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Sunday, December 10th

Oh boy…where do I start? It’s currently 10:30pm London time and I’ve had the wackiest day. 

I woke up at 4:14am (14 minutes later than scheduled), showered, and gathered my goods. I struggled getting down to the lobby with my 70 POUND bag because I’m bringing some goodies home and they are HEAVY. Fortunately, my Uber driver took it like a champ and barely reacted when he put it in the trunk. Thank you kind Uber driver.

Goodbye room :'(

At the airport, I was fully prepared to pay for my overweight bag. I paid to check a second bag earlier in the week because I think it’s worth it this one time. When else am I going to fly home from a three and a half month stay where I experienced three seasons (I have three seasons worth of clothes is my point with that) and want to bring home things to share. The kind counter man didn’t charge me for my big bag being 20 pounds overweight because my small bag was 20 pounds underweight. 

Goodbye tasteful Christmas decorations :'( Chardon square doesn't quite do it like you

We're here

I got to my gate and the day started out well. I slept on the flight to London and woke up when the plane lurched upwards. The pilot told us we couldn’t land because there was a dog on the runway. I might be crazy, but I think a dog would vacate the premises if a plane started to land.

I got to London with plenty of time to make my connection and I was feeling really good because if anything did happen, I had an 8 hour layover in Chicago which would be more than enough time to account for a delay and getting through customs and security. 

Well, I really just asked the cosmos to come together and prove me wrong for being so confident about that because according to my calculations, I should be sitting in the Chicago airport right now. 

First, the flight was delayed an hour for cleaning. New departure time: 12pm. Then it was delayed two hours, but I got a 10 pound snack voucher! New departure time: 1pm. Snack allowance: 10 pounds. The only food place near the gate was Starbucks, so I got potato chips, a blueberry muffin, and a chocolate chip cookie. I wasn’t hungry, but if I was given a voucher, I would be spending the voucher. New snack allowance: 0 pounds. Then it was delayed another two hours. New departure time: 3pm. Snack allowance: 0 pounds. If we left at 3, I would get to Chicago at 6pm giving me two hours to make my connection. Still feeling pretty good about that. I made a friend who went up to ask a question and she came back with two snack vouchers. New snack allowance: 10 pounds. I bought a brie, cranberry, and spinach sandwich (which was not good) and a Christmas tree brownie (which was fire). New snack allowance: 0 pounds. I currently have a paper bag full of Starbucks food at my feet.

It was kinda just delayed indefinitely due to a technical issue, but we boarded at 5:15pm. A lot of people had given up and left, so I have an entire row to myself. At this point, I’m scheduled to land at 8:28pm and my flight to Cleveland leaves at 8:57pm, so I’ve accepted that I’ll be sleeping in the airport unless a mythical being appears and grants me three wishes.

On the bright side, if I hadn't been delayed, I wouldn't have gotten to watch the beautiful sunset!

I’m really proud of myself for not freaking out about it. I have no where to be until next Saturday (when I graduate!) and I know I’m going to get where I need to go (and probably a nice refund, too). I feel like I’m finally an experienced enough traveler that I don’t feel stressed in an airport for no reason and am able to actually get work done on a plane.

So far, I’ve slept, watched a movie, and wrote a week’s worth of blogs. I was planning to finish my art history paper, which is due next Thursday, but I don’t have wifi and it’s in Google Docs so I can’t reach it. After all I've been through you'd think I could at least get some free wifi.

Plane dinner (should have been lunch 😒)

I’ve been trying to add up how long it’s been since I left this morning — let’s do the math together. 

4:45am — left the dorm

7am — left Prague

8am (9am Prague time) — land in London

6pm (7pm Prague time) — left London

11pm (Midnight Prague time) — currently and have 3.5 hours left

8:30pm (2:30am London time, 3:30am Prague time) — land in Chicago; will have been 23 hours since waking up and if I don’t make my connection who knows how long I’ll be in Chicago

I have 3.5 hours left. I don’t know if I should sleep or watch a movie. I would read (because that’s a cool hobby I’ve gotten into recently, you should check it out!), but it’s dark on the plane and I always feel bad putting the overhead light on. I had my sleep schedule all planned out for the trip home to help adjust to the time change, but unfortunately that has become irrelevant. 

I think I’ve started getting delirious because I just convinced myself I’ve been watching the northern lights out of the window. 

I’m surprised how good of a mood I’ve been in this entire time. Everyone else is grumpy and cursing out the airline, but these things happen. I don’t know when I developed such a positive outlook on life, but I could tell it was annoying the new friend I made earlier who got me the voucher. 

After writing the above, I tried to watch Renfield, the vampire movie with Nicolas Cage but fell asleep 15 minutes in. I had three seats to myself and was able to lay out and slept for the final three hours of the flight. When we were taxiing to the gate, I asked a flight attendant about the possibility of making my connection and she told me I would have to talk to the ground staff. I had 30 minutes to get through customs and security and tried to remain hopeful. I squeezed through people to rush off the plane and then there was no ground staff to be found. I rushed through to the security line and decided I would be that person. I said, “I’m so sorry I might be able to make my connection,” and was finding success squeezing through the hopeless souls whose plane had left hours ago until I reached one woman who said, “We all have connections we’re trying to make…” and then said honey or sweetie or something and that was the first time I got truly upset the entire journey. I wasn’t feeling sad or angry or stressed, but I started crying because that lady got on my nerves. I decided I wasn’t going to make it and slowed my roll. I waited for my luggage and went to the customer service counter to get rebooked and a hotel room for the night. 

At least my luggage made it to America

I got a flight at 7am the next morning and a hotel room with dinner and breakfast vouchers. I shouldn’t have even tried to push through to make my flight because now I was surrounded by everyone I had pushed through and that was almost as embarrassing as the American burger pub incident two days before. I got to the hotel at 10:30pm, ordered my free $25 dinner before they closed at 11, and was asleep by midnight. 

Dinner (with free ketchup! we <3 America for that)

Monday, December 11th

I woke up at 4:15am to shower and, wouldn’t you know, there was no hot water — literally going to scream and explode in a fit of rage...after all I've been through. I redeemed my breakfast voucher in the lobby shop because I was too early for actual breakfast. The counter man kept letting me add things because he didn’t have prices for a lot of it, so I got hand lotion because my hands are always crazy dry after flying, gum because I haven’t brushed my teeth in over 24 hours being silly and thinking I would be home to go to bed the night before and throwing away my toothbrush, two things of cough drops because mayhaps this cold is eternal, two protein bars, and peanut m and ms to thank my mom for picking me up from the airport.

I got through bag drop-off and security fine. I said I had already paid for overweight luggage (oops, that’s a lie because Prague counter man was nice) and it’s now 6:05am and I’m sitting at the gate. Let’s do the math together:

Sunday

4:45am — left the dorm

7am — left Prague

8am (9am Prague time) — land in London

6pm (7pm Prague time) — left London

11pm (Midnight Prague time) — currently and have 3.5 hours left

8:30pm (2:30am London time, 3:30am Prague time) — land in Chicago; will have been 23 hours since waking up and if I don’t make my connection who knows how long I’ll be in Chicago

11pm (5am London time, 6am Prague time) — get into hotel room

Monday

4:15am (12:15pm London time, 1:15pm Prague time) — woke up

7am (1pm London time, 2pm Prague time) — left Chicago

9:15am (8:15am Chicago time, 2:15pm London time, 3:15pm Prague time) — land in Cleveland

11am (10am Chicago time, 4:15pm London time, 5:15pm Prague time) -- get home

If my calculations are correct, it took about 36 hours from the time I left the dorm to the time I made it home.

My mom is the best and picked me up and then we swung by Cleveland State so I could pick up my honors medallion so I don't have to drive back there during the week. 

I know everyone's been on the edge of their seats about how Nira would react to me coming home and I'm happy to share that she remembers me! She's also become a little bit less dramatic and was slightly nicer to my brother and boyfriend than usual!

Nira!

I went for a run and it wasn't as beautiful as in Prague, but definitely easier to run when there aren't any cobblestones!

Ben came over and then my dad and brother got home from their 3-day drive back from John's semester in LA -- balance has been restored to the universe. 

Reflection

I wasn't ever super upset about the delayed flight itself. The only time I was truly bothered was when that woman (who had definitely already missed her connecting flight) was rude to me.

It's funny to look back on the trip home and I even found it funny while it was happening. I think almost everything that can go wrong while flying has happened to me. 

I'm home now and plan on writing one more blog post reflecting on the semester. I already miss Prague and the friends I made, but am excited to graduate, move, and (hopefully) get a full-time job!