The Move to England

I left home over twenty-four hours ago and I’ve made it a couple hundred miles and made it to Philadelphia, where I have been sitting for quite a long while now. Leaving home with tearful goodbyes to the family, I made it through security without any beeps (which inevitably happens to me because I always forget my headbands are made of metal) or bumps and continued to sit and wait, and wait, and wait at my gate for my plane to Philadelphia and then onto Manchester. Due to weather delays on the East Coast, our plane was delayed to the point I had to change my flight from Manchester to Heathrow airport. No big deal, right, I could hop on a bus in London and take a nice nap all the way to school. Wrong. We were delayed again on the plane so by the time we landed in Philadelphia, we had 15 minutes to high tale-it from Terminal F to Terminal A; of course the only way to get to Terminal A is through a bus/tram ride which had the slowest driver in the entire airport I’m sure. We ran to our gate (which was at the very very very end of Terminal A) just to see our plane sitting there but with the walk-way so we were out of luck. After they pull that away, the plane might as well be thousands of miles away because you’re not getting on. After the five stages of travel- disbelief, anger, devastation, frustration, and then a “I-don’t-give-a-boot” attitude, we walked to the rebooking counter to wait in line for about an hour. 

They were able to book me on the only flight out the following day, at 10:00 p.m. That was stage “I-don’t-give-a-boot”; so I took it and then took on the task of trying to find a place for the night. Luckily my incredible dad had ran with me through the terminals, willingly missed his flight, and helped me get my senses about me and booked a hotel for us for the night.

I’ve now spent a pleasant day at the Philadelphia airport in the U.S. Airways Club Lounge  reading, watching the last episode of Covert Affairs, and eating my $50 worth of cheese & crackers and Milano Cookies. (I have resisted the urge to shove my pockets and cheeks full of Milano cookies and walk straight to my plane). It’s been a long and emotional 27+ hour day(s) of traveling and I definitely have mixed emotions about getting on this plane to London. 

So here’s to the joys of traveling and hopefully getting to my final destination!