Will's Departure

It turns out that going to bed at 4 or 4:30 means you'll be pretty tired at 7am when your alarm goes off. In fact, you just may be so tired that you turn off the alarm and fall asleep for another 55 minutes. For whatever reason, I opened my eyes and saw sun streaming in the window and glanced at the clock and jumped out of bed. As quickly as my brain warmed up enough to do some simple math, I realized that we'd be fine, we just don't have as much time to spare as we originally planned. Thank goodness we gave ourselves that cushion!

After a quick shower and shoving everything in my suitcase (no time for folding!), I said bye to her room and the residences and we loaded up the car and took off for the gas station to top things off. I am glad we had such a small economical car. Gas was expensive! But all of the adventures from the past couple of days made it all worth it 100%. We made one last stop at the boulangerie for a pain au chocolat and a coffee and Kaitlyn got some type of almond pastry that was delicious. I'm really going to miss that place! We navigated our way back to the rental car return at the train station way easier than we thought. Maybe we were just becoming pros at driving in Europe! Doubtful though. On our way to the tram stop, I caught myself walking slowly and dragging my feet, trying everything I could to slow down time and to extend our time together but unfortunately I don't have magic powers. We rode the tram to the airport bus stop, getting us there with time to spare. I hate goodbyes and so does she so we tried to ignore it but some emotion snuck through. I am so lucky to have been able to spend as much time with her as I did, but when saying goodbye, I always wish I had more. We parted ways as the bus pulled up, me hopping on the bus and her catching her tram back to town. Knowing I had to navigate the airport and check in and all of that by myself when I speak just a few more words than I knew at the start of the week kept me preoccupied from being too bummed. I got to the airport a couple of minutes after 10, trying to catch my 11am flight. Yup, I was cutting it close, but in the back of my head somewhere, I wouldn't be all that upset if I missed my flight and had to stay there forever. And I came so close to that actually happening! For whatever reason, the self check-in machines didn't accept my information so I had to go to the counter. I took a look at the line and knew I'd be cutting it close. Add the fact that they were allowing people behind me to cut to the front as they scrambled to get everyone on a 10:40 flight checked in made all of my hope evaporate. I tried explaining my situation to anyone I could but it seemed like nobody spoke any English. It was exhausting and incredibly frustrating. When I FINALLY managed to get in front of the check-in counter, I was told that I'd have to fly standby because I missed the check-in deadline. Thankfully I was able to communicate to Kaitlyn somehow via facebook on my kindle (no idea it was possible before that moment), so at least I knew that I could get some help if I really got in a tight spot. They made me stand off to the side as they let more and more people though. I was sweating more and more as the minutes ticked by,10:53, 10:54, 10:55... Finally, I heard someone read a name that could have been (and ended up being) a very butchered version of my own. Thank God! I grabbed my ticket and ran to the front of the security line and then onward to the gate. They were about to close the door when they saw me running up. I made it, sweaty, stressed, and a weird mixture of relieved and disappointed.

The flight to Paris was pretty painless. Once at Charles du Gaulle, I worked my way to the gate, knowing that I wasn't incredibly pressed for time. And I managed to get a passport stamp! All of that minor frustration and disappointment from the weekend before was for nothing! I spent the time in the waiting area telling Kaitlyn the whole story and thanking her for such an amazing trip. It really was awesome. I boarded the next plane, a gigantic Airbus A-380, supposedly the largest commercial passenger plane in the world, and took off for JFK. About an hour into the flight and halfway through my movie, the flight attendants come around and to take our drink orders. When I take my headphones off, the guy in the window seat strikes up a conversation over the empty (score!) middle seat between us. "Great," I thought. "I'm going to have to talk to this stranger for the next seven hours." While I am a social person, I just prefer to keep to myself on airplanes so I can sleep, read, watch movies, or whatever else I want to do. This guy was going to ruin all of that, but after a little talking, I was glad he did. I really liked him a lot! His name was Fred and he's a few years older than me. He's from Bordeaux and is a pretty talented pastry chef. He was en route to LA to try to make it in America and to try to rekindle an old romance - a pretty gutsy move and I admired him for it. We talked periodically through the flight and got our fair share of movies in too. Chasing the sun, we hit some strong headwinds coming across the Atlantic but we survived.

JFK was a bit of a culture shock. Yeah, I was only going from first world country to first world country, but it was still a little too crazy for my mood at that moment. It was pretty disorganized as we were herded like cattle towards the customs area, and all of the cameras and security measures and dogs and heavily armed security guards could definitely be pretty intimidating for someone seeing it for the first time. It wasn't a very warm welcome. My new friend Fred, despite all of his world traveling, was surprised by how crazy things seemed to be. We were heading towards neighboring gates for our connecting flights so we stuck together, me acting as his translator (for the rare times he couldn't find the proper word or phrase) and guide. I had about forty minutes to catch my connecting flight and I quickly realized it was going to take about that long to get through customs. I approached a TSA officer and, still in France mode, said, "Pardon, monsieur." Yet another person to look at me like I was an alien. I explained my situation and he just pointed me back to where I came from in line. I made it with a couple minutes to spare, but then realized I had to wait for my bag to come through baggage claim, then I had to get in ANOTHER line to deal with another grumpy customs agent. I forgot how crazy all of that was. Maybe I just blocked such unpleasant memories out of my mind. Yup, definitely missed that flight. I started calling around, trying to find a place for Fred and I to stay in NYC, but fortunately we were both able to be placed on the last flights across the country for the evening to our respective destinations. But first, another massive security line. For those of you who will go visit Kaitlyn over the next year and a half, I doubt you'll regret just getting direct flights from the US to Paris. That extra step on the way home a pain in the butt.

Before my final flight home, I stopped at Panda Express to get some high-quality authentic Chinese food. "Bon soir! Je voudrais le Orange Chicken?" "Huh?!" Don't laugh. It will probably happen to you too. That flight was long and annoying just because I was sick of sitting. But I eventually made it back and my sister Quinn picked me up, driving me back home, five thousand and some miles from where I started my day.