What's Been and What's Ben

I started off by missing the bus from campus to the airport. I split a cab with a fellow student who had the same flight as me. My Lufthansa flight out of Saudi Arabia to Frankfurt, Germany was delayed. I arrived a bit late and ran to the gate for my Chicago flight. I watched while going through the security checkpoint as they shut the door on my flight at the gate twenty feet away. It turns out Lufthansa had two days before cancelled all flights, Heathrow and Amsterdam had closed for a day or two because of blizzards. I waited in line for six hours to get my new tickets. In accordance with the wonderful German socialized-traveling the airline provided me meals, cab vouchers, and a hotel room for the night as I awaited my flight home in the morning. The line for tickets extended forever. It was two days before Christmas Eve and everybody and their brother way trying to get out of Europe. As soon as had tickets in my hand I went and had a few beers at the airport bar. Onto the hotel, the Frankfurt Intercontinental. It was strange that they chose this hotel chain as it was the one I stayed at for a month in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before campus was built.

I slept for a few hours. Woke up at 9. Had free dinner. Went to hotel bar. I would have ventured outside, but I only had an undershirt and a short-sleeved collared shirt. I did not want to freeze in Frankfurt – which looks just like Wisconsin. I spent a few hours casually drinking with some cool British dudes who were trying to get to New York. Their flight was cancelled and they had to return to the airport to stand in line again. We talked about universal healthcare, the entitlement culture, and television.

I woke up at 5 and went to the airport. For breakfast I had what I thought was a German breakfast of a Turkey sandwich with this strange pretzel break and coffee with Jagermesiter. I only got a ticket this early because of a comment I made to the Lufthansa ticketing agent the day before:

I will do anything to get home
Anything? (starts typing vigorously for a minute) Do you like…Adventure?
Yes?

So I ended up on an Air India flight. When I mentioned this to the British guys at the bar they both started to laugh. Turns out it is an airline so dirty that Air India needs its own ground crews because the local crews refuse to clean the planes. I sat in dread of that until I heard a German voice pronounce my last name very clearly (all Germans know how to pronounce FREE-vert) to tell me I had been bumped up to business class. The worst flight of my life turned into the best as I was given a seat that went flat, free booze, better food and cleanliness. Sitting across the aisle from me was a guy who missed his own wedding and was a member of some prominent band I forgot the name of. Between the hotel stay and the business-class seat it was a rather nice flight. When I landed in Chicago I was not questioned at all by the customs agent. In the Chicago airport there were Christmas decorations all around.

The flight from Chicago to Minneapolis had 77 people on standby, but I luckily had a ticket. After landing my parents and I drove to Culver’s for a Triple Bacon ButterBurger Deluxe with extra bacon – 1000 calories. I landed at the start of a blizzard that lasted until yesterday. It took about 56 hours to get home.