So…Spain wanted to keep me a tad bit longer. In case you are confused about this statement, allow me to tell you the events that took place
December 17, 2010:
5am-Lug luggage to the airport bus stop, which I almost missed because me and two other ladies were apparently standing in the wrong spot… even though that’s where the bus’ stop is. Thankfully, some kind foreigner ( I think he was German) and told us that the stop was further up. Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare… 3-4hours to be exact; I’m psychotic like that. It helps me out later on in the blog… keep reading. J So, before my 945am flight, there is a 7am flight that is going out that consists of pretty much all American study abroad students. We all say our goodbyes and they go through security and board the plane. 45min later… the exact same passengers stroll back in and my friend “Bev Bev” (Beverly.. fellow Texan) and I ask them what’s up. They tell us that the Granada Airport’s “de-icing” machine is broken and that they were going to fly a plane in from Malaga to take them later. I know what you are thinking… “Oh, well then that works out”.. oh contraire. All of the people on that flight missed their connecting flights in Madrid. They. Got. Screwed. Especially those who didn’t use the same airlines company for both flights. Cheaper is usually never better in Spain. Colleen and her bf Daniel were on that flight… they had to rebook for $250… but my friend Allison had to rebook for $1700. YIKES! The good news about this situation is that I made it to Madrid perfectly. No problems. Once in Madrid, I had about 3 hours to kill so I just sat and waited for the boards to tell me where my flight to DFW would be departing for. Realizing that I had kind of lost track of time, I quickly checked the boards and went in search for “Puerta S”.. little did I know was that I had to take a sub-way like thing to that puerta. It was an 18min ride… I was pushing it for time. I was one of those embarrassing people running in the airport. Texas was worth my pride. Ironically, the funny thing was that when I “lost track of time” I was scoffing at all the people running around and yelling at flight attendants to tell the plane to turn the plane back around and pick them up. Little did I know I was soon to become one of those people. God will getcha. Don’t think He won’t . Anyway, I made it to the departure gate and out of breath I mumble to the flight person that this is my flight and I need to board. She looked at me like I was an idiot and told me the flight was delayed. I immediately thought to myself, “Dude, I totally lucked out!” Once again… little did I know. About 10min. later, the gate announced that our flight was cancelled due to something breaking while landing and that there was 30 seats left on another flight that landed in NY at JKF and then flew to DFW. After my friends and I heard that we were off like it was the Amazing Race (you know the show where they travel all over the world). Seriously, that’s what it felt like. We ran, we bumped, we pushed… it was on. Brittany and I have always said we should go on that show, and I have totally been down….however, I am no longer down. Ha. Anyways, I was going to get home if it was the last thing I did. Or so I thought.
So… I get to the American Airlines kiosk and thankfully I was one of the first people. When I got up to the front the lady told me there were no more flights to the U.S. until Sunday (Dec. 19). I gave her my best puppy dog face and begged her to keep looking. She finally told me that I had a “potential” flight today (Sat.) and that I needed to come back to confirm. She also, just in case, booked me a flight home Sunday. Upon running to the AA ticket counter, my friends and I decided to leave our luggage at baggage claim so we could be more… “aerodynamic”. After I got my ticket, I went to retrieve my suitcase down in Baggage Claim. I was in such a frenzy that I dropped my “potential” flights “tickets” without realizing. Once I realized I had dropped them, it was a whole new level of frustration… thinking it was going to be a big deal, I went all the way back to the ticket counter and asked in my most polite voice, “I lost my tickets already, is there any way you can reprint them for me?” She looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Si, por supuesto”… I wanted to kiss her. Due to our inconvenience , AA hooked everyone who was effected by the cancellation (which was more than just our flight… the Madrid airport… eh, I’ll rant about that later) with a free ****(4 star) hotel that just so happened to be the biggest in Europe (what, what) and gave us free buffets as well. At this point, I’ll be honest. I was frustrated beyond belief. Not to mention tired because I stayed up all night so I could sleep on the plane, and I had been lugging around 85lbs. of luggage with me too. Started my workout early Dad J. I also had no way to contact my parents because I had turned off my phone for safety purposes on my flight from Granada to Madrid and to get it back working, you have to insert your PIN number .. which I didn’t have memorized and I also had no internet so… I was up a creek until I got to the hotel. Once to the hotel I called Mom (I refer to her as a Rockstar)… and I cried out all of my frustrations on her… I mean cried… I had the “ugly cry” going and everything… she couldn’t understand a word I was saying. Once I had pulled myself together, and stopped saying, “I’m never going to get home! I’m never going to get home!” I told her what happened and about my “potential” flight and then she went to town. She told me that she had called Delta (AA switched me to them) and they told her [3 times] my flight was confirmed (number, seat, everything) and that I would be arriving to the U.S. the next day. Heck yes!...
I get to the Delta check-in and much to my surprise, my ticket was a Stand-by ticket… yep… Stand-by.. they had knowingly over booked the flight. I was T-I-C-K-E-D TICKED! My new friends and I (I made new friends every day, one good thing that came out of the experience) discouragedly walked to the terminal to await our fate. While waiting for 4 hours a lot of people got to hear about our situation, not because we openly told them about [it was depressing to relive the whole thing], but because they were asking if we were affected by the over booking. Also, at the terminal I ran into… Colleen and her bf and low and behold, Colleen had an actual ticket. I told her that she was lucky that she was for sure going to get home today and she replied, “Yeah, but…” I immediately corrected her and said, “No, you are going home. It is a good day for you.” After about 4 hours of telling ourselves that there was no way we weren’t getting home, we decided to go harass the people about getting on the stand-by list. The flight attendant people told us that it was not “first come, first serve” and that the computer would generate a list. We thought we were sunk for sure [we had no idea how many people had taken the bribe they were giving out ($500, free hotel, food, transportation)] They finally started to call out names, someone, someone, someone (party of 4)… discouragement. I then decided to call my mom and tell her my fate. Not on the flight. Miraculously, literally right after I finished my sentence, “Mom, I didn’t get on the flight.” They called out my friend’s name, and then they said the most beautiful phrase of them all.. “Richardson, Courtney.” Tears of happiness started to well up in my eyes as I ran up to the ticket counter to get my boarding pass. This was a true Christmas Miracle. After getting my “golden ticket” my friends and I jumped up and down all the way back to the seating area and announced , “We’re going home!”… people clapped for us; it was good to have their support. Due to the over-booking, our flight was delayed for about 2 hours which meant… people from our flight were going to miss their connecting flights… AGAIN! I didn’t care if I missed my flight from Atlanta (Hot-lanta) to DFW.. I was just going to be pumped to get to the U.S. Also, to add to the delay, the catering crew was running late, so we had to wait for them, and then my carry-on wouldn’t fit anywhere so, they had to throw it under the plane which took them forever as well… and, while I was trying to get my carry-on out of the overhead bin it wouldn’t fit in, I smoked a lady in the head with the clipboard that was in the front pocket… she then proceeded to start crying. I felt really bad for hitting her, and I won’t lie, I was confused to why she was crying, I mean, I know it hurt… but not so bad that you have to cry about it. Eh she was European… Europeans have been, and always will be sissies. Revolutionary War; France. Case and point. It’s ok, we didn’t need them.
Finally it was time to take off, and the pilot informed us that he was going to try to make up for lost time by making the plane go as fast as it could and taking any shortcut possible. I think we shaved off 45min of light time. WIN! The whole way home I was antsy… I knew I had to get off the plane ASAP so I could catch my next flight to DFW and be HOME! It was Amazing Race round 2. I ran to customs, ran to baggage claim [thankfully my baggage came out first], then ran to get my next boarding pass… my heart sank when I saw a long line for ticket re-booking. Just as I was about to collapse to the ground with defeat, a red-headed angel appeared [which is very unlikely] and told me that since I just needed my boarding pass printed out, she could find my flight number and then I could figure out my gate and they could print my pass out at the gate. I wanted to “dos beso” her, but I thankfully realized I wasn’t in Spain anymore. Next stop was to “recheck” my luggage. I was graciously “airplane” directed into the baggage check area by a very soulful black man who literally just made my day. All of the Atlanta airport staff were so legit and SO nice! Back in Spain, if I had asked someone to just look up my flight so I could go get my ticket printed off at the gate they would have told me it was impossible and that it was just too bad for me. I love Southern Hospitality. Not to mention “Please and Thank yous”. So I make it to my gate (WIN!) and then I find my next obstacle. Borrowing a phone [mine was international and did not work]. I scanned the waiting area for my victim and finally decided upon a young man wearing a Monster energy drink hat. I walked over to him and unashamedly asked to use his phone and he kindly obliged. (WIN)
Boarding time. As I was waiting in line to board the plane, I caught a glimpse of gold on the young man in front of me’s right ring finger and got really excited. Why? Because that little ring of gold just so happened to be an AGGIE RING!!! I know it’s a little lame that I got so excited to see him, but I have been deprived of Aggies and I just needed to talk A&M with someone. So, I struck up a conversation. I learned the following things:
- · ’08 grad.
- · Marine Corps… I guessed Army… he was appalled.
- · Polisci major
- · KA for 2 years
- · Offended by the fact I asked if he was in the Corp.
- · Girlfriend.
- · From a small town outside of New Braunfels.
- · Driving from DFW to NB with girlfriend (yuck)
Never caught his name.
Once on the plane, new fun and exciting situations occurred. A man was sitting behind me (who was also a Marine.. and a pilot)and was apparently flying back to Texas with his son (who was in the Army)randomly asked me if I had a husband. I gave him a truthful “No”, and he then proceeded to ask me if I wanted one (referring to his son that was sitting right beside him). Thankfully I noticed his son putting a “t.u.” bag up in the overhead compartments and told him it probably wouldn’t work out due to the fact he attended Texas. He then proceeded to ask me if I was an Aggie and I proudly replied “Yes”. Then he pulled out every lame Aggie Joke in the book. He was a bit obnoxious and I kind of felt sorry for his son.
After 2 and a half hours, I was in TEXAS!!!! It felt SO good to be back and I was pleasantly surprised by my family members holding signs that said the following:
- · “Lil’ sis missed big sis”
- · “Willis”
- · “Welcome back Cooney” and then on the back “Finalmente”
- · And then a life size cardboard cutout of Brittany with clothes, hair, and facial features.
It was a great greeting. The entire way home consisted of me basically telling this exact blog. With a few more things I failed to include. It took me the whole way home to recall everything. Once home, I got to see 3 of my most favorite people Alayna Hollie, Anna Thames, and Erica Saegert. It was SO good to get to hug their necks and to just flat out get to see their beautiful faces.
I am home in Texas.
Courtney.
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