Monday, June 30, 2008

Done with flying

Hey guys, long time no blog. It takes a lot of time to teach the genius children, but here I am embarking on my last week and I have cleverly made them do independent projects so that is less planning for me. woo! I am enjoying the teaching, although the discipline for teenagers is exhausting. I feel like I have to always be on the alert. I can relax so much more with college aged students.

I took off weekend before last to go to the same wedding as Melinda and Christopher and Corbett. It was nice to get home for the weekend, but I had the WORST trip back. As the others described the wedding, I was just tell you about me. :)

My flight was out of LaGuardia, so I took the bus there and all was well. The flight got a little delayed, and then a little more delayed, and then finally canceled. There were apparently no more available flights for that day, so they said they could put me on one Monday. However, I am a freakishly responsible person and knew it would be terrible for me to not get back to teach. With the fast pace here missing one day is awful, and there aren't really subs they can call in. So I pressed the airline woman to get me out of town that night, and she said there was a flight from Newark. I decided to take this, got back on the bus, took it to the subway, took that to Penn Station, then took a New Jersey Transit train to Newark. I became concerned when I saw the airport was crammed with people just lying and sitting everywhere. I joined the surly, floor sitting people and watched my flight get pushed later and later and then finally canceled. Argh. So I got in another line, was confirmed on a 6:45 pm flight for Monday, and got a standby ticket for a 6:30 am flight. I was sorely tempted to pretend the 6:30 am thing did not exist, but my freakishly responsible side took over again. I got home from Newark at 11:30 pm only to get up again at 4:30 am to head back. R was the best ever though, and woke up with me and got a zipcar so I could save a little time and not have to travel on the subway/NJ transit combo so early.

I headed to the gate and waited and waited. The gate woman told me the flight was overbooked. There were like 8 other people looming about waiting for standby tickets. Finally, they got all the ticketed passengers on and then called out a name, and then another, and then another. They repeated the third name. Then they called me! woo! Thanks for not showing up, third guy! So I got the very last seat on the plane, flew here to smart camp town, got a taxi, and ended up getting on campus in time to teach my class. Of course, this meant I taught 6 hours with very little sleep, but I managed. I fell asleep basically as soon as I got back to my room at 4:00, but it all worked out in the end.

5 comments:

Anne said...

Why I hate flying! Glad you made it back in time!

Topher said...

Ugh! I would have been as psycho as you...But go you! That's the kind of flying trips my sister used to have..

DancingFish said...

I almost always fly stand-by. It is such a great feeling when they finally call your name! Especially when it is unexpected! Glad you made it back safely, despite the adventurous travel.

Melinda said...

Ok, you win.

Anonymous said...

You are far more responsible than I would have been. And resilient, too. Teachers are like super-heroes :)