Worst 30 hours of travelling!

(Written at the airport when it happened July 27th 11:30pm)

The WORST 16 hours of my life!

Surprisingly, leaving Brasil was really smooth. Everything was on time and Jonas was super nice and drove me to the airport at 3:30am. We met an old AIESEC member who actually finished her internship in March on my flight. So the flight from Brasilia to Sao Paulo was fine even though it was TAM and it was Sao Paulo. Then from Sao Paulo to Atlanta, Georgia was really smooth. When I arrived in Atlanta airport, I knew something bad was going to happen. The place was craziness, just people running around everywhere, lines for the passport check-out that didn’t even go anywhere. I wore my Brasil shirt proudly and a Brasilian thought I was Brasilian and started asking me for help. Yay, another chance to speak Portuguese! So after that I went through security which took forever because there were so many people. I know there was one Brasilian guy I definitely should have followed and I would have gotten to Toronto on time. But no, I got confused because my luggage was being shipped by Delta and my flight was with “United” but apparently it was Air Canada. (Stupid itinerary!!! All the wrong info.) I also realized I still didn’t have a boarding pass to go to Toronto!? WTHeck? How did this happen? So I went back to where I started and waited 30 mins for the Delta people just to tell me that I was in the wrong place and that my luggage was being sent off without a destination tag!! I had to wait and go through security AGAIN!!! My flight was for 8:05pm and now it was 8:15 pm!!! Omgosh, I was stressed. I took the tram to Concourse T where they told me I should go and walked through all 20 something gates and I still didn’t see AIR Canada. “Air Canada” is in Concourse D. By the way, your flight already left!! The next flight is at 6:25am the next day!” Nossa (omgosh), as if I hadn’t already done enough walking in this stupid airport and now I had to wait another 9 hours to go to Toronto!!!! I just want to go home! (I guess I got what I wished for when I kept thinking how much I didn’t want to go home.)

At this point a good idea was probably to go and call my parents. BUT… PROBLEM: my cell phone wouldn’t turn on and I couldn’t remember anyone’s phone number after not calling anyone in almost 3 months!!! OMGOSH, everything was a dead end. I searched through my purse, maybe I wrote some numbers somewhere? I couldn’t even remember my grandparent’s number and ended up calling another Chinese person in Windsor (lol). Oh man, life sucks right now. So I find a place to plug in my laptop and maybe somewhere in there, I will find a number. I have no internet connection so I couldn’t search online. Maybe on Skype I’ll find it, but couldn’t log on without internet. L So now what? Somehow I found an old letter I wrote for my dad that I saved and I found his cell phone number in it!! Thank God!!! So called that and no one picked up! So hopefully that was his number I called because the letter was back in November of 2006.

Ok, now onto trying to figure out how to get a boarding pass with AIR CANADA for the next morning. More walking around the airport with useless airport workers directing me all over the airport. I finally found it and OF COURSE there’s not one there anymore because its CLOSED!!! I should have known. Now what to do?! I called AIR Canada and they said all I could do was wait till tomorrow morning. Boy, do I hate airports right now. So I’m sitting at a restaurant right now waiting for the next day to come. I’m super worried about the family because now they have to either find a place to stay or sleep in the airport all night. I hate burdening other people. They already had to take time out of work to get me and now this. I’m so frustrated with the whole day. How is it that nothing like this happened in Brasil but in the US, I go through all this crap!?

(Written July 28, 2007 at 11pm)

So I barely slept all night in the freezing cold airport on the worst bench ever made. I got up at 4:30am to get checked-in. That went smoothly and I got my ticket. I still had no idea what happened with my luggage but the attendant told me to ask the person at the gate and they would be able to help me. Luckily, as I was boarding the plane, the attendant informs me they found my bag!! Yay, so now just to get to Toronto! I get to Toronto and didn’t see my family, tried calling again by using my credit card to pay and again it wouldn’t work. Went to go buy a phone card and when I turned around, I saw my family wandering around looking for meJ Then we drove off and I had my first real Chinese meal in 2.5 months!:) Dim sum!! (Please google if you’re not sure what Dim sum is.) How I missed those egg tarts! Then some shopping at Pacific Mall and a 3.5 hour drive to my city (Windsor).