Airportman

Generally speaking, I’ve been very fortunate throughout all my travel in the past two years. I’ve only had a handful of delays and aside from the Budapest strike incident, everything’s been smooth sailing. Leave it to my trip home to be one of the biggest hassles.

Normally, to get from Geneva to Columbus I would have flown with Continental straight through (with a layover in Newark). However, prices for that trip have been cost-prohibitive this summer so I found a deal on a one-way British Airways flight to Chicago O’Hare via London Heathrow. I had never actually been through Heathrow before but most of the stories that have been relayed to me have been of the “horror” variety. I was a bit concerned about making connections and having my luggage since I’d be landing at the infamous Terminal 5. However, all these fears were completely unfounded as my BA flight was great and everything went off without a hitch.

No, it was the final piece of my journey that proved the most difficult. To get from Chicago to Columbus (only about an hour by plane), I had booked a United flight at 6:45pm. There were earlier flights, but my other flight didn’t arrive until 2pm and knowing I’d need to make it through passport control, baggage claim and customs before check-in and security, I opted to give myself plenty of time. Well, being cautious ended up folly. I opened my e-mail around 5:30am on Sunday morning in Geneva to a message saying my United flight had been cancelled and they’d booked me on a flight this afternoon at 2pm (There were several other United flights that day making the same connection; mine was the only one cancelled). Naturally, news like this isn’t the best when you’re about to spend the whole day in the air and just want to make it home.

Fortunately, my brother (the night owl) happened to be online when I made the discovery and I gave him the information I had. Despite spending the morning with my stomach in knots (from stress, worry, or beer from the day before? hard to know...), when I landed in Chicago I had a message from a United rep with information for an NWA flight they booked me on. My mom was able to call during my transatlantic journey and work something out. So, as it was, I spent a few hours in Chicago before flying to Detroit and then, finally, into Columbus at 11pm Eastern Standard Time (about 23 hours from the time I’d left my apartment in Geneva).

Making the trip somewhat less distressing was a visit in Chicago from Scott who is finishing up his summer vacation in the city before heading back to Japan this week. It was great to catch up, if only for a few hours, especially since it was New Years 2007 that we’d last seen one another. Photographic evidence:


So, long story short, I have made it back safely from Geneva despite some uncertainty going into the journey. Now come a few months of relaxation and organization as I regroup to figure out what comes next. Let’s hope it’s a time of “great opportunity,” to quote from the R.E.M. song which gives this post its title.

Thanks again to all my Geneva friends for coming out last week to help my say goodbye. I will miss you all and look forward to when we meet again.

Despite the fact that I am no longer in Europe, I’ll keep this blog going for a few more months at least since I still have a lot to cover from my final weeks and months on the continent. Hopefully I’ll have the time to do so in the near future…