Because I have been visiting a lot of schools in America to make my final choice, I’ve been flying a lot from Amsterdam to New York. And something always needs to go wrong.
I am writing this post from a Delta aircraft, sitting here in complete boredom. I will tell you my horrific traveling story of today.
11:00 – Taxi Driver arrives
My mother and I have been staying at a friend’s house this week in the States. This is where our taxi driver came and picked us up. Of course, we get the maniac guy, who drives very fast, suddenly breaks, takes the bumpy roads and repeats this the whole ride long. I am kind of sensitive to this, and I got carsick. I was not aloud to open the window for some fresh air, because it was to cold outside. So, I decided to close my eyes, and try to fall asleep. Of course, the driver needs to put the radio on the highest volume possible and meanwhile use his super complicated walkie-talkie to talk with all of his colleagues. No sleeping for me, I guess.
13:00 – Arrival at JFK airport
Finally, my mother and I arrive at the airport. The taxi driver dropped us off at Terminal 4, which we were told to go to by this Delta person. When we entered terminal four, we went to the check-in desk, and the bored lady sitting behind the desk told us that we are in the wrong terminal.
MY MOM: “Hi! Can we check in here?”
CHECK-IN: “Yeah, let me see your boarding passes.”
(short pause…)
CHECK-IN: “You have to be in terminal 2.”
MY MOM: “ WHAT?! It sais, right here (points at boarding pass), that we need to be in terminal 4. Nowhere, I see terminal 2.”
CHECK-IN: “Chillax, lady. Just walk to terminal 2, only a 25 minute walk. It aint as cold as it looks like.” (it was FREEEZING!)
MY MOM: “You can’t be serious. I am NOT, NOT walking all the way over there. Do you think I’m crazy m’am?”
CHECK-IN: “You could also take the shuttle bus.”
MY MOM: “You could have mentioned that earlier…”
My mother and I walked off to the ladies room, we really needed to go. I was carrying two bags; a white plastic bag, with some food in it and my coat and a blue bag, containing all of my magazines. When I was finished with my, uhm, delivery, I washed my hands and left the ladies room. I didn’t know then, that I forgot my white plastic bag.
14:50 – At the SkyTeam Lounge
We had gone through security check and all that stuff, we changed terminals and my mother and I were sitting together in the airport lounge. My responsible mom asked me to check all my stuff, just to make sure that I had everything. Normally, I have. This time, I didn’t. My blue bag was still in my possession, but my white plastic bag, with survival food (because I absolutely HATE airplane food. JUCK JUCK JUCK!) and my coat, was not there. I must have forgotten it at the ladies room in terminal 4. Instead of understanding, my mom started laughing. “That’s such a Laura thing,” she said. And to be honest, it is. I lose everything, I leave everything, I have lost my locker keys a 1000 times and my friends need to tell me not to leave my schoolbag behind. Oh yeah, this was such a Laura thing. We both weren’t really keen on taking the shuttle bus back again. So I will need to buy a new coat soon (otherwise I will get very cold on my bicycle..).
15:15 – Boarding time
Because we were travelling on business class, we were the first up to board on the plane. But instead of getting to our seats, we had to wait in another line to actually get on the plane. After a short while, we were able to board J.
16:30 – Of course, delay
Something else just needed to go wrong, and we had prepared ourselves, but of course there was some kind of technical problem, because of this we couldn’t make our seats change position and the “Little TV” didn’t work. We had to wait for about an hour, and then, we finally took off. The technical problems were solved!
17:45 – Well, I thought they were solved
Guess what, our chairs were able to move, but my very favorite part of flying (which is watching movies, TV programs and listening music) was broken. My precious Entertainment TV didn’t work. No one’s TV worked. I was F-U-R-I-O-U-S. I was giving the flight attendents looks of death, because I couldn’t think of a 7 hour flight without watching any TV. My mother just grabbed a book and she was fine. I, on the other hand, didn’t have anything to read with me. How would I survive this?
18:00 – Food, YAY!
Happy me, we were getting food. Me and my mom loved it (smoked salmon and seaweed salad!). But, the horrific people in front of us didn’t. They didn’t want red wine, no white wine, no beer. They wanted a specific kind of French wine. When finally, they got their French wine, they didn’t like it and exchanged it for some water. Which they also didn’t like. They claimed that it was tap water. And they wanted Spa water. After their drinking problem, they got their main course, crab cakes. One of the two didn’t like it, of course. So they wanted something else. The flight attendant had to tell them the bad news that there wasn’t anything else for them to eat. Poor lady, the people got furious. When desert came, my mother and I got vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and a strawberry on top. Instead of eating the strawberries, my mother and I started to launch them with our spoons on the head of the grumpy people in front of us. When a flight attendant saw what we were doing, she told us to stop immediately. We did, but we were laughing so hard that people sleeping woke up.
19:00 – Getting sleepy
As I always do, I got sleepy, and decided to fall asleep. But of course, the person sitting behind me NEEDED to snore. Thank you!
06:00 – In Holland again, at the baggage claim.
We just arrived… 15 minutes ago? And we are waiting at the o so jolly baggage claim. Normally, the baggage appears within ten minutes. This time 50. Jippee.
Travelling isn’t always the nicest situation you can be in, but it beats BIKING TO SCHOOL EVERY DAY!
