From Florence to Poitier Part 1

I'll have to see how much I can tell before my eyes get to heavy and I pass out on this cot I call a bed.  This may have to be continued a few times to get back up to speed.

Well on Friday, I had gotten pretty much all the way packed.  I wasn’t excited this time.  Too many let downs for me to get all excited and have my little happy bubble popped.  The plane from Florence Airport to Charlotte was expected to leave at 6pm so my sister and I were planning to leave around 3:30.  We even had friends that were going to meet us at the airport to say good-by.  But then the craziness started. 

First the American Exchange Program Lady called at 3pm saying that there was a delay in the arrival of the Florence flight that would give us only 20 minutes to get to the connecting flight in Charlotte.  She was afraid we would miss the connecting flight.  So she said to hold on until she called back.  While we were waiting we threw the luggage into the car so we could take off. 

Then around 3:30pm she called to tell us that I needed to be at the checkout line of the Charlotte airport by 6:30pm.  The other girl going with me T was already heading that way.  But she didn’t have her train ticket and we needed to meet with the American Exchange Program Lady to pick up T’s ticket for her before we went to Charlotte. 

So we quickly got gas and rushed to the meeting place.   Then waited for AEP Lady to show up.  She finally got there (wasn’t long enough to smoke a full stogy but it felt like forever on the deadline).  Then she gave my sister directions to get to the airport in Charlotte, handed me the money and off we zoomed. 

My little sister’s car can fly.  I really wanted to proud of her crazy Atlanta/Birmingham psycho driving skills but I was too petrified.  I wanted to live.  Half the trip I road with my eyes closed.  Needless to say we got to the airport in record time despite rush hour traffic.  We unpack and zoomed into the airport. 

I explained the situation to the US Airway attendant who rolled her eyes but took my bags.  Then we motioned for T to join us.  I gave a hug, kiss and a big thank you to my little sis while T hugged her family good-by.  Then we headed to customs. 

At customs we had to take off our shoes, coats, empty our pockets, take out all liquids that had to be put in a plastic baggy, take out all electronics and place everything in separate boxes to be scanned.  When my turn came I had to stand in an X-ray device that looked for metal on my body.  They found some.  I just happened to be wearing the embroidered black jeans I got for Christmas.  My butt set off the alarm.  They made me hold out my hands to be swabbed and patted me down.  Then one guy yelled “Man it’s just her ass!”.  They looked then handed me my shoes real quick and told me to “please put these back on now!”.  So I redressed, repacked and headed to our gate. 

I was excited.  I had made it to an airport, through customs and now I’m at the gate!  I was really going to France.  We boarded shortly after our custom’s trip.  There were two seats to the left window, two seat to the right window and four seats in the middle.  I sat in the middle section in the far right seat.  So I could see out the window but I had to look past two people on my right to do so.    It took an hour to get everyone seated before we took off. 

Taking off is one of the worst feelings in the world.  Remember the way your stomach lurches when you’re going up a hill in a high speed roller coaster.  Now take that feeling and instead of it last a few seconds make it stretch to a few minutes.  The altitude makes your ears pop and sinuses compact.  There is an instant feeling of dizziness and a headache marches in. 

Then the plane goes level and jerks everything back down.  But the headache and sinus don’t disappear so quickly.  The seats didn’t lean back enough for me to get comfy so I decided to watch a few movies.  I got through ‘Salt’ and half way through ‘Our so called life’ before dozing off a little.  I woke up about an hour later and saw that the sun was coming up.  The people beside me were waking up too.  Before they shut the window I asked them in awkward sign language if they would take a picture of the sun rise.  

T was still asleep so I was quite until we got close to landing.  I had to snap pictures of the cool tv they put on the back of each chair.  Here are some of the pictures: