I wish I had posted last night to kind of set this up but anyway.
I am not at Oxford - I'm on break and I'm meeting up with my family for a trip around the UK! Which is exciting. But before we get to that let me tell you another traveling story.
We'll start with the Plan. The Plan was a simple one. The Plan was to wake up at 5:15, get ready in ~30min, and have ~30min to get to the bus station - which is a 15-20min walk. I would take the 6:15 bus to Gatwick (2h) and my flight left at 9:40. That was the plan.
What happened was that I woke up several times during the night and got out of bed at 5:25. Ten minutes late. Not a great start.
After this, somehow in my confusion I thought I had more time than I did. I left my house at 6:04 and was able to make the 15-20min walk in just 14min, but for those counting that will made me 3mjn late for the 6:15 bus :/
I waited an aggravated hour for the next bus, knowing that it was very likely that this delay would make me miss my flight. My ticket said that the gate closed at 9:10 and this bus wasn't due I to Gatwick until 9:15.
So then I very stressfully rode a bus for 2 hours trying to figure out what to do. I got ready for security - even took my belt off and stuff. We get there around 9:15 like I said. I try to wait patiently for the bus driver (who is super nice and funny btw) to get my bag from where it is under the bus cabin. Then I RUN to the lifts and through the halls to security. I'm lucky it was Gatwick and not Heathrow! I have a little tribe at security because I forgot to take the chane out of my pockets. And then also apparently I didn't fully clean out my backpack before I re packed it because this really old useless Swiss Army knife was in there! Soooo I don't own that knife anymore.
Anyway by the time I get through the shopping mall section of the airport (I HATE that airports are more committed to making me walk in squiggly lines through perfume stores than they are to getting me places on time) and when I finally get to the monitors they say my gate is closed. I go to the help desk and this man who is the epitome of bored and uncaring says "oh yeah if you run to gate 22..." I asked him where that was and he said "gate 22", while a more helpful lady beside him pointed me to te correct hallway. (It's the only hallway I'll be honest but I didn't know where it was from the shopping mall lobby)
Ok so I RUN down this hallway through a large crowd of people- this is like the 4th hallways I've run down so by the time I get to the moving sidewalks that run the length of it I've been reduced to rather fast walking. The hallway starts at gate 10 and I'm going to 22. Which is an agonizingly long way.
Anyway I get there and praise Jesus they are still checking people in. The lady checking tickets was sweet and said "did you just run all that way?" And I told her I had missed a bus. She mentioned that the flight was actually a bit late because there was a flight earlier in the morning at the same gate which was delayed. What an answer to prayer!!
The lady checking IDs had to kind of get on to me because I hadn't stopped with the visa check downstairs, but she was able to let me on. When I got there someone was actually in my seat but the flight attendants were able to move me really quickly, as I found out that the reason was that someone else didn't want to sit by the emergency exit window. Did you know that emergency exit rows have like a LOT more legroom? It's awesome.
Anyway I've written this whole thing while on the plane and I'll post it when I find wifi again.
I'm so excited to see my parents! We're both almost in Dublin now.
I'll try to update while I'm away but I don't know how much I'll be able to. We are traveling around to Belfast, Edinburgh, London, and of course back home to Oxford. There will be pictures.
Neither of my parents or my sister who is coming has ever been in the UK/Ireland before. I'm really excited to show them around.
I hope you have enjoyed this not-depressed episode of my blog :p
Here's
Rissa
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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