First Day In Europe (Or On Our Way)

One of the last meals I had in the United States was Chick-Fil-A. I was totally unprepared for the adventure that waited for me that day.

Today, I was to leave my home and comfort zone for Europe, representing my country overseas. I am a United States Student Ambassador and I am proud to fulfill this duty.

Once I ate my Chicken sandwich, Dad and I hurried to the airport. We were to meet there three hours early before our flight, to check on last minutes things. We were both concerned about time and about the fact that we needed to be at the airport three hours before.

We arrived at the airport at 12:58 and barely half the group was there.

There, we were assigned “Count-off Numbers”. This was an efficient way to make sure everyone was here. They would start down the line and if, say, 37 wasn’t there, we had a missing person on our hands.

My number, out of all possible numbers was 13, which just made me anxious about the trip.

I went up to check in. Nothing especially weird happened during check in, which I was glad.

Once I got my boarding pass, I went through security, where the airport crew really, really try to make you have a good day. I mean, what a better way to make someone smile than airport security.

It was especially unpleasant considering the fact this was my first time being frisked, and oh boy, were they graphic for their search for bombs.

Since we had two more hours to kill, we were allowed to wonder around the airport as we pleased, but only in groups of three or more. One of the girls in our group would not shut up. I’m actually not sure whether or not she breathed while she was talking. She had a lot to say, including how she thinks it’s absolutely adorable when her two puppies do it “doggy-style”.

The flight schedule was as follows: We were to leave from Charlotte to Detroit, for no apparent reason, then from there to Amsterdam, and finally to London. If only fate played out so beautifully.

We got on our plane, which was a small jet. When it was time to scan my ticket, it completely crashed the system. 13, I thought.

The flight attendant gave us a simple “Hi” and we went to our own individual seats. I passed through the first class section and they simply snarled at us as if to say, “Why are you here?”

I sat in my seat. There was a woman behind me who, behind her, was a baby that was calm. She said to her neighbor, “I’m not gonna listen to no god***n baby f**king crying.”

In front of me were two men. One is drawing a picture of a man with his eyes gauged out with a computer network plug in his mouth. The other is reading an article entitled “Rape In Prison: How It Effects You”.

While I was sitting, waiting to take off, I felt this amazing feeling of having to chance to do the things that I was going to experience and how privileged I was to do so. I could not wait to go.

Right as soon as that enormous feeling crossed my mind, an announcement came on, saying that it was not confirmed, but we might have to wait for a bit longer.

So we waited for about thirty minutes when the captain announced that our flight would be able to take off in two hours time. The reason was that the plane apparently had an expiration date and today, the plane expired, so all the necessary checks were needed to be done before take-off.

Nerves and families were beginning to be shattered. A woman trying to Facebook on her laptop finally snapped and shouted out, “Jesus Christ! Cyberspace sucks a big one!!!”

While we continued to wait, I heard one of the dumbest things I’d ever heard. A woman was talking to her neighbor and said, “People are hard to repair by human standards.”

After these two miserable hours, all the requirements had been filled and we were on our way to Detroit, or so we thought.

A woman had left the aircraft before take-off. The flight had been sold-out and they were trying to find this one woman. The crew thought the people were lying when they told them that she left to get on another flight. So another half hour was spent trying to find her. We eventually just left.

Having our flight being delayed screwed up everything here on out.

We landed in Detroit. Immediately, they told us to get on the flight to Amsterdam, that it would leave us in five minutes. Two women shouted at us, “Go to Gate A5! Go to A5!”

We told them that we couldn’t, that we’d have to wait on our leaders first to make sure it was alright. She snapped right back, saying “I don’t care. If you don’t go now, you’re going to miss your flight!”

We tried to find our leaders, because we all knew the consequences of abandoning our leaders. They then ran out of the terminal A5 and told us to get on.