Now, fast forward to this year...slightly different.
This trip sucked. I mean REALLY. SUCKED. I cried at a few points. Shocking, I know. But this year, for a much different reason. First off, we are dumb. I
have learned to never cut the time that close. We wanted to spend as much time in America as possible. Our flight was supposed to land the night
before we started school. That. was. stupid. Not sure what in the world we were
thinking.
Here is how it all panned out...we got to Chicago in style, first class, free
bags, lovely short flight. (Unfortunately for me, I have grown custom to first class on domestic flights. I am sure to get a wake up call soon.) Next, we got on plane number two, destined for LA. Again, great flight,
although it left a little late. We had exit row seats that were in line with
the door to enter, so plenty of room. Then we got to LA and saw on the TV monitors that there was a typhoon right over Shanghai. We knew it was coming,
but didn't realize it was there and that it was directly over the city. The
past two years we have had typhoon warnings and nothing has happened. So we
figured it would be fine. Once we saw the typhoon was actually hitting Shanghai, we prepared for a long delay. It
never happened. The flight left on time (with two other teachers friends aboard). This was now our third flight.
It did not start like the other two. It was an older plane, and it really showed. We had our own TV screens (thank God), but could not control them much. Certain movies and TV shows were on only a few channels and they all
started at the same time. I wanted to cry right then and there. (First small hissy fit happened here.) I decided to
read and do other things for the beginning of the flight in protest. When I
finally decided to try and watch Hunger Games, I realized my seat didn't have a
working audio outlet. I lost it. (Second hissy fit, a little bigger this time.) I went nuts yelling at Travis and telling him
that we should get our money back and blah, blah, blah. You can only imagine my hysterics. He was kind enough to ignore
my rant (being as supportive as possible without calling me a lunatic) and offered his outlet since he wasn't using it. I was able to watch 2
movies and the flight was not too bad after all. We slept a bit too, but it was cold and
a HUGE group of friends were together and they were quite annoying. At the beginning of the flight, they had a very difficult time finding seats, they all wanted to trade. Then they were told to sit down several times, before they finally did. They didn't bother me TOO much during flight until I was in a DEEP sleep and one friend decided to scream in his friend's face (sitting right next to me) to scare him. Needless to say, he wasn't the only one scared. GRRRRRRRR!
Twelve-ish hours have now gone on and I am thinking, "Sweet, we are going to land and be home soon!" I spoke too soon. As
we got over Japan, one of the flight attendants walks past me and says,
"Welcome to Osaka!" I thought it was a joke. He said they had just
found out that they wouldn't be able to land because of the typhoon, so we had
to go to Osaka. I think I cried then too. (I told you I cry a lot.) Once we land, (in another freakin
country!!!! I don't know why we didn't just go to a different city in China)
they tell us we will be leaving the next evening, EVENING, 24 hours away! Again, I think
I cried.
We deplane, get herded like cattle to immigration, get told about
dinner, the hotel and the next day, get shoved on a bus and off to our hotel, a
1 hour drive. Ugh. We arrive to a beautiful hotel. Amen. Our room is nice, two
twin beds, but whatev. We have a nice shower and a bidet!!! :) We were to tired and frustrated to eat, so we
slept. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, slept more, took the bus back to
the airport and learned our flight was delayed an hour. Guess what I did? I didn't cry...yet, but I did complain! :) After standing in a line of 300 people trying to get new tickets for over an hour and a half, Travis realized we were able to go to the special line for Silver, Gold, and Platinum members. We quickly got our tickets in hand, checked our bags once again and headed to the gate for flight number 4.
As expected, we boarded the
plane late and stayed on the tarmac for like an hour. At this point, I am beyond frustrated. Two hours later, I hear the joyous words, "Welcome to Shanghai!" I might have cried again, tears of great joy. All in all, we made it back to Shanghai, a whole day late and missed work. I was stressed, of course, and Travis was fine, as usual.
It amazes me to think of how different this flight was compared with last year's! Two things have come out of this 4 plane, 2 day ordeal. One, I will not come back so close to starting work. Two, I want a nonstop flight next year! I hope this brought a smile to your faces, thinking back, it kind of makes me laugh now!
Cheers!
C
