The time has finally come to make my way to Japan, or so I thought.
Of course I waited until the very last minute to pack, running around the night before trying to make everything fit and be under the weight limit was harder than I thought. Packing my life for 10 weeks into 2 suitcases each 50 lbs or less was difficult. Considering I overpack just leaving my house for 1 day trying to pack for an entire summer was more than hard. Not that I hadn't done it before, going to camp every summer prepared me for this...sort of. Except every summer I show up to camp with no less than 3 bags, 2 crates, a pillow, backpack, sleeping bag, and more. And every weekend bring even more to camp with me.
Somehow I managed to get everything into 2 huge bags and even weighed them before I left for the airport just to be sure, I was exactly at 50 each practically. There was no way I was going to pay for over weight bags.
Once at the airport, there was an extremely long line for Delta check in. This would only be the first problem Delta gave me of the day. I checked my bags at the curb, a shorter and more manageable line, and the guy didn't even weigh my bags! I was ready for that, I was prepared but nope he picked them up and said alright they seem good enough. I could have packed all the extra things I wanted but didn't really need!
I said bye to my mom and stood in line for security, which looked like it might take a while. That many people crammed into one space is not exactly my idea of fun. I got through security with no problem and relatively quickly, this would be the easiest and shortest part of my day.
Once at my gate I found out my flight to Minneapolis was delayed. And kept getting pushed back later and later. I was getting nervous about making my connection in Minneapolis.
Luckily it's not hard to spot or make instant friends at the airport when you are wearing matching outfits. I found some fellow Camp Adventure people which eased my nerves a bit. It was still going to be cutting it close.
Landing in Minneapolis literally 5 minutes before our flight to Tokyo was scheduled to take off, we raced to our gate only to find out it was delayed by an hour. Once again found instant friends due to our matching outfits.
Our plane out of Minneapolis was cancelled due to some problem with the plane. Disappointing considering I had prepared myself for the 12 hour flight. We were given hotel and meal vouchers to stay in Minneapolis. This caused another problem since after waiting in line the Chicago flight people's tickets wouldn't scan. We had to go to a help desk to get our vouchers. Finally we are ready to go to our hotel, except the first shuttle is for crew only.
Thought all our problems were done, the new flight was scheduled to leave saturday morning at 10 am. Nope, apparently they decide everyone who came from Chicago and I are going through LAX now and adding about 4 hours to our already long day of travel. After spending like an hour on the phone arguing with Delta, we are put on the correct non stop flight to Tokyo. So after thinking I would be in Japan by about 3 or 4 am Chicago time it turns out I won't be there till much later, days later. And so much for exploring Minneapolis while we are here, no Mall of America for us, Delta you take up too much of our time.
Camp A always told us to expect the unexpected and be ready for anything, I guess they were right. First attempt to get to Japan was a false alarm, hopefully tomorrow goes smoothly. I'll write when I can but who knows when that will be depending when we actually make it there and get settled.
-Jenna
