The Trip Home

Written from the plane...

I've now been on the plane for about 5 hours from Beijing to Chicago. The morning started off pretty smooth - we checked out of the hotel and took a shuttle to the Harbin airport. There were 10 of us on the same flight and we were all able to check in and get through security with very few issues which is a miracle in itself. We got on a pretty big Air China flight to head to Beijing and realized that the entire Canadian mens and women's team, US men's team and a bunch of other athletes were on our flight. After the 2 hour flight to Beijing we had to get our bags and recheck them to our final destination. Thank God Matt was with us and has navigated this part of the Beijing airport before because if he hadn't been this process would have been much more painful. When we finally had our bags and got to the airline check in area we all split up.

Laura and I headed to the United counter to check into our flight. Again, thank God we were quick getting there because the entire US men's team was on our flight and it would have taken forever if we had to wait behind them. However, this is where the trouble started. I knew thing were running way to smoothly and something had to go wrong. I went up to the self check in and scanned my passport and the machine told me that my itinerary had been changed. I definitely didn't change it myself so I had to find an english speaking customer service agent - not the easiest thing in the world. I finally found a girl who spoke some english. She told me my flight to Philadelphia had been cancelled. At that point I wanted to cry, I just want to get home and it isn't like I can try to arrange to get on another flight or get a hotel room from Beijing. I asked her why and she said she didn't know. It was originally set up that my flight from Beijing would stop in Chicago for a few hours then I would get on the same plane and it would continue on to Philadelphia. I asked the flight attendents if they knew what was going on and they had no idea, a new crew was supposed to get on in Chicago. So as I sit here and type this I still have no idea if my flight was definitely cancelled and if I can get on another flight tonight or if I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow. To make things even more difficult I know they are calling for snow in Philly tonight. So I'm pretty much expecting to spend the night in Chicago and will be pleasantly surprised if I actually make it home tonight.

I'm already annoyed about my flight situation when this woman drops another bomb on me. When I flew over I had my backpack and my handbag as carry on items. When we got the rollerboards from the welcoming committee I decided to use that as a carry on with all of my souvineers and just put my handbag in my suitcase. Just 3 weeks ago I had this same amount of carry on baggage when I went to Vegas - an even bigger rollerboard and my backpack. I figured on a huge international flight what I had would be no issue...WRONG! The lady told me that my backpack doesn't count as a personal item, it could only be a purse. Both Laura and I were screwed. Our bags had just made weight (we checked at the hotel before we left) and I didn't have much room in either suitcase. I also wasn't about to check my rollerboard because I had some fragile stuff in there. So both of us had to go and stuff a few things in our rollerboards and try to stuff our backpacks in our suitcases. To make things more difficult for me was the fact that I don't know if I'll be able to get my bags in Chicago if my flight is indeed cancelled. I ended up taking the big Louie Vuitton handbag I bought and packed that with clean pair of underwear, socks and a t-shirt, some toiletries and my meds. I then stuffed my laptop, ipod and book in my rollerboard. I was able to shove my backpack and the rest of the stuff in it into my ref bag but of course now was was overweight. I think the woman saw how frustrated and pissed I was at that point because she didn't charge me for my extra weight thank goodness. I think that would have put me over the edge.

After we finally got checked in and went through security, Helen (leaving on Air Canada at the same time as Laura and I) met up with us and we went to try to hunt down Matt. I wanted to see if he had any connections with the Chicago airport hotels so I can get a room if necessary. We were able to find him before he boarded his flight and he gave me a phone number for one of the airport hotels. He also told me to talk with the US men's team trainer, who he is friendly with, if I do get stuck because some of them were in a hotel in Chicago tonight and they would help take care of me. I'm just hoping that it doesn't come down to that, at this point I just want to be home.

I'll write up another post later, either while I'm stuck in Chicago or hopefully from Philly. Back to the movies, only about 8 hours to go!