatonic state that I reached. I didn't take any of the sleeping pills because nicole was giving me crap about them, but to be honest, the real reason was because they didn't serve dinner till midway into the flight and i decided the pills couldn't help me now. When we got to the airport I somehow became the group leader. I was a good leader if I say so myself. I led my band of 22 students to immigration and succesfully convinced the immigration officer that we constituted a group, despite the several qualifications that we lacked i.e. must stamp entire group on one passport, must be on the group arrival list, and must leave the country together. My actions probably saved us an hour of waiting in line. It didn't take us long after that to get our bags and find our guide and head out for the hotel.
previous travel blog entry
Sanderspb says:
Great post Stuart. Keep 'em comin.