Flightmares

Sorry for the delay in posts, dear readers! I had a great deal of laptop excitement what with forgetting to bring a power converter, being unable to find them at the mall, and finally traveling downtown in order to find one (and almost being SERIOUSLY ripped off!). Apologies as well for the triple post now, I had written three before I finally found internet!

Now, on to the reason you’re actually reading this thing. A couple months ago, I booked travel on a charter flight that Hebrew University was sponsoring. It departs from Newark at 1:30pm on Monday, August 29^th. As a resident of San Jose, this, of course, left the puzzle of how to get to Newark in time. We found the perfect JetBlue flight: a red-eye to Boston on Sunday night that arrived at 5:30am and then a puddle-jumper to Newark that arrived at 7:45am – plenty of time, especially given that they told us to arrive by 10:00am.

But then came a hurricane. I received an e-mail a few days before my scheduled departure from the admissions reps at Hebrew University advising us to try to arrive in New York before Saturday. Too soon!!! I hadn’t even begun packing, I had so much left to buy...yikes. My father and I looked at alternative flights, and found one that would arrive on Sunday morning instead. We decided to check the weather and call the travel agency that arranged the charter in the morning to decide.

I spoke with Moni from Interglobal Travel, and he assured me that my flight would be fine, don’t change it! Hooray, twenty-four more hours at home :)

Friday afternoon, Ian and I went to the gym, and then that evening was my going-away dinner at my favourite Italian restaurant, Pasta? in Mountain View. I had to shower, so when Ian and I got home, I dashed upstairs and then ran downstairs to get dressed. (This in and of itself was a challenge, as I was avoiding wearing anything that I was bringing to Israel – nothing is less fun than arriving in a new place with a suitcase full of dirty clothing!) Then my phone bleeped. “Oh yeah, you got a call while you were upstairs,” Ian told me. I went over and listened to the voicemail.

Cue panic...an automated message from JetBlue informing me my flights had been cancelled. I dashed to my computer and looked for the alternative flight my father and I had found. Also cancelled. As was every flight from San Jose or San Francisco to Newark, JFK, or LaGuardia. More panic. Just then, my father came home. I babbled the situation to him in a frenzy.

“Is the travel agency still open?” he inquired.

“Probably not!!!” said stressed-out-Grace.

“Try anyway,” Dad suggested.

So I did, and I managed to reach Annette, one of the agents in charge of the charter flight. She managed to rebook me (for an exorbitant fee) to Chicago Midway on Sunday morning, a hotel for Sunday night, and the first flight to Newark on Monday morning. What a lifesaver! Problem solved.

We had my lovely farewell dinner (I made sure to get my fix of some non-kosher food items!) and then I began packing when we returned home. The next day after famous Hudkins pancakes and delicious bacon (tough to come by in Jerusalem), Ian accompanied me on a shopping trip to buy some last-minute necessities. We stopped for lunch at Five Guys, a burger place, so that I could get a cheeseburger – also non-kosher! While we were eating, I received another call from Annette. She told me that they were arranging another group flight for people who were unable to make the first one because of the weather, and did I want to just wait and fly out on that one?

I hate making big decisions.

I called my dad, who said it was my call. As I was beginning to cry into my cheeseburger, my sister called! She talked me through everything, and we agreed that it was worth risking three days in New York (which, hello, is not a BAD thing) when it might give me the chance to arrive early and have plenty of time to settle in. I called Annette back and told her my decision (she told me on Monday she was glad I had chosen well!) and then finished my shopping and packing.

On Saturday night, I began to panic again. I hadn’t prepared myself for this at all! I had spent my three months at home ignoring the fact that I was going to Israel. But fortunately, parents are fonts of wisdom: “That’s one way to look at it,” my father told me, “but I think you’ve just been enjoying the moment that you’re in, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” What a smart guy!

Sunday morning I was driven to the airport (by way of Starbucks, which is sadly a non-entity in Israel!) by my parents, Ian, and my puppy, Holly. I said a remarkably dry goodbye to all of them, then went inside to board my flight to Chicago. Discovered at the airline counter that my luggage was eight pounds overweight (drat!) so I pulled out the duffel I had packed in the large suitcase, threw a few things in, and went to the gate.

In Chicago, serendipity came into play: I ran into my high school friend, Whitney! She had been on the same flight as me, but we didn’t run into each other until we arrived in Chicago. We killed time before her next flight and my trip to the hotel by grabbing a slice of pizza and catching up for a while. What fun :) After I said goodbye, I claimed my luggage, hopped the shuttle to the hotel, went to my room, reconfigured my packing, and got a few hours of sleep.

I awoke at 3:30am, dressed, grabbed my things, and took a shuttle back to the airport, where I met up with Elly and Kate, who had been in the same flight situation as I had. (Fun fact – Kate is now one of my roommates!) We got our boarding passes, checked our luggage, passed security, and got on the plane. After a short flight, we arrived in Newark and made our way to the international terminal.

Cue 3 hours of standing around waiting. Lots of time waiting for everyone to arrive because El Al wanted us to all check in together, then waiting in line to answer security questions and waiting in line to check our bags and get our boarding passes. My feet were killing me by the end! But I waited in line with Alison, who I was also seated next to on the plane, and we became fast friends.

When I finally reached the gate, I grabbed a sandwich and sat to wait for the flight. It wound up departing 2.5 hours late, and we boarded a full hour late. Then on the 10.5 hour flight, Alison and I watched movies, sang along to Disney songs, and practically died of dehydration. I also slept for six hours.

At last, around 8:30am Israeli time, we landed in Tel Aviv! More on that later :) Thanks for reading!