Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted. These past few days have been packed with preparations to fly out. Our original departure date was set to the 19th. However we had a crazy incident that not only kept us from checking in, but also made us miss our flight.
I have never actually missed a flight before. Last year I traveled to West Africa with my family and on our return trip we had some complications and almost did not make it. Still, we made our flight.
So, how did we miss this flight?
Even though we arrived at the airport hours before our flight and began checking in immediately, a passport problem arose right at the end. After almost an hour of negotiating, my dad decided to remain in the States while we went ahead to Seoul. My mother wasn’t having it, but after some back and forth we tried to make a quick dash to our terminal.
If you have ever flown through Washington Dulles, than you know that there is an underground tram that brings you to certain terminals. Apparently we were paged over the loud speaker while we were in the train. Of course we could not hear them; and even if we could, we had no control.
After sprinting to the terminal, we arrived just in time. Or so we thought. Although the plane was still attached to the terminal, we were denied entrance. Despite pleading at the check-in desk for a few minutes we watched our plane taxi away without us.
Long story short, that was the most disappointing trip ever. Eventually, we returned back home and prepared to try the whole ordeal again another day.
Where am I now?
Now, I’m writing from my hotel room in Seoul. Jet-lag has me very exhausted but I wanted to document this all before more important things clouded my mind. Though we didn’t make our original flight, it turned out that changing our date to a direct flight on the 22nd made a huge difference. Hence, after almost 14 hours on a 777 I have finally arrived at my new home.
If I learned anything from the past few days is to always have a backup plan. Since I had only had close calls with missing a flight, I never had thought much on what I would do if I didn’t make my plane. This is the same with a bus or a train. Do I just take the next one? Or do I try again another day? Anyway, I made it and I will try to post more as soon as I get over jet-lag. Stay tuned.
