Thursday, May 27, 2010

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

05/26/10

Traveling on your birthday sucks.

The day started early, very early, around 5am to be exact. I'd got to bed around 1am the night before so I put in a solid 4 hours and the previous night had got me about 2hrs of sleep. (That's the thing about this trip, there was so much going on at night and so many wonderful mandatory activities in the mornings that at one point I was about 10hrs of sleep in 4days). Needless to say getting out of bed was rough.

Showered, packed, and got a ride to the bus. We boarded the bus in Colima saying goodbye to the few who were staying behind and started the 3hr bus ride, and the entire traveling day. We left a little late and we had to detour because there was an accident on the main road, this left us practically running to catch the plane. We had stopped at the wrong terminal then we had to check bags (mine was 50.0 on the dot, amazing) etc.

It was a weird experience because security in Guadalajara seemed really easy but when we boarded the plane they searched everyones carry on and told us we couldn't bring our drinks we had purchased inside security. Weird.

I was lucky and got two seats to myself, which as far as I'm concerned is practically first class. Arriving in Houston our group had been separated onto two buses. We went through customs, well the group I was in was unaware that you could skip the line and go through because we were in transit, it wasn't the worst thing ever because I was in line with some good people, but it was an additional hour of waiting.

We sat down for a drink before we got on our next flight. Houston to Calgary was pretty average, there were two of us to three seats, we watched a bad chick flick (Leap Year) that I laughed through the entire time (I'm sure I was disturbing everyone around me, but it couldn't be helped). We were also served chicken and cheese burritos, which after a month in Mexico was not the most welcome plane food I'd ever had, although it was funny. We arrived in Calgary a little early, made our way through customs, met our respective families, and said our goodbyes.

The drive home wasn't bad, I made my Mom stop so I could buy a salad! Yes, green veggies - how I'd missed them.

Arriving home was nice, until I discovered that my beautiful coveted green painted ceramic fruit bowl was in pieces. It can be repaired and glued back together but its just not the same. I packed my entire two suitcases with it in mind but it just couldn't handle the hustle and bustle of the airport. Hopefully when glued together the cracks won't be that noticeable.

I got to sleep in my favourite bed, which is the most comfortable bed ever.

To summarize, traveling on your birthday sucks. In total I spent 4 hours sleeping and 20 hours traveling. It wasn't like it was a horrible day of traveling but it was a day of traveling and I don't think anyone likes that.

Today I learned:
  • To pack better, or maybe I should just buy a hard suitcase instead
  • Birthdays in airports don't feel like birthdays at all
I am grateful for:
  • Wonderful friends, old and new
  • Rainy days in May! My fave.

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