Well, I started this blog while waiting for my plane to Pittsburgh from Newark, which was delayed… but now I’m finally back home, in bed and finishing this so I can get some direly needed sleep!
I’ll start with yesterday, Wednesday. I had slept in till about 1:30 pm as I really had nothing left to do aside from go back to the bank to put some money in my account and get the remainder so it is at 0 euros – which will make it easier to close once the Velib issue is resolved. I had scheduled an appointment with the Madame in charge of my residence to check out of my room at 3 pm – but since I had to stay the night still, most of my things were still there but packed up. No one told me that my room had to be basically empty and cleaned or ready to be cleaned by them when I check out… so when 3 pm came around, she refused to check me out! So I spent a good hour and half moving all my stuff onto the bed or out into the hall, cleaning the fridge and the walls and anything else that could be considered dirty. Once that was done, and I had taken some pictures of it all as evidence, I went in search for the Madame so she could then check me out – only to discover that she had left for the day about 10 minutes before!
So I talked with the Madame who’s in charge of both the residences, but only the other side of the residence (the Foyer side). However, she didn’t have the forms for my side of the residence so she couldn’t check me out. She told me that since I left at 5 am, before either of them would be up and about, I would have to have a friend make an appointment and check out my room for me – signing my name on the form. This was the big issue b/c my signature had to be on the form in order to receive my housing deposit back. She did help me in how to turn in my keys because I had to turn them in to her. She gave me an envelope, and told me that when I left to put the keys in the envelope, seal it, and drop it in the locked mail box. But since I didn’t think what she told me to do in regards to checking out my room was right – I first went to find friends to see if they could do that if need be. They told me to go to the AEU office which is in charge of all the residences and talk to them – and they were going that way too and thought it would still be open. So we headed that way.
Thankfully, they were still open – it already being after 5 pm. I was able to explain the entire situation that was going on and asked them what I should do so that I receive my housing deposit back. They told me to write a note detailing that the room was clean, everything was there like when I arrived and to sign it. Then leave that on the table in the room because the Madame will check out the room officially after I’ve left – or at least that’s what they told me and since they are the ones in charge, I would assume they are accurate. They also told me to explain things again to the other Madame and her tell the Madame who has to check me out of my room what is going on in regards to this situation. But I couldn’t find her either when I got back to my room, so I just wrote it all in another note and included it in the envelope with the keys when I left. So that was taken care of – finally. I can only wait and hope this all works out fine.
So now, I finished getting everything all packed up except for a few last minute things like my computer, shower stuff, and alarm clocks. But I ended up not sleeping since I didn’t want to risk missing my train and had to be up by around 4 am as it was. So I just put on a movie and waited… doing the last minute things with my room so all I had to do was pack the last few things and head out.
However, it was then that I just randomly happened to notice one of my friend’s statuses on Facebook about trying to get down to Paris with the strikes going on… and I did a double take. After some intensive research on the net, I finally discovered that on May 22, the exact day that I have had my trip back booked for a good two months now… was the single day that the rail workers and companies in France decided to go on strike! So I immediately started to panic thinking that I would not have a train to get to the airport! I immediately got on their website and checked to see if my train was still running or if I had to figure some other way to get down to the airport… Thankfully, on the website it listed my train as still running but might be a little late. So I figured that so far things were still looking good.
So after showering and doing just that, I ended up moving my stuff down to the lobby and put the keys in the envelope in the mail box like I was told, and called a taxi to take me to the train station. He arrived shortly and after squeezing my heavy big bags into the back, we took off. And it was that short drive that made me remember how crazy the drivers are in France! He was speeding like crazy, driving down the middle of two lanes, taking turns like crazy, etc. Thankfully I arrived at the train station in one piece and paid the driver after he unloaded my bags. I then somehow maneuvered my two very huge checked bags, my overstuffed carry on, my very stuffed laptop bag, plus another bag with my coat and blanket in it – all by myself mind you! – onto the train platform.
I checked the departure schedule, and there was a train scheduled to leave at the time my original ticket was supposed to leave – however the train number didn’t match the one on my ticket. But the train number on my ticket matched the train that was scheduled to leave after the first one. So since I didn’t have that much time to waste – I made sure that the first train was headed to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, and just got on. Naturally my seat number didn’t match up because I was supposed to be in car #17 – only this train only had 8 cars! So I just go in one, put my bags in the baggage rack and took a random seat at the end of the car so I could keep an eye on my bags. I figured it was better to be on the wrong train, headed to the airport and risk either having to pay a fee because of that, or risk being in someone else’s seat than to not get to the airport. Thankfully no one came to check my tickets, and no one said I was in their seat so I had a relaxing ride down to the airport. I made a list of various things that I will miss, won’t miss, regret, am glad for, etc… that I will upload in a separate blog after this one.
Since the train left Lille just after 6 am, I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport about 7:30 am. Since my plane was not scheduled to depart till 9:55 or so, I had plenty of time to get checked in and figure things out. So I somehow managed to get all my heavy bags off the train and onto a cart, and made my way to Continental’s check-in gate. I knew that the one bag was going to be overweight and I’d have to pay the fee – so when I got to the desk, the French woman helping me took me next door to pay that before we could take care of my tickets and checking in those two bags. But that didn’t take long at all and soon they were checked in and I just had to get through security. So I consolidate the second bag with the blanket, coat and travel pillow so I only had my carry-on bag and my laptop bag, plus a few personal items. I still got odd looks with having so many things, as I had when I was going around with all my bags piled on the cart! After they checked my passport, and waited in line to go through security, I finally was able to go through – and ran into the first problem I wasn’t expecting.
Because I had so many things packed in both my laptop bag and my carry-on, they had to be physically searched through in order to get approved. So I go to the desk to get that done, and the guy starts talking with me! He slowly takes things out of the bags, making comments as about then, asking me questions that were above and beyond the basic “What’s this” and so forth. I could understand having to look at the items in there just to check them out – but this was a lot more than was needed. So finally, a good 15 minutes later and after having to repack my carry-on bags, I was cleared through security. I still had time before having to check in, so after checking which gate I had to be at, I stopped and had a small breakfast of a petit chocolate, banana, and pineapple juice. Then on my way to the gate, I also stopped at one of the gift shops to pick up a few last gifts. I got to the gate, which was of course at the end of the terminal… and they were already boarding so I joined the line and boarded the plane.
It was a Boeing 777-200 ??? so it was huge! There were three sections to the main cabin – and I was in the middle one right at the back of the wing. The cabin had a total of 9 seats in each row – 3, 3, and 3 and thankfully my seat was the window one. But there were a ton of people, so it was hard to find a spot for my carry-on bags. I soon got things all settled and the plane was ready to take off at the scheduled time. Only the pilot came over the speaker and told us that due to heavy traffic at the airport, they pushed back our departure time by about 45 minutes! So we just sat there at the gate till we were able to pull out. Then after the usual taxing time to get to the runway, we finally were given the go ahead to take off. I made a video as we took off – recording my last views of France. Soon enough we were high above the clouds, and on our way back home to the US.
The flight wasn’t too bad – though very long! The entertainment system was nowhere near as good as the one when I flew out to France. This one had channels with preset schedules that just repeated every 2.5 hours whereas the one on the plane I came to France on had a personalized menu where you could choose which movie you watched and at whatever time you wanted. So I watched “Man of the Year” with Robin Williams – and really enjoyed it. After that, since I hadn’t slept yet, I took about a 3 hour nap. I was awoken because of heavy turbulence which we hit around the southern tip of Greenland. One thing cool about the system was that you could actually follow the plane route as we went along – we actually swung up north and followed the UK, Iceland, Greenland, and finally swinging back down the Canadian coast to get to Newark. I ended up taking another hour long nap, but the pilot kept making announcements so I just stayed awake since I had gotten a little rest.
The food was really good though! We were served lunch around noon – I had a salad, chicken with veggies and noodles, plus the roll and drink. The only issue with them serving meals was because there were so many people on the plane it took them a significant time between serving the food and then coming back with the drinks. But they also came around later and served us a snack of potato chips, mustard, a chocolate, and a hot turkey and cheese sandwich roll thingy. I actually wondered why they included the German hot mustard in that – so I opened it up and put it on the potato chips which actually ended up being amazingly delicious!
Soon enough, though it felt like forever on this flight back, we started our descent into Newark. Because we came in to the area from the north, we had to swing around the west of New York City and come in under the city from the west. Since I was on the left side of the plane, I had an amazing view of the New York City skyline during the entire time we came in until we landed. Like when we took off, and partially because I have never seen New York City personally yet, I made another video of the landing, getting the view of the skyline as well. It really was something to see the city and all it’s landmarks like the Empire State Building and even the Statue of Liberty from the air as we came in. I also did not realize the fact that Newark Airport is literally right across the river from New York City – but was one of the nice things to discover!
Soon enough, we landed and taxied into our gate. I called my mom and said we were on the ground – and we actually were only about 15 minutes late despite the fact that we didn’t take off for almost an hour after we were supposed too! I also called because they had announced that you cannot use phones until you are out of the customs area – and I had no idea how long that was going to take and was figuring on it taking around an hour or so. However, after gathering all my things up and getting off the plane, I made my way to the first part of the customs process – the passport check. I ended up having to wait in the line for this, but it moved fast and after about 15 minutes, I was talking with the control agent. On the declaration form, I declared that I did have food since I was bringing Belgium Chocolates back, as well as I declared the alcohol and a few other souvenirs that I still had with me. The control agent asked about the food and after I explained it was only the chocolate, he stamped my passport and I was good to go get my bags.
The second step of the customs process is getting all your bags, and then actually turning in the declarations form and see if they pick you to verify what you are declaring. Since I was already tired of lugging my bags all around, I paid the $3 fee to use one of the carts. So after I piled all my bright blue bags on the cart, and after receiving a few more weird looks with my tiny lone self pushing a cart that’s piled with bags that’s almost the same height as me!, I made my way to the next control agents. The guy first looked at all my bags, and asked if I was by myself. When I said I was, he then asked me inquisitively how long I was abroad – to which I told him I was living in France for 5 months. He then kinda laughed it off as why I had so many bags. After asking again about the food/chocolate thing, he waved me on and wished me a welcome back. So maybe after only 25 minutes to a half hour, I was through customs with no issues at all. I was figuring that they’d go through my bags just because I seem to be unlucky like that, and would end up paying more fees or something. But I went right through without an issue. So after I rechecked my bags, I headed off to see what gate my next flight to Pittsburgh left from, but instead discovered a new problem – I had to go back through security again!
So I headed to the line, and stepped aside while I debated consolidating the third bag so there wouldn’t be an issue – but by the time I figured to not bother unless they same something about it, a huge group of about 40 high school kids came and got in the line for security. So now, I got stuck behind them, as well as the fact I had to go through security again! So after about 10 minutes of waiting in line, it was my turn to go through the scanners.
Being the wise traveler through security areas, I had already moved the items in my pockets to the pockets of my coat, as well as removed my belt and watch. I put my bag up on the thingy so they could scan it, took out my laptop like you’re supposed to, put that in a bin, placed my laptop bag on the belt as well… and figuring I was good to go through… when they stopped me because my wallet had to go through the scanner. So I took that over and placed it in a bin, meanwhile another guy asked if my blue carry-on bag was mine, and if there was an iPod dock or something in it… to which I realized that my iPod alarm clock was in there, so I took that out and put that through. So I went back to go through the metal detector and they stopped me because I hadn’t removed my shoes – so back again to the line. I mean, I had been up for about 24 hours by that point with only about 4-5 hours of naps on the plane over here – so I was a little absent minded! But I finally got through the metal detector, only to have them tell me that they had to look through the third bag with my personal items in it, as well as there was still something setting the machine off in my blue carry-on bag – so it was off to the side things again!
This time though, the only reason the third bag was set off was because I had forgotten about the bottle of water I had bought in Paris at the airport was in there. The other guy checking my blue carry-on bag asked me if there was any other electronic or thing in my bag, to which I didn’t think so. It was only as he was just briefly looking through it, when he found and I realized that I had my external hard drive in there as well! So he took that out, and ran it through the scanner there, did a quick visual check on everything else and that was about it. They were definitely more efficient here than in Paris!
So by now, I checked which gate I had to find on the departure screens… and headed that way. However, my eyes and stomach spied the Starbuck’s right there so I grabbed a Chai Créme and headed to my gate for the next flight to Pittsburgh. So I get there, which of course was the first one on that branch of the terminal, and sit down to relax and call my mom again and spend a good bit talking with her. However, while we were finishing our convo I had noticed that the departure time had changed – which she had noted online as well. Apparently the plane was going to be delayed but at least it wasn’t too bad … so far! Anyways after that, I went in the gift shop next door to grab the usual souvenirs from the area before heading back to wait for the plane. Since I had the time to spare, I pulled out my laptop and started writing this all down.
- Insert Plane trip, and stuff afterwards – now I’m home and finishing this up!
Well, about and hour and half after the plane was scheduled to depart, the plane finally arrived and we were soon able to board. It was a tiny plane, a turbo-prop – which was cool because my window seat was right next to the right propeller. Anyways, they quickly got us all boarded and the plane ready to take off – and we had to wait again! We spent a good 20 minutes just waiting before we pulled out of the gate because of a paperwork error. Then, we finally pulled away from the gate and joined a long line of planes trying to take off amidst those landing. So we ended up spending almost a half hour or so waiting for our turn to take off. When I had boarded the plane, I texted my mom saying that we’ll be leaving shortly and arrive in about an hour and half. Well, I couldn’t officially use my cell phone to send them a message that we were delayed again because we were out almost ready to take off. Of course we were just taking off at the time we were supposed to be landing! Finally though, we were in the air and the trip back to Pittsburgh went by quickly for soon enough we were landed on the ground and taxing into our gate.
I called my mom and said we just landed; of course she was starting to worry and was on the verge of asking the desk guys what was going on with my flight when I had called. So I waited my turn to get off the plane, grabbed my carry-on bag that I had to gate-check, and started walking back to the baggage claim. I come down the escalator to find everyone waiting but my dad – he had been there but had to get to his class since my flight kept getting delayed. So after the normal hugs and everything, we headed over to wait for my check bags to come in. Soon enough, we had those and were able to leave the airport. Thankfully, they parked close to the doors as I was already tired of lugging all my things around for the day! We quickly loaded up and headed out of the airport.
We stopped by Matt’s apartment on the way to drop him off as well as pick some things up to bring home. But after that was taken care of, Mom, Steph and I headed back home. I finally got home around 10 I think… unloaded my suitcases and relaxed. As I had to go to work around noon tomorrow, as well as by this point I had been up for almost 40 hours with just 5 hours of interspersing naps, I’m going to finish this up and then head to bed.
I already miss France!
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