It is 1:26 a.m. as I write this, and my three children are sprawled on top of a sleeping bag spread out in a semi-private corner of the airport terminal in Toronto, Canada. The floors are nice and shiny thanks to the nighttime cleaning crew, but they are awfully hard! All around us to try and give further semblance of privacy are our – count ‘em! – eleven overweight, 29-inch suitcases and various and sundry carry-on bags. Hmm … Needless to say, I am not a happy camper at the moment.
How did this happen, you might ask? Well, it all started with a one-hour delay on our flight from Philadelphia … which turned into a two-hour delay … which was followed by another delay of sitting on the tarmac while waiting for our plane’s turn to take off … and ended with our arrival in Canada twenty minutes after our flight to Santiago had already departed.
The icing on the cake, however, was learning that we were completely misinformed and that our – count ‘em! – eleven overweight, 29-inch suitcases were not going to be simply transferred from one plane to the other. Rather, we were required to pull each and every one of them off of the baggage carousel and to engage the services of a friendly skycap to ferry us through customs and around the airport in a fruitless search for an Air Canada employee (none of whom work the midnight shift, apparently.) After which our friendly skycap kindly deposited us and our bags in a semi-private corner of the airport terminal to await morning.
(As I finished that last sentence, a family walked by and gaped at our little crew of children. This has been a common occurrence since we set up camp here!)
So there you have it … the story of our unhappy night, blog fodder indeed just as my dad predicted! Stay tuned for “the rest of the story” which hopefully will include how and when we finally arrive in the promised land of Chile!
4 comments:
well my favorite pic is the one of pedro sitting there looking like a little boy who just lost his puppy. :( can't wait to hear about the rest of it.
Hang in there... I don't understand the meaning to the blunders in your travels.. BUT, in time it'll become more clear.
its lauren here again.. I dont know if you remeber me I commented on yor blog months ago to say that I had once lived in antofagasta and stumbled accross your page when doing research on my beloved home away from home, I have since then added your page to my favorites and its one of my favorite stories to follow I have been praying for your family whe whole way. As I am also from canada I know the frustration you are feeling with air canada.. I also had 2 very bad experiences flying out of and into toronto with them... and I hope that it goes a little smoother when I leave again for antofagasta in november ( yes Im very excited Im applying for a teaching position) Anywyas I will think of you guys hoping your having a smooth or as smooth as possible transition :) buenas noches
On behalf of my often frozen homeland and the airline that flew my husband around the world when he was a teenager, my apologies. (But no cockroaches, right?) The little cheetah print eye patch is extra pathetically adorable! Pobrecitos!!! Whatta supermom to have that handy and not IN one of the eleven suitcases! We'll be praying extra for you guys today.
Post a Comment