the trauma

i have never, ever EVER been so relieved to be out of an airport. i am so exhausted physically and emotionally. we both are. i'm starting this at 8 o'clock tonight, and tho i took a four hour "nap" not too long ago, i don't think i will last through the whole thing what i don't finish tonight, i will certainly finish tomorrow
ugh..so where do i begin...

4 o'clock in the morning. i finished my blog soon before this and i did not sleep at all. poor tom had to throw rocks at our window to get us to come unlock the door haha. i just think that's hilarious. so good ol' tom woke up super early and drove us, we got there in fine timing, no waits or anything, we get on the plane, no waits, all was good. a smooth start, and we hoped that was a sign for the rest of the trip as well.
no such luck...
we get our luggage just fine, and we have 5 hours in paris before our 11 hour flight to LA. we figured we would go check our luggage in, get our boarding passes, and then just walk around this ENORMOUS airport. we are pretty exhausted as we set out walking with our suitcases, giant backpacks and our stuffed purses, so that didn't make our attempt to find out where the heck we were going any easier or more pleasant. after walking for forever, catching shuttle buses, all over this stupid airport, we finally get to the right terminal but then there is no air tahiti flight to LA anywhere on the boards. kendra stays with the luggage so that we can both unburden ourselves and i go to an information booth. she tells me the flight was canceled. how or why? no explanation. it was just canceled. she directs me to the air tahiti nui desk at the other end of the terminal. i waited a good half hour waiting for the people in front of me, a family who was also supposed to be on that flight. finally it's my turn. he's type type typing away, of course never stopping to update me at all. after like 20 minutes of that, i tell him i have a friend who is travelling with me, and that i was gonna go get her. so i left him working on it, go get kendra and the bags and we race back to this guy. still takes half an hour for him to finish and he finally told us that he booked us on the next flight to LA on airfrance. it would get us there 2 hours than we were supposed to originally, but we had a 10 hour layover, so no worries there. yet
so yay, we're booked on a flight, we feel better. we take another shuttle to another terminal at the airport and go to get our luggage checked in (at last). but was that it? no, of course not, silly us thinking all we well. if anything on this trip could happen to make us wait as long as possible, it did. so we go to this desk and we are the only ones there as it's still like 3 hours before our flight. this normally means quick and easy check in, getting the good seats. not this time, not for us. he says to kendra that she was reserved on the flight, but it seemed that
i was not. he asks if i have another last name that i go under "um, no.." well it seems that the guys from air tahiti nui forgot to book you. i say how is that possible, i was the one standing at his desk for the whole hour. he's trying to call the desk, no answer. it is always busy. half an hour goes by and he is still typing away, on the phone, trying to figure out what the deal is. now this guy was very nice and doing the best he could to figure out why i wasn't on the flight, so i can't blame him. but after half an hour when a line starts building up with no movement he says miss, i will keep trying, but i also need to keep the line moving. so..more waiting. we watch from the side as all these people are getting on the flight with no problem. between customers he is on the phone still attempting to get the air tahiti guy. what's another 30 minutes of waiting, right? i don't know if he ever did get a hold of that guy, but finally he calls me over and says "i've found you. you are booked on the flight." and you know what the whole issue was? when he booked my flight, the air tahiti guy spelled my name wrong. the stupid frenchie spelled sirinides with a C. cirinides?? no. greeks don't even have a character 'c'.
we finally get our luggage checked. back on another shuttle, we head to our gate. but did i already mention that thing about waiting? because here comes another wait. for unexplained reasons they were not allowing anyone to come upstairs into security check. we wait and wait. there is probably a good 100+ other people waiting on this platform. we sit down and i fall asleep on the floor. at LONG last they let the crowds up. but then of course it was a mob. i don't even knoe where all the other people came from but we were all crowded, not in any sort of line, not really moving anywhere, just waiting, shoulder to shoulder, to get through security. after a good 15 minutes of this i was starting to feel more than just a little claustrophobic. as i was praying a desperate prayer for escape when they called the airfrance flight to LA to all come forward. our flight was to take off in half an hour, and most, if not everybody was still in line for security check. we finally all get through, last call for boarding our flght and we wanted to quickly sign in on the internet to call kendra's mom, not only because we knew they were probably worried seeing that our flight was canceled, but not knowing what was to happen to us, but also because we were supposed to be picked up from LA by a close friend of ms vicki's to go back to her house and shower and relax for our 10 hour layover there. we needed to let her know that we were going to arrive 2 hours later than expected. no such luck. we had to immediately board our plane, and i we were among the very last to do so. we were not able to be seated together, as the flight was so full, which is not the end of the world. but we are seated and on a flight to LA - at last!! 7:30 to 1 oclock -6 hours in paris airport and not one moment wasn't spend waiting, or rushing, or stressed. we were exhausted. i will admit, though every other event was horrendous, airfrance is a rather nice airline. maybe we just had a good plane, but nice seats, individual tvs with tons of movies and music and shows, decent food (impressive for airplane food), good service. had i been any less miserable, i would have almost enjoyed the flight. however the lack of sleep, lack of food, the stress of it all had it's affect on my health and the slight cold that i had felt creeping up from the day before came full throttle with a fever. i would fall asleep with two blankets over me, still shiver, and then wake up sweating. headache, stiff neck,... you get the picture. misery.
after the almost 11 hour flight we arrive in LA. our luggage takes forever to come, but we get it, we go out, not having any idea if there would be anyone waiting. there wasn't. we wandered away to look for a pay phone, which we found. it was really and truly by the grace of God alone, that 2 and a half hours later, at a completely different terminal than we were supposed to be at, as kendra is putting change into the phone, she finds lori. lori was searching the different terminals, not really having much hope that she was going to find us, but doing so just to try, for ms vick's sake, i believe. she was just about to leave when kendra spotted her. i'll say it again, an act of God's mercy. kendra is able to call her mom to tell at least that we are ok and that lori found us. we sould save the explanations for later.
and so, by the time we were finally out of the airport and in the car with greg and lori and their two daughters, it was too late to be going back to their house because traffic was horrific and we would risk not getting back to the airport in time to catch our 10:45 flight to costa rica. that was NOT something we were about to risk. so instead of a nice shower and a rest, we drive around looking for a place to eat. i really have to give greg and lori credit, because they spent practically their whole day waiting for us, and then taking us out to dinner where i know we were hardly good company. with our lack of sleep, and feeling like it was 4 in the morning (because it was to our body clocks), and me feeling sick we were not much for conversation. and i'm sure their daughters were bored senseless and just wanted to go back home. i don't blame them. so after that it was back to the airport with still 3 and a half hours to kill before our flight. kendra sprawled out on the floor and slept for 3 hours, and i just kinda walked around. there weren't really any stores, but..i just walked up and down the terminal.
nothing, thankfully, to say about the next flight. no problems. packed like sardines in a tin can, not sitting together, and horrible food, but after the events of the previous 24 hours, i cannot complain. altho, i hope i don't have to ever fly american airlines again. crappy plane, crappy food, crappy service. so the moral of the story is: avoid paris, avoid air tahiti, avoid american airlines.
we got to san juan airport two very spent girls, but never were their two people more relieved to be out of an airport. and that is a fairly thorough telling of what happened in those 34 hours of transit. for those who only knew that we were MIA, know you know the story. and i'm very proud of how we handled it all. it wasn't until we were here in costa rica and i was on the phone with my mom that i broke down crying :( maybe it doesn't sound so bad to some of you but i wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy.
-becky

PS - sorry for the disgustingly long blog. i promise it won't happen again.

PPS - i love costa rica :)