New Year, New Continent

Happy New Year! This is quite the start to a new year for me since I was in mid-flight for the actual midnight hour (over Canada, to be exact). But 2009 didn’t look like it was going to start off quite as smooth as I wanted to. My day began earlier than I wished since I was flying internationally I would have to be at the Grand Rapids airport by 1:30 for the “three hour” rule. Well, whatever three hours they thought it would take me, didn’t. No, my check-in took a grand total of maybe three minutes. So, my parents and I had a nice long time to say good-bye and look at all the flights that were being delayed from Orlando, Denver, Columbus, but we thought that my flight would be perfectly safe. And it looked it, I said my final good-byes, went through security and was just sitting at the gate. This is where my trials and tribulations of living abroad began—in Grand Rapids. My plane was delayed, rather the actual plane was cancelled and the next flight in was in Charlotte. Perfect, there was no way short of me learning to fly that I would make my connection in Chicago for Amsterdam. Thankfully, I was relatively early in the line of panicked flyers, so the wait wasn’t too bad. Yes, while I was in line I was pissed off at the airline. But what could I do? Just hope that there was some way in hell via another city that I could get to Amsterdam. And United came through for me with a flight to Chicago, then London Heathrow and finally Amsterdam.

The flight to London was in one word: long. It didn’t start off very well either as the seat I was in had no working screen, only radio. Well, I couldn’t deal with that no matter how many drinks the guy next to me offered to buy to celebrate the New Year. No way, no how. I ended up switching seats that had a working screen but very soft volume (or I’m becoming extremely deaf). I did end up sitting next to a very interesting man from London (Uganda originally) and we ended up talking about the differences between the States and Europe slash England. This flight was no different from any of my other trans-Atlantic flights, meaning I received a tiny amount of sleep maybe fifteen minutes or a half hour if I was lucky. And I managed to get yelled at for using the wrong bathroom and I highly doubt that no one but that one flight attendant actually noticed, considering any normal person would be asleep. Towards the end of the flight, my neighbor and I started talking politics since he was reading several different magazines on Obama. He was shocked to learn that I was liberal. I, being the nerd I am, loved the conversation as he offered not only a European view of the election but also a view from an African. Though we mostly agreed on the huge difficulties that Obama has to conquer, I think he failed to understand the American political system. For instance, he didn’t understand why a “free” health care system wasn’t as welcomed in the States as it was here. Overall though, he was a much better neighbor than the original guy. But if I ever fly to London again, no way in hell am I taking United.

British Airways is by far my favorite I’ve decided at the end of the day. They don’t snap at you, they feed you somewhat reasonable food, and they don’t mess around. Once you’re in the air, you’re ready to go. The same goes with the end of the flight. This is business. All my luggage made it to Amsterdam and unharmed (yay!). That was a really big worry of mine that somewhere along the line, something would get lost. It’s just in my nature. One of my aunt’s friend slash y cousin’s friend’s mom came and picked me up from the airport (really super nice of her) so I got a late-Thanksgiving day meal and my first real food since the dinner on the United flight over. Writing this, I am exhausted as ever, but so glad that I made it. This first day might have been a little intense, but I have a feeling it’s just the beginning…

Highlights of Today: British Airways flight attendant saying “Cherrio”; Coca-cola = “A carbonated soft drink with fruit syrups”. And here I always just thought it was a way to get caffeine…