The horrors of flying (alone!)

Well, today was ridiculous!

Got up at 3am, had a shower, left home with Mum and Ryan at 4am. Arried at Heathrow some time around 7, to catch my first flight to Houston at 11pm.

Then I found out it was delayed, which meant I would miss my connecting flight from Houston to Alaska. They told me I'd be put up in a hotel in Houston, which I didn't mind at first. I spent hours waiting around in Heathrow and I even got pally with the Continental airlines staff, who invited me behind their desk for smoothies. Everyone was very helpful, which was surprising, for England.

When I got on the plane at last, I had a pretty good seat, by the window. I thought "awesome, a nice view". Then a fat man and his fat wife sat next to me and made me feel claustrophobic, so I moved to an aisle seat. The flight was just so dull and boring (10 hours) that I even watched Ant Bully on the in-flight "entertainment" screen. Now, I'm not scared of flying but the landing was terrible. Yes, it was bumpy, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that we were flying much higher than a usual flight, and we lost altitude very quickly in landing. It seemed like I was the only one affected though - everyone else seemed fine, but I had tears coming out of my eyes with pain. It felt like all my teeth were falling out and my ears were trying to implode my brain.

Finally got off the bloody plane (feeling groggy, tired, and in pain, made worse by the fact I have a cold) and had to wait AGES to go through Passport and Border control. Above the queuing area there was this TV screen with some kind of brainwashing subliminal messages of extrememly happy people (children, people enjoing food and sports, etc). At the same time, there was this exciting, dramatic, emotional music playing. I think the best way to describe it would be "Disney" music. And that's at border control! Americans are insane. (Talking of insane, the in-flight screen thing showed a presentation about how great Houston is. It says it has great cuisine. When it said that, it showed a clip of a tiny little toddler eating this massive burger... yup, great cuisine).

Anyway, AFTER border control, customs, and baggage reclaim, I went into the room that sorts out connecting flights and there were literally hundreds of other people waiting, and they're all from different places like Mexico, Honduras, Nigeria, etc. There were only 2 continental staff so I had to wait for about an hour. At this point I hadn't slept for hours OR had a drink since I got off the plane. No-one explained anything too me and I felt totally lost.

I also couldn't understand that while the staff in England were more helpful than expected, here in Texas the staff didn't seem to care. I was crying right there and they just didn't care. Now, I'm finally safe and sound in a hotel, but I do have to get up at about 5am tomorrow to catch an early flight to Minneapolis. That's right, you heard me, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Not Anchorage, not Alaska, Minneapolis. And then I have to change flights AGAIN for Alaska! It's ridiculous - if there are any more delays it will be so stupid. There were delays at Houston today because they had a massive storm (and by the way, it's boiling hot here even though it's night time).

I came out of the airport with some new boarding passes and a ticket for the hotel and a meal, and I was also still in tears.

Then, I finally met the REAL Americans. For a while I lost faith, because I saw how apathetic the American Continental workers were compared to the friendly English (friendly English, that is probably an oxymoron). But as soon as I came outside, there were a squad of lovely Americans right there to help me. One phoned up the hotel to make sure the right shuttle bus was coming for me. Another took my suitcases and put them in the back of the bus. Another one lent me his mobile phone to call my aunt and tell her what was going on. (This one was a particularly good example of a kind-hearted American, he even gave this old lady $12 because the airport only gave the old-lady's daughter one, and forgot her. The man didnt even know her!)



At dinner I hung out with this man and his friend - a woman, but not his wife, he has a wife but the woman he was with was part of his team helping orphans in Uganda. Then the man paid again for dinner (it came to more than the vouchers Continental gave us).

FRIENDLY TEXANS--->

This is crazy. This hotel, it's nuts. Its called the Days Hotel and it's HUGE. I look out my window and I can see the planes, but the room is a huge double room, it has huge corridoors and thousands of rooms. It had a really nice restaurant with a salad bar, which I opted for. I also opted for a "starter": potato skins (you know, the ones with cheese). Anyway, when you order those in England you get like one smallish potato cut in half. Here, they gave me the equivalent of three large jacket potatoes. Starters?! Everything you ever heard about Texas is true, and I've not even been here 12 hours yet. PROOF: the TV is on in my room and they're talking about the new "Cookie Diet".



I could talk about a lot more random things which happened today but I have been awake for well over 30 hours and I have to get up at 5am for my flight tomorrow.

<-----My room for one night!

Goodnight!

(one more thing - everyone is Mexican here)