How to survive all things going wrong
General, Jamaica No Comments »As many of you now know, or I’m sure will realize after this post, that I have not exactly had the best luck on my trip to Jamaica. Sure, the weather was nice and my plane always landed in one-piece but there were a lot of other things that went wrong along the way. Here is how I survived, although there are parts in here where I had probably gone insane… Enjoy!
The Story Begins…
This story begins a week ago today, on July 6th, when preparing for my trip, I had to discuss with my parents about which electronics I was taking and which were being left behind. I had to fight for them to even allow me to take my camera, and my Zune and all other electronics had to stay behind without me. This meant that I was limited to a single book on the trip, and I’ll explain why my choice in reading material probably wasn’t the best a little later.
After having all my bags packed and ready to go at the front door, I went to bed to try and get a little bit of sleep before my trip. Unfortunately, I get anxiety attacks the moment I lose control of a situation; this was one of those times. I received very little sleep before my 5am taxi to the airport, and the anxiety attack was becoming overwhelming.
Pearson International Airport – Toronto - YYZ
When I arrived that the airport, I double checked where I was supposed to go and then got into the fairly large line for Delta Airlines. A few of the people around me in line were talking about heading to Atlanta, so I knew I was in the right line (and it helped that there was a ticker overhead saying which check-ins to go to.) These people, though, were heading for an earlier flight to Atlanta. After getting checked-in, it was time to head through U.S. Customs and then through Airport Security. Luckily, I had marked ‘In Transit’ on my custom’s form so I wasn’t stuck answering very many questions and I made it through without a hitch. Also, since I was still in Canada, going through Airport Security was nothing. I just put all of my stuff in the bucket, removed my shoes and I was all good. The anxiety attack was starting to diminish because I took back the control that I needed, and I wasn’t feeling as sick to my stomach.
After about a half-hour of waiting, the flight to Atlanta that was leaving before me started to board. The people that were around me in line were on this flight. I watched as they all left and the gate area became quite empty. An hour goes by and they announce that my flight will be delayed due to a mechanical fault and some connections will need to be rescheduled, but anything after 2PM is fine, as we will arrive with plenty of time. At this point, I’m not worried since our flight was scheduled to leave an hour later, and I would still have plenty of time to do everything I needed to get onto my next flight. A fair number of people ran up to the service desk to get their connections changed, and the staff were over-whelmed with the requests. They continued to announce that all connections after 2PM were fine and would not be taken care of.
Chaos at Gate Area A-1
Then with little notice, the gate area was suddenly packed once again; the earlier flight had never left the ground and all of its passengers were forced back into the gate area. It turns out, this plane was also having mechanical errors and would be delayed. Of course, this then meant an extra 70 people needing to be rescheduled and placed onto different flights for their connections. The two girls working the desk could not handle this, and kept calling around looking for people to come help them out, but only 1 person ever came. In order to keep the gate from becoming total chaos, they announced everything over the P.A.; or, at least until the P.A. stopped working about 5 minutes into this mess.
Soon, people were everywhere – yelling, upset, and anxious about where they were going to end up that day. At this time, my anxiety had ceased and I found a quiet little area to sit down and read my book, or so I thought.
A Little Helpful Information
I was a little ways into my book when a worker at the gate had refused to show his badge to airport security and it was soon raining cops. No longer being a jerk about it, he immediately showed his badge and gave the officers all the information they wanted before walking away, from him. The airport security officer noticed my book and decided that he would keep the cops around while coming to talk to me.
He asked me if he could see what I was reading, and, not being an idiot, I kindly obliged. He then said the following to me, “Son, I’d like to give you a little advice and I hope that you take it seriously. It’s probably not in your best interest to read a book like that in an airport, or anywhere that is full of security types. You may wish to hide it in your carry-on and then put it in your checked luggage the next time you have a chance.”
With that, he and the two officers left down the hall and I quickly put the book away. I bet you are wondering what book would get me noticed like that, well, I’ll tell you: The Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick. It’s a book about security, and it is definitely worth the read. If anyone feels like they would like a copy, tell me and I’ll try and hook you up. My only advice, don’t take it with you to the airport.
Flight DL-4516 to Atlanta Now Boarding
Shortly after, my plane had finally landed in Toronto, but was now stuck without a Gate for us to board on since it was late and the other Atlanta flight was blocking the original gate and another flight to Cincinnati was actually on time (sort of) and was using the other operational gate. Also, the staff trying to board the plane to Cincinnati was also trying to deal with all of the connections that needed be changed. It was truly a mess.
After waiting around for another 30 minutes, our plane was finally brought to the gate and we were allowed to board. They said we should still catch all of the post-2PM connections without problem. We quickly boarded only to have to wait for clearance to depart. This caused even more delays as the passageway that we were going to use for our flight was now overcrowded and Air Traffic Control was not allowing us to depart nor were they allowing anyone else to enter the zone until things were cleared. At this point, we all became worried about our connections as minutes quickly ticked away without any progress.
After about a half hour of being stuck on the taxi-way, we were finally given clearance to take off. During these announcements is when we found out that the Mechanical Failure of our plane, which caused all of these delays in the first place, was nothing but a service door not being closed properly when the plane took off in Atlanta. Since it wasn’t a severe issue, the plane was forced to stay in circuit until it was queued for landing, which ended up adding an hour to their flight.
Flight DL-361 to Jamaica Has Departed On Time
While in the air, many of us started asking the flight crew about what was going to happen when we landed if we missed our connections. The stewardess assured us there would be someone at the gate to assist us when we landed, and if our flight had already departed they would get us on the next flight out regardless.
This, unfortunately, was not the case. When our plane finally landed they announced that everyone on the plane should remain seated unless they had a departure time in the next 30 minutes. Like always though, nobody listened and my position at the back of the plane made it impossible for me to get off in a timely manner.
Once I was finally out of the plane, I quickly made a mad dash to my gate. Unfortunately for me, it was on the complete opposite side of the airport, which was far from small. Luckily, there is a train that is much faster than running that can get you from one end of the airport to the other in a couple of minutes.
After leaving the train, I quickly ran up the escalator and ran to the end of the concourse and located my gate. When I got there, the clerk working the desk had told me I had missed my flight, and although I had arrived at 2:45PM, the flight had already departed the gate. Of course the one flight to actually leave on time for me had to be the one that I really wanted to be delayed.
Stuck in Atlanta
Upset about the series of unfortunate events that had caused me to missed my connection, I met up with all of the others that were stranded from the missed connection and we went up to the service desk to get the problem resolved.
In the beginning, the gentleman behind the counter wasn’t extremely helpful as he kept saying the airline is not responsible for us missing our connection due to bad weather. As you now know, this was not even close to being the cause of our missed connection at all. With my anxiety attack now in full swing, I knew I must take control of the situation or else I would simply lose control of my mind and body.
I began to make my presence well known in the area without exactly become hostile, and I made everyone at the service desk well aware of what had happened to cause the problem. After I was finished explaining everything, the service desk was quiet as everyone had stopped what they were doing to hear exactly what I was saying. It was at this point that the others stranded with me were backing me up on everything I was saying and helped solidify my stance.
Within a few minutes, the gentleman at the service desk had located our flight in from Toronto and had confirmed my story. It’s at this point, that he had to break the bad news to us: we would not be leaving Atlanta that night.
A New Plan and a New Headache
While the team at the service desk were frantically trying to find us flights to depart, set up hotel reservations, and rectify the entire situation altogether, I was on the phone with my office who had set up my flights in the first place. They were also trying to find any flight that they could in order to get me to Jamaica without having me get stuck in another airport somewhere else. Unfortunately, with both teams working at the same time, and little to no communication, there became a conflict that ended up being resolved by just accepting what the service team had given me and dropping what work had set up in the interim.
An hour after my flight had taken off, and we now had a new flight in the morning to Miami with a connection to Jamaica a few hours later. We also had vouchers for free food and a hotel room for the night. Since they were unable to give us our checked luggage, we were left with the clothes on our back, whatever we had in carry-on, and a little overnight bag the airline supplied us. We were also given instructions on which shuttle we needed to get on and where we were going.
We then went as a group out to wait for the shuttle and discuss what we were going to do that night since none of us were really wanting to go see the sights in the city and just wanted a nice dinner and our rest since we would be up early in the morning. It was at this time we planned a nice breakfast in Miami for the next day.
When the shuttle finally came, it was quickly filled as a large group of Christian families were on their way to a mission in South America but had also missed their connecting flight. After a short ride, we had arrived at our destination: Days Inn – Atlanta South. That South is important, as their was also a Days Inn located in Atlanta East.
A Nice Night Out With Friends
The group of us quickly checked in and started to discuss what we wanted for dinner and how we would get there. The hotel manager came out to talk to us and offered us shuttle service to a restaurant that wasn’t that far away and we couldn’t refuse. We all scheduled to meet up at 5:30PM and then we would go for our dinner.
While I was waiting, I thought I’d try and connect to the Internet and quickly sort out some loose ends that I needed to clear up so I wouldn’t have any problems the next day. Unfortunately, the Wireless Internet doesn’t work in the guest rooms and I was forced to come down to the lobby to use it.
There was already a teenage girl sitting in the lobby with her laptop, so I decided to sit down behind her and we started chatting. It turns out that she actually lived in Atlanta, but her mom was travelling through the city and was staying at the hotel so she decided to come visit her. We then started talking about her choice of games and she said she was playing Runescape because it was a) free and b) worked on her laptop. It’s at this point in the conversation where I have to take off to make it back in time for dinner.
Our group all met in the lobby a short couple of minutes later and the shuttle was outside waiting to take us to Ruby Tuesday’s. When we arrived at the restaurant we ordered an assortment of food and started chatting up our waitress and she guessed that we were all guests of Delta. When we asked her how she new, she said it was fairly common and we didn’t seem like a mix that would travel together on anything other than a plane. We kind of laughed, because we were a weird mix. I was the geek in the bunch, there was then a New Zealander who lived in Australia for most of his life, and then there was a couple celebrating their 16th wedding anniversary who were small-town farmers from Woodstock, Ontario. We clearly were not related at all.
Dinner was nice but afterwards we were all extremely tired and just wanted to get back to our rooms to get some sleep. We asked the waitress to call the shuttle for Days Inn South, and she did so with no hesitation at all. A few minutes later and the shuttle arrived, but not the right one. The waitress had accidentally called the Days Inn East shuttle and he was refusing to drive us since that wasn’t the right hotel. Oh well, we thought, and we went to go call the correct shuttle. As we started to walk away, he then had a sudden change of heart and decided to drive us anyway.
Same Crap, Different Pile
When we arrived back at the hotel, we confirmed the shuttle time was 4:30AM and we all agreed that this was the shuttle that we wanted to catch to avoid problems at the airport and then we all went to bed. Well, sort of. Everyone else went to bed except for me. I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t resist checking out the area so I set out to find a store or something to explore.
I only had to go a short distance to find a McDonalds and I thought I’d go get an Iced Tea as I went looking for a store that the Christian Families had set out to find earlier. At this time, I had no US currency on me so needed to charge things or pay by debit. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that Canadian Debit cards don’t work in US Restaurants and I was forced to charge the $1 drink to my Visa. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the girl then handed me a cup with a hole in it and I was soon covered in the sugary liquid.
I cleaned myself off the best I could, got a second cup, and went on my way. By the time I arrived at the little convenience store some ways down the street I had finished my drink. I tossed out the cup and headed inside. I quickly located the ATM surrounded by a few displays openly full of alcohol and withdrew some US currency so I could pay for breakfast the next morning. I then returned to the hotel and went to bed so I would have some rest when I met everyone in the morning.
When we all met in the lobby, we each grabbed a drink from the hotel and then went outside to wait for the shuttle; and wait we did. After 10 minutes had passed, we were then wondering what was taking our shuttle so long, so we went to check. It turns out the shuttle driver never showed up for work that morning and they were frantically trying to find a replacement. 20 minutes later the shuttle finally arrived, and we were 30 minutes late at leaving then our original intentions, but we still had plenty of time to get to the airport and clear security.
Please Go Through This Line
When we arrived at the airport we all checked-in for our flight, and my ticket came up saying I didn’t have a seat, but I was confirmed on the flight. The people at the desk said the people at the gate would take care of it when I showed up there. It was then off through security.
The officers controlling the flow of security asked me to go into a shorter line than my group, and I obliged thinking that I was going to get through sooner. Boy was I wrong. I had been picked out for ‘Random Selection’ to go through the extra screening process. In this process all of your items are placed into red bins, and are swapped with a white fabric and tested for a certain set of chemicals and materials. If the machine goes off, well, then you better kiss making it onto your plane on-time goodbye. Sure enough, my tests came out fine and I was cleared for my flight.
I met up with my group and then waited at the gate for any information about my seating arrangements on the flight. The seating agent told me that I had a seat and I need not worry about it, they just reserve a few seats that allow them to reorganize things for people in Emergency rows and stuff like that. After seeing what I looked like, he thought I was a good fit to sit in the Emergency row and placed me in the window seat of one of those rows.
Our flight to Miami was on time and had no problems at all. It was a fairly short flight and it gave us some time to relax and enjoy our breakfast before departing for Jamaica. As soon as the plane landed, I was on the phone with work trying to find out my travel arrangements for once I arrived in Jamaica. My boss had bad news for me: the person responsible for picking me up at the airport was having car difficulties and might not make it, but someone would be waiting for me with a sign with my name on it. By the sounds of things, I was all set.
Breakfast in Miami
After departing the plane, we were instructed that we had to leave the security area in Miami and reenter again at a different gate. After my last session with airport security, I was a little reluctant but figured I didn’t have a choice. We then set out to find a nice place for breakfast before reentering security. In searching for a restaurant near our gate, I thought it would be a smart idea to check in and find out if I had a seat for the next flight. It was a good thing we decided to check-in at that time, one of the others was also on the same list as me and might not have gotten a seat if I hadn’t of checked in.
After we all were checked-in and ready to go, we found the best looking breakfast at the airport: Burger King. Yes, I know, that can hardly be described as anyone’s choice place for breakfast, but it was one of the few places actually serving something the even resembled breakfast. We went up to order, and were basically the only people at the restaurant so we didn’t really pay attention to the number that the girl was giving us. That was a mistake, apparently.
The lady working behind the counter shouted out the number of the couple I was with, and they went to get their bag, and she said “What was your number?”, and the couple, not exactly knowing what she had said seconds earlier said “I don’t remember”, and the lady made them get out their receipt to prove it was their order. I am not kidding, we were the only people in this place and this poor couple is being forced to find a fast-food receipt to prove it’s their order.
Luckily, I have the ability to appear mentally-challenged sometimes and the lady kindly gave me my bag of food without issue. It must be one of my best skills, as I don’t really even have to try for people to think I have some sort of disability and feel compelled to do what they can to help me.
Red Flag Collector
When breakfast was all said and done, we decided we should probably go through security again. When I headed to the Security Control agent, I knew I was in trouble once again as she grabbed her red pen and drew a flag on my boarding pass. Great, twice in one day, I should get a lottery ticket I’m just so lucky. Since I hadn’t even left the airport, the results were the same as before and I was allowed to pass through.
I was then lead through what seemed to be a series of mazes as I hunted for my gate that was in an isolated building that wasn’t directly attached to the terminal. I got on the train and headed down to my gate. Once I got off the train, I was slightly saddened. There was an actual restaurant RIGHT THERE, just a few feet from where I was catching my next flight.
I met up with the rest of my group and we joked about how they wanted me to make sure that I was never on another flight with them again until I had gotten rid of whatever was causing me my bad luck. I laughed, but I truly knew that it really was my bad luck causing all of this, since lucky people don’t ever get red flagged let alone twice on the same day.
Our flight to Jamaica was only slightly delayed and our group said our basic goodbyes when we got onto the plane, knowing that we would probably never see each other again once we landed as we were each heading to different locations. This plane ride was one of the smoothest, and also had an In-Flight Entertainment System. But, me being the unluckiest guy, had a non-functioning row of units; I couldn’t even watch a unit beside me or in front of me either.
Right Car, Wrong Hotel
When the plane arrived in Jamaica, there was a mad rush towards customs and immigration as most everyone had already had a rough day and they just wanted to get to where they were going without having to be stuck in long lines.
I managed to get ahead of the large group of people and was even let in front of another set of Canadians who I had talked to earlier. I had no problems at customs, was able to quickly locate my bags, and flew through immigration. It was then off to find my ride to my hotel.
I’m still amazed that the people set to find me were able to spot me so easily, I must just scream “Lost Canadian” or something since they didn’t even have a sign and just walked up to me and confirmed my name with me. They told me that my ride had called and was unable to pick me up and they would be driving me.
A few minutes later, and I was in a taxi heading to what I thought was my hotel. I was wrong once again, obviously. I was dropped off at the Ritz Carlton Rose Hall Hotel and not the Rose Hall Resort and Spa owned by Hilton. A simple mistake, but a costly one. My original taxi cost me $30 USD and it was now going to cost me another $10 USD to fix this mistake.
Luckily, the hotel was really nice and they got me a new taxi and on my way to the right hotel within minutes. They even confirmed that I was supposed to be at the other hotel as well before I left the property.
Third Times the Charm
If you have ever heard about my first two trips where flights were involved with work, you would probably know that when it comes to hotel reservations, I’m about just as lucky as I had been with these flights; this wasn’t any different. Since I didn’t show up on the Monday as I had been scheduled to arrive, they had cancelled the reservation placed on hold for me. This then meant that I had to fight with the front desk to get a room and get everything set up for me to stay on property.
While I was at the front desk, I arranged to meet the people I would be working with over the week and they all seemed fairly nice. I had worked with one before at another property for the exact same thing, so we already knew how each other worked and what we needed from each other for things to go smoothly. I was then given a basic schedule for the nights activities and sent up to my room for a little rest.
I made a quick inspection of my room, then set up my internet connection and got caught up on everything that happened since I had left for Jamaica, updated a few people on my situation, then planned for my dinner. I had an all-inclusive pass that got me into the all-you-can-eat buffet, but nothing really other than that. I couldn’t even order room service as it wasn’t covered, so I was stuck eating by myself in this restaurant full of many happy couples who were really enjoying themselves. I couldn’t help but be envious that they were there to enjoy their time and I was all alone, far from home, with no forms of real communication. I felt isolated, and it really wasn’t helping me come down from my anxiety attack. To make things worse, I was scheduled to start work at 8PM and I really had had no sleep before being put to work.
When I get to my room, I decide it’s best if I hide my passport and exit visa, since I don’t want to get stuck in Jamaica. That’s when my worst fear was realized: I had lost my exit visa. I panicked for a while, and called my local contact and he told me not to stress out about it and he will give me details about what I’ll need to do to leave the country.
One Less Form of Communication
After a short nap I arrived at 8PM promptly prepared to do my work. I was escorted down to a secured room where I was going to work for the next few hours. A couple of minutes into to work, and the other guys decided to leave for dinner leaving me all alone, which was fine; I’ve grown used to working by myself and not really having to explain what I’m doing which is great.
After being alone for fifteen minutes, I had completed all of the work I was scheduled to do. Luckily I know exactly what I need from where and how to take advantage of things to get them to go quickly, and this was one of the easier tasks for me to do when I’m working so I’ve got the sequence down pat.
Twenty minutes goes by with nothing to do, and I can’t really leave because I need to communicate the changes back to I.T. so, I’m stuck waiting all alone in this tiny room and I’m starting to really panic. It takes me another twenty minutes to calm myself down and shortly after the team arrives back for work.
Their first reaction was of shock and awe since they thought it would take me a good portion of the night to complete my work, and not the short hour they had left me. I communicated what I had done and what I had prepared for the next nights work and I left them with a couple of items they needed to take care of before I could continue. Expecting it to take only an hour or two, I headed up to my room to rest while they worked.
After a few hours of being in my room, I decided to call down to their room to find them, but no answer. I then called the reception desk to see if they could patch me through, which is when I found out that my phone was no longer receiving incoming calls and instead the team had left a written message telling me I needed to check my email. So, of course, I checked my email, but nothing. The written message stressed that I needed to read and act upon the email by 6 AM and it was already 2AM and I didn’t have the email to act upon, and I had no other way of contacting them.
Deciding that I shouldn’t panic, I sat waiting for any sign of an email or an incoming phone call. Nothing. When my office back home opened, I contacted them to find out if they had received anything from the team, but they hadn’t. It wasn’t until 7am that I finally received the email. My instructions, just to verify that the work they had done the night before was correct as they were following my instructions. Of course, everything was fine.
Isolated From the Outside World
After verifying that the spa was up and running, and that I didn’t really need to do much during the day, I went by myself for breakfast to the buffet. The food wasn’t really that great, but it was truly the least of my worries at that point. I still didn’t have my exit visa, and I was quickly running out of ways of getting messages out and the borrowed laptop was my only way of communicating.
After breakfast I went to give the team a status update, and had learned that my contact was trying to contact me but wasn’t able to reach me on my phone. I then went back to my room and called him back only to learn two things. The first: I could just fill out another exit visa at the airport, and there wouldn’t be any hassle about it. The second: he needed his laptop back and I wouldn’t have that as a way of communicating anymore.
With this knowledge, I packed up the borrowed supplies and prepared for them to be picked up sometime during the day. I decided that with all of the stress, I needed to grab a little bit of sleep and slept through lunch. When I woke up, I went back down to the spa to find out there were a couple of issues stemming from the work of the IT team the night before, but my work was fine. I called the team to get the issue resolved and then went back to our room to discuss the next nights work.
Finally I received a break, the work I needed to do for the night had been rescheduled for early the next morning and depending on the outcome of the work that was being done, I might not have to work until later in the day. The bad news though: they were going to call me when they were ready for me. Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to work, so I just scheduled myself to be up early in the morning. I then made plans to meet up with the team for dinner and headed back to my room.
When I got back to my room, I decided to call to see where my contact was and he was on his way and I was to meet him downstairs with the borrowed supplies. So, I then met up with him, and gave up my last method of contact with the outside world.
Good At My Job
Dinner went by fairly uneventful, with only a mild discussion about technology and the plans for the next couple of days. I got to bed early and finally got a good nights sleep.
The next morning, I was up bright and early and was prepared for what I thought was the worst, but I was a little off. It turns out things weren’t going as smoothly as planned, and many of the team really weren’t wanting to see a well rested me that early in the morning. I was told it would be a while before my turn, so I decided to head for breakfast. All of the charges had to be manually tracked since no one had a working system yet and the servers weren’t very pleased with the status. Knowing I was part of the team, they constantly asked me why I was taking a break and not getting their system online. Unfortunately, this wasn’t something that was in my control and I just had to take it.
After breakfast, one of the IT guys thought he could help me get bumped ahead in the schedule, so he told the rest of the team that my flight was only an hour away and I needed to get in and out before I missed my flight. I didn’t follow through with this though, and confirmed everyone’s suspicions that he was only playing with them. Since they hadn’t really gotten anywhere with the other systems, they gave me a chance to do my part. It only took seconds for me to make my changes and I was out. This made the spa extremely happy, but made all of the other facilities upset: the spa was now the only system working.
We verified everything that went through, just in case, but we didn’t have any problems and we were good to go. This was the last thing on my list of things to do, so I knew the rest of the trip was going to be a breeze; well, that is, that’s what I thought would be the case.
Invited for Lunch
Since the spa was thrilled that I had been able to get them up and running without problems, one of the girls invited me for lunch with her so I wouldn’t have to sit by myself. I thought this was a nice gesture, so I kindly accepted the offer and went with her.
It turns out that she is only a few months younger than me and she was single. Trying to be professional, I filtered everything that came out of my mouth and tried to use my manners as best as possible. I also tried to play down any talk of a relationship or anything similar, since I knew that I would be leaving and didn’t really want to return any time soon.
After lunch I returned to the spa, and helped out with everything that I could. I went back to my room once again, as the heat was starting to get to me and I really missed the cool nights that I am so familiar with. I took the time to allow myself to de-stress and decided it was time to take advantage of my surroundings.
When I returned to the spa, they were fairly quiet and had no patrons and everything was still operational on my side, so I decided I would get a haircut. The girls were all excited that they got to be in control of my hair, and they all talked among themselves as to how they believed it should be styled. When they finally got to cutting it, they discovered that I actually had a ton of hair on my head. The final product is nice, basically just a short cut with some of the highlights remaining from the last time I dyed my hair.
It wasn’t until after my cut that problems started to arise; with the other systems still not operational, they had been experimenting in the IT room and had accidentally taken down some of the things I needed for my side to work. I needed to get someone to bring everything back to a working state.
Since it happened near the end of the day, it wasn’t that much of a big deal but it was just a nuisance. When all was said and done, the Spa Manager decided she wanted to take me out for dinner.
Last Day There
Dinner was once again uneventful other than the fact that I was out with the Spa Manager and a couple of other managers. Like always, we were eating at the buffet.
That night I managed to sneak in another full night of sleep and was ready for the day ahead, which I knew was going to be my last in Jamaica. I was starting to get excited but was still sad, I would never see many of these people ever again. I wanted to go home, I wouldn’t have stayed even if offered millions of dollars; I missed the cooler weather of Canada, and most of all, I missed the outside world.
For my last day, I hung out in the spa for most of the day, making short little trips to the IT room and to my room just to break the monotony of the day. Every time I went to my room, I packed a little more until I was mostly packed.
With nothing really happening on the last day, everything seemed to go at a rapidly slow pace. Things were quick in the sense that there wasn’t anything drastically halting the pace of the day, but things were slow in the sense that with nothing to do, every minute feels the same as the last.
At the end of the day, I said good bye to most of the staff and then went for one last dinner with the Spa Manager and one of the other managers. I had to promise that I would write the moment I arrived back in Canada (which I did), and then said my last goodbyes and headed to bed.
Heading Home
When morning arrived, all my bags were packed and I was excited that I would be in home. In my mind, I started thinking about who to call when I got back to Canada and what I could do. I knew that things couldn’t possibly go bad heading back to Canada, and that the rest of the trip would just be smooth sailing. I guess this just proves that I didn’t really learn anything about travelling, since things most certainly weren’t smooth.
I had no problems getting to the airport, or getting through customs. I had quickly filled out a new exit visa and they had no problems with it at all. I then had a couple of hours to waste at the airport.
While I was waiting for my flight, everyone waiting at the gate was extremely chatty and I ended up talking the entire time I was waiting for the flight that it made the time pass fairly quickly. It was so nice to get back into communication with people, I was so excited for the rest of my trip, that I hardly cared about my 5 hour layover in Atlanta.
When I boarded the plane, I was seated beside two teenagers returning home from a Mission Trip to visit some of the poor areas of Jamaica and to show the kids what we take for granted in North America. They were a blast to talk to, and helped to make the 3 hour flight not feel so long. We said our goodbyes when the plane landed, and it was off to customs once again.
Surprisingly, I got pushed into a fast line in the International Customs clearance as I was Canadian and had nothing to declare since I was In-Transit. This would have been a nice gesture, had the person in front of me understood what the customs officer had wanted from them. Since it is really discouraged that you switch between lines, I was now forced to stand in a line that was going nowhere fast. Luckily, I didn’t really mind as I wasn’t really in a rush, knowing I had several hours to kill before my flight.
Once I finally made it through customs, it was time to go to the baggage check. I was told when I boarded the flight that my luggage would meet me in Toronto. This was contradictory to the announcements being made, so I decided to ask. The girl in charge of the baggage area confirmed that the announcement was correct and that I would need to recheck my baggage for my next flight. So I sat, and waited, and waited, and waited. No sign of my luggage anywhere. I then went to verify again with her that my luggage wasn’t being sent on ahead and she told me to go talk to another person in charge of lost luggage. When I talked to him, he said “I hate working with stupid people; Luggage for flights to Canada do not need to be rechecked. It will meet you when you land in Toronto”.
Come This Way, Sir
It was now time to go through Airport Security again, and I was sure I was going to get red flagged once again, so I prepared. In the long line that looked like a miniature maze as the different rope lines were all over the place and didn’t really seem to have a pattern to them, several of the passengers started mooing and making other barnyard sounds. Of course, I couldn’t resist and joined in on the fun.
After going through this line, I ended up in the Security Area, but it was Chaos and they didn’t really have someone choosing who would be chosen for that extra little pat down that I had become so familiar with. I thought I was in the clear. But, after a few moments of watching, I noticed that they were still doing the random selection, and I figured my number would be chosen once again.
Lucky for me, the passenger in front of me was elderly and hostile; when asked to remove his belt and shoes he yelled out “How about you make me remove my pants too! This is AMERICA, not AFGHANISTAN! I’m a US Citizen, I’m not going to bomb my own country!” With this, he had managed to swap numbers with me and his number was the lucky one selected for the random selection.
I almost felt bad for the guy, but I knew there really wasn’t that much extra to the extra search so I went on my way. I was now stuck in this airport until my 8PM flight back home, but I was still excited.
A Change of Pace
After clearing security, I was starting to feel a bit famished and decided I should hunt down some food. I grabbed a quick pizza and pop, and then went on a self-guided tour of the airport.
Along my route, I managed to run into the same teenage boy from my flight to the airport and decided I’d chat with him while we were both waiting for our flights home. We decided to grab a coffee at Seattle’s Best, and then started a little walk and talk.
Of the things we talked about, we talked about religion and the poverty in Jamaica; of that, we talked about how poverty means different things to different people. The children that he had met, although poverished by our standards, didn’t have a care in the world and were happy with what they had. We talked about how most of these societies react different after they are shown what they are missing, but don’t know any better to miss it before they are shown it since they don’t know what exists.
We then started talking about ethical and hypothetical questions in regards to whether or not we should disturb them by showing them what they are missing. It was definitely nice to talk to someone so down the earth, and we both changed emails.
After that, we both said our parting ways and I headed towards my gate to go sit and wait as I thought I could get a little bit of shut eye before we took off.
Stupid is as Stupid Does
On my way towards my gate, I saw a machine that said it could tell you more details about your flight and confirm the details about your seat, etc for your flight. I thought this would be cool, so I slid my ticket underneath its scanner and waited for its response. It said it couldn’t handle my ticket and I should talk to a gate agent. Since there were large screens displaying the flight statuses of all the flights beside it, I thought it just didn’t want to deal with me since my flight was still hours away.
I continued towards my gate, and sat down for my long wait. A couple of hours went by, and my plane arrived in so everything looked like the flight would be leaving on time and I would be arriving in Toronto that night. I pulled out my cell phone and started making plans to go out for pizza and drinks when I arrived in town. You would have thought I would have learned by this part of my trip, nothing was going to work out as planned.
Shortly after, the gate agent announced that our flight was going to be delayed by over an hour since although the plane was indeed at the gate, our pilot’s flight in was late by an hour and we would not be able to board the plane until he had landed in Atlanta. Great. But, an hour, that’s not THAT bad.
When it was finally time to board, we were an hour and a half late. At that time, I had decided to cancel the pizza plans and just stay in for the rest of the night. When my zone was finally called, I quickly got up and went to go board the plane. It turns out, that message I received before, wasn’t just to tell me it didn’t want to deal with me. My ticket had been changed, and I wasn’t supposed to be on that plane any more. Luckily, they still had my seat available and they let me on to the plane after all.
¿hable inglés?
Once boarded onto the flight, the Canadian Customs forms were passed out, and this is when I found out something that was going to affect my flight home: the hot 29yr old beside me didn’t speak a word of English. She was flying to meet her cousin in Toronto, and she was coming from Mexico.
Being the kind and courteous guy I am (and the fact the flight didn’t have a translator for her), I decided to help her out with the Customs Forms as well as with any other questions that would arise during the flight.
Somehow, the two of us managed to communicate through the flight with little to no problems. I still haven’t figured out exactly how we did it, but, we did.
After the flight, it was a quick taxi home with only one problem – I had lost my taxi form to charge the taxi back to work. Luckily, I had an easy fix for this. I pulled out my old form and grabbed the account number. The taxi was happy to use this and confirmed the account and I was on my way home.
I arrived home sometime after 1AM on Sunday, July 13th. Let me just say, if my California trip is anything like this, I will probably avoid travelling once again.
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