Monday, May 21, 2012

• Drive to the airport
• After spending 3 hours packing and 2 hours figuring out if I should go to the domestic or international terminal last night, I was good to go this morning
• I figured out that because I had a connecting flight in O’Hare-Chicago that I had to go to the domestic terminal and do customs in Chicago even though my final destination was China
• Dad said that they were going to see me at the domestic terminal and say, “Boy, what part of ‘international’ don’t you understand?”
• Ticket Counter Incident
• So I was 8 lbs. over my weight limit of 50 lbs. per bag and I didn’t really want to pay $100 for overage fees so I tried to unpack my luggage at the ticket counter
• Ended up that it took me 35 minutes of absolute frustration before an AA lady reminded me that I could have 2 carry-ons instead of one
• I was ready to start publicly swearing I was so mad because if I missed my flight out of Atlanta then I was really screwed
• At that point, I would have enjoyed making children cry
• It took me like 5 minutes after that to get everything packed and I felt a hell of a lot better
• Security was a cinch
• Save for the pocketknife I had in my check-on
• I guess in the confusion of trying to get everything packed away, I accidentally put my pocket knife which I know I had originally put in my checked baggage into my carry-on baggage
• Luckily I don’t look like a terrorist with my travel khaki’s and US passport and so as long as I don’t get put on the terror watch list, I consider my time through security a mild success
• $31 wasted
• I paid an extra $31 so I could be in the front row of coach and so I could get to my connecting flight to Tokyo quicker but because it was a regional jet from ATL to ORD I had to check my bag at valet and so I had to wait with everyone
• I was pretty rude when they brought the valet checked bags up because as soon as that check valet door opened up I went from being in the middle and cut right to the front in front of an Indian lady in a wheelchair
• I saw her walk on the plane so I don’t feel bad at all, I think she just wanted attention
• And then in a panic like always I ran to my gate for about 5 minutes, looked at my watch, and realized I had 30 minutes left to get to my gate for what was about a 10 minute walk there
• Old habits die hard I guess
• Wasted leg room
• I brought all of these books for entertainment and it turns out that I didn’t need to bring any of them
• I could have just watched movies until I wanted to go to bed so note to self, only bring an ipad with me on international flights
• We did fly over Canada which was pretty cool
• It looks exactly like Illinois
• Full of corn, cold, and depressing
• In fact it was -72 degrees Fahrenheit up in the air so if I ever fly on JAL again I’m wearing 3 pairs of socks because my feet were absolutely freezing