Alright. So I hope you read the title in a sarcastic tone, because that is what it was meant to be read in. I had a bit of a crazy time getting here to London, and here's the complete story:
So, my dad paid extra to get me this ticket so that I could meet up with the rest of the group flight in DC so that I can be with a group as I fly to London. This way I don't have to worry when I get to the Heathrow Airport about how to get from there to the BYU London Centre by myself. So I was really happy and grateful for this. I'm really bad with goodbyes (so is the rest of my family-- I swear it's a family curse) so as you can imagine, it was really hard and many tears were shed a) because it's hard to leave the family and go to a whole new country, and b) because- to be frank- I was super nervous. The flight from LAX to DC was fairly uneventful... pretty boring and long to say the least. I eventually get to DC and meet up with the group all was fine, or so it seemed. (I even got to have Potbelly's for dinner!) We were waiting there for a few hours and finally the time came to go board our plane for London. Everyone goes to pull out our passports, and mine isn't there. We all start frantically digging through everything I have with me: purse, backpack, coat... and it really is not there. Some people ran back to Potbelly's to see if it was found there, but no such luck. I run to customer service to see what they can to.
At this point I am a wreck. I had no idea what to do: I was on the phone with my parents, talking to customer service, and retracing all my steps. The passport was not found and the plane had to leave, so the rest of my group had to leave for London and I was stuck behind in DC. The customer service people were trying to be helpful, and telling me how to get a shuttle and a hotel, and how I'll have to go into the city first thing in the morning and go and try to get a new passport in 24 hours and make it onto a flight Friday night (the next day). So I'm just straight up bawling in the airport, right in front of everyone, but hey, whatever. I didn't even care. After my flight left, I had kind of given up hope of finding my passport that day. So I started to accept the fact that I'd just have to get a hotel room for the night, and find my way into the city tomorrow and work through getting a new passport. But luckily my parents were working behind the scenes on this one. :)
We had some really good family friends (kinda like pseudo-grandparents when we lived in MN) who moved to DC a few years ago. My parents had been in touch with them, and my dad called me and told me that the Sister Coon were on her way and would be there in 20 minutes to pick me up. That was seriously the best news I had heard all day. It was the biggest relief ever. Sister Coon helped me find my luggage (which was a whole 'nother story) and 4 hours from the time my plane left, we left the airport for the Coon's house. I cannot even begin to tell you how nice it was to be in a house with people who cared about me, instead of sitting at the airport with customer service people, or at a hotel all by myself. To make a long story short, I was up basically all night on the phone, trying to figure out how I could get an emergency passport the next day (which wasn't looking too promising). Then at about 1:30 am, I get a call saying that my passport had been found!!!!!! However, it was in Vegas. I guess my passport had somehow fallen out of my purse (which was in my backpack) and the stewardess found it on the plane. Hallelujah. This was going to save me about $240 and a crazy hectic next day. The next day I am on the phone all day long with the airlines (not to mention my parents in between every call) and we get it worked out as thus:
My passport will be put on the flight from Vegas to DC which will come through the baggage claim when the plane lands at 9 pm.
I am booked for the 10:00 pm flight out of DC to London.
I am to get to the airport at 8, show them the photocopy of my passport (thank you Dad for having me do that before I left home) and check my luggage.
I go down to baggage claim, wait for my passport to come- it comes through at 9:20 pm.
(At this point I am literally running)
I get my passport, run to security. Wait in line. It is now 9:35. I'm starting to worry, the flight began boarding at 9:20.
I explain the situation to the people in line in front of me and ask if I could cut ahead.
I get as far ahead in line that I can and finally go through security.
I get out of security at 9:40.
I run to the tram to take me to the correct terminal.
I get off the tram, call my parents as I am sprinting to my gate. (And of course there is a freaking incline to get there...)
I make it to my gate at 9:50, check in with the lady at the desk, get in line to board and am on the plane 3 minutes later.
I sit on the plane for 5 minutes and we then take off.
Oh man, I get out of breath just writing this. This was honestly a miracle. It is seriously impossible to count how many prayers I muttered as I went through this whole thing, and it ended up working out so perfectly: down to the very minute. I was so blessed to have so many helpful people that where assisting me with the entire process. The whole time this was happening I kept asking "why does this have to happen to me?!" I am still not completely sure, but I know one thing: it made me a whole heck of a lot braver/bolder. haha There are so many things in this story that I would be uncomfortable doing before: calling millions of different people that I didn't know and working out the whole flight arrangements (my parents were usually the ones who did that for me), asking people in line if I can go in front of them.... etc, basically I got a lot better at talking to strangers and figuring things out on my own-- both things I hated doing before. So, in hindsight, you could say this was a blessing in disguise and I was able to learn and grow a lot, despite how chaotic it was.
The flight was good, I actually just happened to be sitting next to a girl who just graduated from Utah State (she said she applied to BYU but didn't get in...). I had a million movie choices, but I ended up watched Dumb and Dumber and Phineas and Ferb. :) both so great.
I finally got to London and needed to figure out a way to get to the BYU centre. My mom had mentioned that she would see if she could work out a shuttle or driver to get me from the airport to the centre, but I had no way of knowing if that was actually happening or not (because the Heathrow airport doesn't have free wifi. Dumb.) So I quickly scan the names the drivers are holding up and didn't see mine (my mom did end up getting me a driver, but I just didn't see my name apparently). So listen to this: I found my own way. I know, I'm growing up. :) I get a train ticket to Paddington Station, get off the train, and then take a taxi the rest of the way. I was so proud of myself. haha This is something I could not have done had that whole passport ordeal not gone down.
And-- about 24 hours from my original arrival time- I made it to the BYU London Centre! Now that it is all over, I am able to look back and see how much I was able to learn from this whole thing. You could definitely say it was a growing experience in-disguise. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment