Our real travel started at 6:30 am on Thursday when we left the hotel and took an airport bus where I picked up my luggage and repacked it. This flight was weird because things worked out in weird ways. First, my luggage was over the limit and when I threw a "ugh are you kidding me, I just over packed it and I have been traveling for 2 days and have been here for 5 months" fit she asked if I was in the military. I responded no but I worked for them, well a show of the ID and guess what...........we were all good! Yeah for saving $90.
The reason why I was taking American Airlines is because my friend was trying to upgrade me, well when I checked in I was told that they couldn't upgrade me because of my ticket (government airfare) and that it was oversold (funny 9 hours earlier it wasn't full). Well I then asked for a bulk head or exit row seat, o the joys of being tall, so she put me on the waitlist. Well, at the gate I was given a bulk head seat but no business class upgrade. When I got to my seat the guy next to me asked if I wanted to sit by the window, he wanted even more leg room. Well after a few hints, I said sure. It worked out because he ended up moving to another seat and then I had any empty seat next to me.
When you order a special meal they always check with you when you sit down well they didn't check with me. So when they came around to serve drinks I asked and guess what...........no meal! My mom always said to bring snacks with me and I am glad I listened to her. They were actually nice enough to get me a salad from Business Class.
Also, I found out you have to pay for wine on AA. While this is normal on every US owned airline most of them give you free drinks when you fly to Asia but nope not AA! So right before I checked about my meal I asked how much a glass of wine was and she said $7. Seriously, the nite before at New Sanno I had a great glass of wine for $3.50! However, after chatting with the flight attendant about my meal she said "O your birthday is coming up, do you want red or white?" Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So even though I didn't sleep and there were hiccups the flight wasn't too bad.
So 45 hours after leaving Iwakuni, 23 hours after leaving Tokyo, 3 taxis, 2 trains, 1 bus, and 2 planes later..............................I am back in DC!
Thank you to all of you for reading my blog and for letting me share my adventures, I honestly think that this (and my skype phone number) also helped me not be home sick because I felt like I could share my experiences with other people and keep in contact with people. I first lived abroad in the Fall of 2000 in Belgium and had an amazing experience but the internet was not like it is today and we would have to go across campus to a computer lab and would only have a few minutes to email so it was harder to stay in touch, and blogging didn’t really exist then. When I lived in Poland the summer of 2003 the only internet and computer access I had was at internet cafes. So while with both of those experiences I was able to stay in some sort of contact this time I was able to keep a connection home and still feel loved and not like people forgot about me and also have a way to remember my trip because I am not the journaling type. For those who have lived abroad they know how important it is to feel like you have some sort of connection, no matter how small, to home. It is because of you and this blog I felt that. If it wasn’t for you my trip would not have been as amazing as it was.
I might blog about any trips I take in the future but for now this is the end. This was a great way to end my 20’s and starting on Saturday I beginning my new adventure……………my thirties!
