My Life as a Guiri!: Let the Adventures Begin!!!

Yesterday was an extremely adventurous and somewhat stressful day. I woke up at 7:45am. At around 8:00am, I got a call from United Airlines telling me that my flight from Washington DC to Madrid had been cancelled, but I was scheduled for a flight today (January 27) at the same time (5:30pm). Since my group with ISA is supposed to be taking a panoramic tour of Madrid, I didn't want to miss out!! I called United Airlines customer service and was on the phone with them for most of the morning. I ended up rescheduling my flight: I would fly from KC to Washington DC then from DC to Frankfurt, Germany and then from Frankfurt to Madrid, Spain. PERFECT! I would get to Madrid at 11:45am and still have time to do everything with my group.. this sounded great!! However, I was scheduled to leave Dulles Airport in Washington DC at 5:21pm and there was a big storm coming in.. :-(

My dad took me to the Kansas City airport. We didn't really know what was happening when we got there.. so we had to find the United terminal and check my bag in. We waited around until it was time for me to go through security. I felt like the biggest ding dong going through security.. I had no idea what I was doing!!!! The lady behind me and some security lady had to help me! Hahahah!! Oops! Once I got in security and on my flight I was fine.

Ready to fly to Washington DC

Dad and I at the airport

On my flight, I met a very nice lady named Mary Beth. She was traveling to London for business, so she gave me the low down on international flying. We talked the whole way.. she was so fun and nice. I'm so glad I had someone like her to sit next to. Once we got to DC she helped me find my gate on the big board that lists departures and arrivals (haha.. sorry I'm not using technical terms!)

In order to get to my gate I had to go up and down escalators and on a train that takes you from one terminal to another. I met up with another guy in my group named Jordan and we waited and waited for our flight to board. We FINALLY all got on the flight and were ready to go! We both had 2 seats to ourselves.. enough room to spread out and everything. So we sat on the plane and waited. and waited. and waited. Unfortunately, since this plane was headed for Germany, we were in the vast minority since we didn't speak German!

As we were sitting on the plane, we watched more and more snow accumulate on the ground. We got an announcement that we would be the first international flight to leave, but the plane was too heavy. They had people taking cargo off and of course it was the cargo in the very back. In the mean time, the cargo carrier got stuck in the snow. By the time our plane was ready to leave, we had been sitting on the plane for almost 2 hours. At this time, we found out that we would be unable to take off because the runway was covering with snow faster than they could plow it. We all got off the plane and rescheduled flights for today. The line for customer service was taking forever, so I cheated and called United's 1-800 number!

Jordan's mom was still in Dulles waiting to make sure our flight had taken off safely. Since we didn't leave we met up with her and hung out for a little while. While we were walking through the main terminal we saw the line for taxis to take people to hotels.. it was approximately 200-250 people long.. absolutely ridiculous!!! She was trying to decide if she wanted to stay at the airport or drive home to Baltimore.. about an hour and a half away from the airport. She finally decided that she was going to try to make it home,so we got gate passes and went back through security (where I needed help again! hahaha).. we found enough empty seats without arm rests that we were able to each have enough room to spread out.. AND we were next to an electrical outlet (which are scarce here!).

Main Train Area.. looks sweet

I made a little sleeping pad on the seats with my luggage, coat, and jackets. One more problem: there were SO many people snoring that I couldn't sleep! I finally plugged my headphones in and blasted them so it would drown out the snorers and I went to sleep. There was a man sleeping on the other end of my chairs, so from right to left it was his feet then head, his bag and then my feet. He was snoring SOOOO loud I kicked his bag into his head and he stopped!!! Woo!! I slept on and off for about 7 or 8 hours. I woke up at one point and was FREEZING, so the nice man across from me gave me his blanket because he wasn't using it anymore! How nice!

I'm a mess haha!

Since I'm so smart, I had packed all the mini toiletries I would need, so I was able to brush my teeth and wash my face this morning when I woke up and change clothes. It feels good not to have to be in the same thing I wore yesterday!

Today we've just been hanging out. I paid for internet today.. it's way over priced, but at least it's giving me something to do until our 5:30 flight. We also had to make sure our luggage would arrive in Madrid with us, and not in Frankfurt like it was supposed to. I might wander around later and explore this giant airport.. who knows.

I've been trying to put pictures up, but for some reason it's not letting me. I'll see what I can do.

Side note: There is this little evil bird flying around our gate that Jordan and I have been taking pictures of to pass time. Just like my mom.. I love taking bird pictures!!!! hahaha