Delayed

My bag broke on both sides like this  :(

So I finally arrived yesterday at 1am!  The flight it's self turned out to be an adventure. I thought the first little delay was going to be the 'glitch'(that one thing that has to go wrong before things can go right) of the trip (well that and my bag breaking off at each side). It ended up getting a bit more crazy but not too bad. I arrived in Toronto at about 6:15pm, I always get scared I am going to get lost or not make it to my terminal in time. I started to make my way to E81, which I think had to be one of the furthest away terminals. Once at the terminal I got a banana nut muffin, checked out the airport bathrooms, found a spot to settle in, and tried to get comfy for the three hours remaining before my flight boarding would take place. One thing about flying for me is that i just don't do well, not that I get scared or have fear of it but just that my anxiety goes up due to being excited, as my anxiety goes up my ability to recognize my own basic needs goes down, thus forcing myself to eat a muffin and making sure to hit up the bathroom. As I sat waiting, more and more people came and started filling up the seats around me; a couple families with various accents, a middle aged women with an Irish accent, and a young couple from Canada. I entertained myself by repacking my carry on bags, playing on my phone, and writing my first blog. 

When I got In - Kinda hard to see but 2:45Am

Once boarding started at about 9:25pm we all made our way onto the plane. In the seat next to me ended up being a young man who just recently turned 20 from Minneapolis, Dalton (if you know why this is kinda funny you will know).  He was very chatty, which put me at ease knowing that at least for this long flight I would not be sitting by someone for 7 hours in almost complete silence, with the odd occasional awkward bumping elbows moment or waking up with my head and drool on their shoulder. As we sat and make small talk, over the intercom came the captain stating that there was issues with filling the big fuel tank and stated we would need to wait 20min before it would be figured out. 20min turned into 1hr, and 1hr turned into 4hr. During this time the plan changed from trying to fix the tank that wouldn't open, to filling the smaller tanks, to having to add a stop to the flight in St. Johns or Montreal for refueling on the way, to finally that they had reached their time limit and we were asked to deboard the plane. By this time my seat neighbour and myself had started to bond (partly because of the frustration from waiting). We then were held another 45min inline, after walking across the airport, to get a voucher to a hotel to stay the night. I got into my hotel room around 2:45am by means of a airport shuttle and was told to be back at the airport by 10am. The only kinda cool thing which I wasn't sure to be excited about or not was that I think this was the first time I was staying in a hotel room all by myself.. well maybe the second, but still weird. Having the two beds kinda made me want to get up halfway through my sleep and use the other one just so I could get the full experience.

One thing about an experience such as this is that through adversity relationships are build. It was interesting to see how a community was kinda formed with all the travellers by being part of this shared experience. Another interesting part of this for me was hours before boarding the plane I was writing my first blog writeup about how incredible and surreal this experience seemed. Having all of the following events take place definitely gave opportunity for the excitement to dissipate a bit and a larger feeling of just wanting to make it there take over.

Hotel Room at Courtyard Marriott

The next day when I arrived back at the airport people were talking about flight, that it was still not showing up online or on the flight board. This brought on a little panic due to knowing my practicum started on the Monday but was somewhat relived with thoughts reminding myself that there was nothing I could really do to change the situation and that things would come together how they would. So there, with some other still worried passengers, we all settled in and waited. Very interesting and kinda cool to observe the different bonds that had been formed between people. There was a change in the passengers that I had seen from yesterday when we had all first sat down for our flight. Finally the plane arrived and we started to board. After getting settled again we were told we needed to wait a bit before we could go as their needed to be some final clearance given. The caption came on again, stating we were ready, we taxied down the run way, and after another small wait, began our take off. As the plane took flight a roar of applause went off from the passengers. I couldn't help but laugh after everything.

Oh Air Canada.. 

We arrived in Dublin at around 12:15am. Customs held me for a few minutes to read over my paperwork, just to make sure I wasn't planning on staying and taking their already scarse jobs. As I reached the baggage area I realized I lost my only rainproof jacket somewhere between the plane and where I was now standing. I had carried that thing all the way from Canada to Ireland and lost it in the last 15min (something I had done with a very expensive piece of artwork on my first international travels alone four years ago). I tried to go back but wasn't able to find it, I talked to some lady at a desk and she stated she talked to the plane cleaners but was only gone for a second. With no luck, and kinda feeling a bit defeated I picked up my bag and heading out not even sure who was picking me up. I looked around for the familiar face of Paula or a stranger searching for me but must have been clouded by the disappointment of the jacket incident, not able to see anyone. Not long after, a women came up asking if I was Vanessa, I looked up and saw a small sign with my name on it. At this point a wave of relief filled me and the jacket felt less important.