A Never Ending Journey

It’s 8:14 PM local time and we’re still in Chicago, IL. We left San Francisco INT Airport a little bit behind schedule, but ended up arriving in Chicago right on time. After the three hour flight, I was tired and hungry. We left the plane and started looking for a place to eat, but we had no idea where we were going, and everyone we seemed to ask gave us different instructions. Finally, we settled down at a Macaroni Grill. I ordered a dish called “Penne Russtica” it was baked pasta with shrimp and chicken, combined together with a creamy white sauce. It was delicious.

Now we find out our flight has been delayed, it should have left at 7 PM and now it won’t leave until 10:05 PM. We figure we might get to the hotel sometime around 2 AM.

I’m amazed at how strict United Airlines is with their carry-on luggage! Earlier today I was trying to walk into the security check and I was stopped by security because I had a purse, a lap-top bag, and a carry-on suitcase. According to him, a purse counts as a full on bag, and I had to condense my purse into my carry-on suitcase. I walked off to the side and simply put the items that were in my purse inside my carry-on suitcase. Mrs. Kaplan kindly offered to take her purse inside of my purse so that we wouldn’t fall behind schedule. Once past security, I placed everything inside my carry-on and no longer had the problem of a third “luggage.” It’s never happened to me before, and I really don’t think there’s a point, either way I brought in the same amount of items, the distribution was the only thing that changed. A small piece of advice for next time, don’t try to carry a purse around.

The flight started out alright, it wasn’t anything too bad. The landing, was terrible. I’m slightly fond of motion sickness, and having the plane drop suddenly, then shake, then drop again, settle down, and then shake again was not fun. I felt as if my brain was literally tossing and turning inside of my head. Not to mention, the fact that I probably would have slept through all of it, had one of the flight attendants not felt the need to wake me up from my lovely nap. She needed me to move my knee and asked me if I wanted anything to drink. Finally the plane stopped and I was standing next to my seat, waiting to bring down my luggage from the compartments when someone accidentally hits me on my head with their luggage. What a flight experience.

Within minutes after landing the sky turned a dark shade of grey and it started pouring. The airport windows looked as if someone was continuously pouring buckets of water on them. Not only was there rain, there was also thunder and lightning, which explains our flight’s delay. Now I look outside the airport windows and it seems almost unreal. The clouds are a light shade of pink, with a hint of yellow, the atmosphere has changed from gloomy and upsetting to a light shade of an uplifting yellow pastel. I’ve never seen anything like it.

It’s been a long journey so far, and it doesn’t look like it’s coming to an end anytime soon. I think after some rest at the hotel we’ll be able to start new tomorrow. We need to keep a positive attitude, even when unforeseen changes occur. Things don’t always go as planned. All of this is part of our learning experience. We’re learning how to deal with the unexpected. These blogs we’re all writing are a perfect example, we’ve taken the initiative to write our blogs now so that when we finally arrive in Syracuse we’ll be able to sleep and prepare for tomorrow morning.

It’s been a long day, currently it’s 10:43 PM, and there’s so much confusion around us, we don’t even know when we’re supposed to be leaving or boarding or anything.

Our never ending journey will come to an end soon, hopefully.