Ahh . . . my own bed, my own bedroom, my own house :) I didn't really realize just how much I missed them until I came home! Yet it feels as though I'm just setting down my bags (again), since I'm only here a month and a half before I leave (again!).
I came back to the States last Sunday, Nov. 24, and spent the last week with my family in a rented house in Myrtle Beach. On vacation we did precisely nothing, which felt soooo good. We got home at 12:30 yesterday morning and have very eagerly resumed our respective routines.
When I last posted, I asked you to pray for the health of our team. Each of the fifteen of us ended up experiencing sickness in some form or another by the time we left for home. I spent all day Friday (Nov. 22) in bed (save the 2 hours I tried to work in the morning, after which my teammates very graciously allowed me to return to bed, as well as the couple more hours I spent Skyping my family and packing up for the return trip the next day). Needless to say, I did not end up being able to use the long afternoon off to go on any excursions outside Torremolinos as I had originally planned. But I was very glad I took the time to rest (a major thing for me to admit - I hate sleeping!! ;) ). I don't think I could have made it through our *very* full day of travel on Saturday without it!
Our trip from Malaga to Paris, beginning at 7 a.m., was uneventful. We boarded an enormous double-decker plane in Paris and waited to take off for JFK in New York.
And waited.
And waited.
Then the captain came over the PA and asked all the passengers to please have their passports and boarding passes out so the flight crew could check them. When the stewardess came to me, I asked if everything was okay. She said *insert heavy French accent*, "No it is not! Someone checked baggage onto the plane but he's not here. We have to check everyone to see who he is."
By this time we had been on the plane about 45 minutes. We were scheduled to be in New York 2 hours before leaving for Columbus, during which time we would have to clear customs, recheck our bags, and get through security before boarding our next plane. We were getting pretty nervous and started praying that the airport wouldn't be too busy so that we could breeze through the red tape in time.
Then the flight crew came through the cabins again and counted us - all 516 of us.
Then they counted again.
And they counted again.
The captain came over the system: "Would Monsieur [So-and-So] please make himself known to the flight crew?"
About 15 minutes later the captain announced that we were finally on our way to New York. Our entire 2-hour layover was nearly gone - we would land with minutes to spare. We resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to miss our flight home.
As we stood in line at customs in New York we heard that this man had nearly boarded the plane, decided he just couldn't take the 8-hour flight, and left without telling anyone. Whether this is the truth, someone's guess, or just hearsay I'm not sure. But that's the closest we've come to knowing why exactly we were still waiting to get through immigration when our 6:15 p.m. Columbus-bound plane took off without us.
Our next stop was the airline desk to find a new flight to get us home. The trouble was, the next plane to Columbus didn't leave until 3:50 p.m. the next day. But my family was at a hotel in Columbus waiting to pick me up at 8:30 that evening so that we could leave for Myrtle Beach, SC, the following day. They couldn't just wait that long! So after some back-and-forth with the man at the desk I arranged to leave on a flight bound for Charlotte, NC (on the way to Myrtle Beach), at 6:15 the next morning. Until then the airline put us up at a hotel nearby, which we reached by a shuttle that ran regularly between the airport and the hotel.
I was somewhat frustrated by all this, as I'm sure you can imagine. We had flown all the way to Spain and most of the way home without any mishaps. Why on Earth should we start having problems now?! Yet I was thankful all this was happening after I'd had some flight experience under my belt; otherwise I would NOT have felt as comfortable making the last leg of the trip on my own. And we were also grateful to deal with this on American soil, where we could deal with things much more easily, with people who spoke English, whom we could understand without any translation (hallelujah!).
I took the shuttle to the hotel with the rest of the team. There I pretended to sleep for a few hours (I was somewhat nervous, as you can no doubt conceive) before getting up at 3:30 a.m. to catch the 4:00 shuttle to the airport. I rechecked my bags and cleared security all by myself (woot!), making it safely to Charlotte and my family by 8:15 Sunday morning.
All in all, it's been a crazy-wonderful 2 1/2 weeks. I'd do it all again in a heartbeat - I seriously want to find some reason to go back to Spain sometime! Now we're putting Mali plans into motion . . . it won't be long now before I pack my suitcase again!
But for now, it sure is good to be home. :)
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