adventures in going home

According to my boss at PageYourself, not having a flight itinerary 24 hours before departure is, "an adventure." Let me just say here and now: it wasn't one I enjoyed. The trouble is, I reserved my plane tickets to and from New York with a friend of a friend of airline-employed parents. As such, the reservation itself was cheap... and confirmed very last minute. Fine.

But it wasn't exactly because I went to bed on Tuesday without a clue as to when I was flying out on Wednesday. This meant that there was an alarm at 3am, 4am, 5am, 6am, 7am, and a wake-up alarm at 8:15 am to check my inbox for flight details. At 9am, I received an email, "Your flight is for 7:10pm so no need to be ready in the early morning." A relief, yes, but also annoying after such a tumultuous night of sleep. "I'm waiting for the confirmation. Should be there asap! Could you please send me your phone number so I can send you the relevant information?" I provided my phone number and leisurely spent the morning eating breakfast, reading blogs, slowly cleaning up my room. It was the first day I'd off in a very long time. It wasn't until noon that I took a shower! Then, as I got ready to run out for lunch, I received a text: "My contact (his name is Khaled) will call you in a very short time. You leave earlier from Roissy Airport at 17:10 (not 19:10). Please confirm you've received my text. You need to be at the airport at 15:00." It was 12:45pm. The commute to the airport from my apartment is roughly an hour.

So, I ran out to lunch faster than expected, finished packing, and barely cleaned up in order to leave my apartment at 1pm. The wait for a taxi--at the 10-minute-walk away station--was an unbelievable 20 minutes. As my driver dropped me off at the train station, he demanded a tip before I even had a chance to pay. Then I caught the express train to the airport, and along the way, heard from Khaled. I nearly sighed in relief. Thirty minutes later, of course, the airline employee couldn't find my reservation...

He eventually did though, thankfully. I boarded an American Airlines plane at 4:50pm. I arrived at JFK airport at 7:28pm. My parents greeted me, for the first time in 6 months, at 8:15pm (the customs line was insane). But, I made it! I'm safe and sound, and I only spent 450-euros on a round-trip ticket. Be back soon with stories of better adventures from home :).