Back

Well, I arrived back in Aberdeen yesterday early afternoon. There is absolutely nothing to say about the flights. They were uninteresting and boring as usual, though I did finish one of the books I am reading (I'm a really slow reader, but I finished over 200 pages yesterday. I suppose that isn't saying much as I was on one plane for over 9 hours and on another plane for 45min and the other for 1.5 hours...still). Anyway, it wasn't what happened on the plane that was interesting. It was what happened in the terminals.

First off, I didn't get to sit next to any cute guys. Which is disappointing, but unsurprising. I did get one seat next to me empty on the plane from LA to London which is always lovely. I also got upgraded to...I don't think it was business class, but it wasn't coach either. More room and the flight attendants care about you more. Hooray! Though, I did get to see the seats in Business class. They recline ALL THE WAY! And they have bigger screens for in-flight movies and outlets and... *sigh* someday, when I'm Queen of Awesome, I will be on Business class during a transatlantic flight. Someday I even hope to be in First Class...oh yeah, that would be LOVELY! Anyway, back to the terminals.

From my home terminal to LA absolutely nothing interesting happened. I got there after saying a long Good-Bye to my Arwen, got on the plane, and landed in LA. Boring. But I was on an American Eagle flight and all American Eagle flights come in to an isolated terminal. This means I have to get on a shuttle bus to the terminal I need to get to. I showed the person running the shuttle buses my boarding pass and he ushered me to the first shuttle. Now, when I get to "my terminal" I start thinking, "This doesn't look like the Tom Bradley International Terminal, but the guy must have known what he was doing so..." I looked at the screen for my gate number and it said "TBIT". At this point I was still under the impression that I was in the Tom Bradley International Terminal so this confused me just a little. I decided to sit and read for a little and after that chapter was over and the departure screen was still telling me that my gate was "TBIT" I decided to ask someone and behold! I got on the wrong shuttle because the guy didn't look at the whole ticket that said "LAX to LHR British Airways". No, he just looked at the top that said American Airlines. *sigh* Second time this has happened to me. Note to self: Don't show your ticket anymore, just say which airline you're on. So, I had to go out of security and back through. Now, at this point I'm a little nervous thinking whether or not I can make my flight. The security line doesn't seem too long so I decide there's no need for me to politely ask to get to the front of the line and make everyone mad. So I stand at the end and have to go through the whole body screen thing, not the medal detector, again. That's twice in one day and two TSA agents who owe me dinner. Then, of course, half of the screen on the conveyor belt is cut off and they have to do a rerun on a pair of shoes. Of course they're my shoes and of course it takes 10 minutes for the rerun to happen. After I was all put back together again I rush to the screen, check my gate, and rush to the gate. All that rushing was unnecessary as the flight had been delayed. I must admit, I let out a sigh of relief. At this point I was upgraded (Hooray!) which meant that I didn't have to sit in the back with the EF Tour teenagers. Another sigh of relief. Unfortunately, what was suppose to be just a 10 minute delay ended up to be an hour and a half delay, but the seat next to me was empty and I wasn't ridiculously tired so I was ok with this. Except for the fact I had to sit in a steaming hot airplane for about 45 minutes. That wasn't so fun. But, I finally got to see MegaMind (which is really cute by the way) and there was actually a vegetarian entree I could eat so I didn't have to wait for the muffin they served at the end of the flight to get some food. That always makes a flight just that much more enjoyable.

Well because of that delay we were late getting into London. Fair enough. We all knew it was going to happen. We were instructed to stay in our seats and let the people on (insert flight numbers here) get out first so that they might have a chance of catching their flight (what I found out later is that my flight was scheduled to leave just 10 minutes after this flight to...Nice I believe it was, and they didn't call my flight number which I think is weird). Anyway, I let them all off first then rushed out myself knowing I had a quick connection too. I pretty much ran to the UK Border Control and guess what. I was second in line for the Non UK or EU passports and a guy who worked there stopped me from going through to let the people in the UK and EU passport line go first. When I started seeing people who had got in line about 5 minutes after me go, I started to get mad. There were two people in the "All Other Passports" line. I didn't understand why he couldn't just let us go through. It's not like we were in line to get to our next flight or anything. So I said, probably a little more upset and angry than I meant to, "Excuse me sir, but I got in line before them, have been waiting for 15 minutes, and I have a flight that leaves in like 20 minutes. Do you think you could let me through?" He did and at least had the grace to look mildly ashamed that he didn't ask, "Do you have a quick connection?" or something to that extent. I really want to call the Border Control people and complain and say, "Just because I don't' have a UK passport doesn't mean I didn't pay for my flight and want to be able to get on it." But I know it won't do any good. But, believe it or not, this is also the second time this exact thing has happened. Anyway, got through security a little slower than I was hoping (at this point I was really hoping they would allow me at the front since my flight was leaving in 20 minutes instead of just letting into the "fast" line which really isn't all that fast. But, beggars can't be choosers.) When I saw on the board that my flight was "Closing" I had to run to the gate. Managed to get on the flight and that was that. Though, if I had missed the flight I might just have stomped back out of security and given that guy at Border Control a nice slap in the face...or that might have been the sleep talking.

The flight into Aberdeen was nothing special. I got off and waited at baggage claim. And I waited...and waited...and waited. Finally, I gave up and went to Baggage Services. Apparently, my bag did not make it on the flight but was on the next flight in from London. Now, my foul mood hasn't completely left so...I might have almost started crying before I told myself I was just tired and being silly. What gets to me is, there were two or three people on the flight to Aberdeen who were also on my London flight. Their bags made it on why didn't mine? *sigh* So, filled out the form and they told me that it would be delivered to my building tonight. Ended up waiting around for an hour after I got a text saying that the courier people had picked it up before I called the courier people. They told me it would be delivered tomorrow at some point. At that point I had to say that there was no one working in reception tomorrow and I didn't have time to sit around and that I had a few things to do tomorrow (which is really today) and really couldn't wait all day for my luggage that the airline lost...or didn't get on the right plane at the right time. Thankfully the guy understood and thankfully a driver happened into the room at that moment and said he could deliver it tonight (which is really yesterday evening). So, around 20:00 or 8pm I got my bag and was able to wash my face. After the face washing I promptly went to sleep.

I slept for 12 hours. And now that I am rested, showered, and fed I should get dressed and get food for the week and then... *sigh* do that studying for the vocab tests I have on Monday that I neglected to do all break.