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May 26th 2008

Published: May 26th 2008

I am home! I wasn't originally planning on returning to the US until mid-June but I decided to cut my stint in Europe short and head home. I didn't post a blog earlier because nobody knew about my return and I wanted to surprise my friends and family.

The trip home itself was nothing short of a nightmare. My flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 9:55 am so with a 4-5 hour drive to the airport, we left the house at 3 am. Of course Paris traffic is ridiculous and we ended up sitting on the motorway for a good 3 hours and I arrived at Charles deGaulle at 9:25. They wouldn't let me through because check-in had already closed, so I missed my flight. There was another flight on the same airline leaving at 11:20 and I had to beg the ticketing lady to let me on. Thank goodness I have elite frequent flier status or I'm pretty sure I would have been paying for a new ticket. I got through security with no troubles and waited at my gate. We were 30 or 40 minutes late boarding which is pretty normal. However, we sat on the plane for an awful long time when finally they made an announcement about some paperwork needing to be completed in the US and we would be waiting for 20 minutes. 20 minutes later another announcement saying 20 more minutes. After an hour, we were told there was a scratch or dent found on the underside of the airplane and it had to be recorded and sent to Houston. It was ok'ed by whoever is in charge and now we were just waiting for paperwork. Finally, 3 hours later we were told we were clear and they started showing the security video...

The video played and we still didn't start to taxi. I thought maybe we just had to wait since it wasn't our scheduled take-off time. 30 minutes later they made an announcement that some fluid was found leaking from the plane and we would all have to get off in order for it to be fixed...if we wanted to wait, they would give us lunch and if we wanted to find an alternate airline or route there would be a customer service rep waiting for us. Outrage. Out-freaking-rage. We had been sitting on the plane for 4 hours and now we don't even know if we will get off the ground that day! We unloaded, went back into the terminal and in true France fashion there was no customer service rep. Nobody was answering questions, nobody wanted to deal with the passengers...there were 2 poor girls who had college graduation the next day and were standing with their credit cards willing to pay whatever it cost to get to New York and nobody would even help them! I got in line for food and the captain of the plane got in line behind me...I asked him if he thought the plane would be fixed and he told me that in all honesty the chances of us leaving that day were slim to none. He suggested I go back through security and try to find another way home.

So that's what I did. I was rushed out of the terminal by some airport employee and they took my boarding pass on the way. In the hurry I didn't realize that I would then be stuck in the check-in area with no boarding pass to get back through, and my airline had already closed for the day so there was nobody to help redirect me. I was one of about 10 people literally stuck and I must have asked 100 people for help...police, airport employees, any airline I could find, customs offiers, janitors, random strangers...finally I called the airline on a payphone and told them I was stuck at Charles deGaulle and needed an employee. They called their airport branch and someone (finally!) showed up to help! We were all booked onto a different airline but were told our own plane may or may not take off so we should wait until we know for sure. 40 minutes or so later it turned out our original plane was in fact taking off and we had 5 minutes to get through immigration and security and to our gate. Of course I was searched and so were my bags and I did the OJ sprint through the airport to get to my gate. This time everything went as planned and 8 1/2 hours later I was in Newark.

Oh and then on the way home we hit a deer. Fantastic.

By the time I was home I had been awake for 30 something hours and was ready to sleep!

It's been strange getting re-accustomed to life here in PA. I don't live in the house I grew up in because my parents have moved, so I had to find things like where mom hides the bread and how to work the television. My younger brother is also living on his own for the first time, so it's strange not having him around. I had to get directions to get myself into town and I had to write down our address so I can remember it.

I'm not sure what the future will hold. Morocco is still up in the air and a few other possibilities have peaked through the cracks. Now that I'm home and have resources like a phone and the internet I should have an easier time of sorting out my options and figuring out what I want to do when I grow up! Again, suggestions are always welcome! I'm not sure the next time I will blog...there's not much to write about these days, unless you find laundry and dishes exciting. I've truely enjoyed my time away and I have learned and grown so much...but it's always good to be home.

I'm sure those feelings will last a few weeks and I'll be itching to start on my next great adventure...

Until the next time...

-Meg

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