Touchdown

It started at 5:30 in the morning.

My mommy came to my room and shook me out of my sleeping-beauty-like slumber.

I rolled out of bed, finished packing, dressed, ate a piece of toast and said goodbye to my room.

My flight wasn't until about 9, but my mom wanted me there for 7.

This allowed for me to sit with my family and drink some caffeine before I went through security.

Eventually it was time to go. I said my goodbyes and started my journey.

The Vancouver Airport was easy.

I found my terminal without getting lost. I found my seat and my plane left on time.

This, however, was only the beginning.

Calgary was also easy. I found my terminal. I wandered around for a bit. I had Internet connection. And my plane left on time. And even though we had the most turbulence of any flight I have ever been on, it was okay because I was sitting next to a very interesting woman.

She was a psychologist who works for the UN and was on her way to Israel to work with children in an orphanage there who had experienced trauma! It was really cool.

It was when the plane reached Frankfurt that most of the trouble started.

It started with a tickle.

And suddenly my nose was bleeding everywhere.

Luckily the lady I was sitting next to had a Kleenex. So I sat there pinching my nose, trying not to bleed on my cloths and willing it to stop.
Finally it did stop, just as the seat belt sign was turned off.

I made my way inside and began to search for my terminal. I followed the signs until I found one of the large electronic boards with all of the flights.

I located my flight and to my horror there were large red letters after it stating 'CANCELLED'.

So I made my way to service desk and after waiting line for about 40 mins I was finally able to get a new ticket.

I walked all the way to the gate, went through security and waited for my flight to leave.

But after about an hour of waiting I was informed that this flight was also cancelled.

So I hauled myself back past security and into the growing line at the service desk.

I waited for over an hour with everyone else who was trying to get anywhere.

Eventually it was my turn.

The good news: I got another boarding pass

The bad news: my flight was not for another 9 hours.

At this point I was exhausted

And so I tried to find somewhere to sit down. But everyone else was tired too and I couldn't find a seat anywhere. So I wandered around for a while, looking in stores and people watching.

At one point I tried to see if I could get an Internet connection, and failed.

But I did call my mommy. I love you!

After a few hours I was able to find a seat at a table. I lay my head down and promptly fell asleep. But my body was not very happy to be sleeping at a right angle and so I woke up again after about half and hour.

I spent the rest of my time in Germany, listening to music, reading and contemplating what I would do if I was stuck there for the rest of my life. I think I may have also learned some German by listening to all of the flight cancellation announcements.

Finally I boarded my plane. I was so happy to be sitting in a plane that I didn't even mind when we waited on the tarmac for an hour while they tried to sort out passengers and luggage.

When we touched down in Heathrow I extremely relieved

I bounded through customs and soared into the baggage pickup area.

And found no bags.

In all of the confusion of flights and cancellations both of my bags had been lost.

And it appeared that hundreds of other people had also lost their bags. There were piles of bags everywhere. I searched through every single one before I finally came to the conclusion that my bags were not among them.

So I did what I had to do. I got in another line up.

And waited for another forty mins to fill in a form saying my bags were lost.

At this point I was starting to panic because I was worried that I had missed the last bus to my school.

I hurried down the tunnels leading to terminal three (the AC meeting place)

And would have jumped for joy when I saw Maria running towards me if I had had the energy.

I had nothing to fear about missing the bus, because the bus was delayed about two hours.

Which meant that I got to my school at 2 in the morning!

Never before had I been so glad to be at school

Never before had my bed seemed so welcoming

I had made it.

Without luggage, tired and missing people.

But I made it.