¡Bienviendos! This is my Buenos Aires blog, where I will be able to post all about my Argentinian adventures. Right now it is 7:15 PM, and I'm relaxing in my host family's house, waiting for my first South American supper, which will be served around 8:30 or 9:00. I figured now is the best time to update everyone about the crazy ordeals I faced in order to get here. Let's just say...this is already the adventure of a lifetime!
Yesterday, Friday the 25th, I left my house at 10am for the Detroit airport, where I would fly to Atlanta to my connecting flight to Buenos Aires. Upon arrival in Detroit, the GPS brought me and my parents into a "restricted" part of the airport- not where we needed to be. Looking back, this was definitely a hint to how the rest of my trip would be; confusing, crazy, and out of control. After finally finding the right area of the airport, mu parents helped me check my bags and said their final goodbyes. Everything, except the GPS detour, was going so smoothly. How bad could traveling alone to a different continent really be?!
On the plane to Atlanta, there was no more room on the plane for my carry-on bag, so they checked it. The 2 hour flight from Detroit went smoothly. However, after landing in Atlanta, I asked where I could find my carry-on; this is where things start going downhill. Apparently, they had kindly tagged my carry-on to go all the way to Buenos Aires, which would have been fine, except the fact I had been counting on getting it back in Atlanta. There went all my books, snacks, and other various handy items I had intended to use for the 10 hour flight to BA! It was just me, my purse, my magazine, and folder of important papers (which I luckily grabbed from the carry-on).
Being separated from my carry-on wasn't so bad at the time. Besides, I just had 3 hours to kill before my next flight, and then hopefully I would sleep all the way to South America. In my terminal, I met 2 other girls from the ISA program, which was great. Then, promptly at 8:15pm, we boarded the plane for takeoff at 9. I landed a window seat (yay!) next to a lawyer, John, from Georgia. John has been to Argentina about 15 times before and goes every year with a bunch of his other lawyer friends to dove hunt. According to John, they stay at a private lodge, with a private chef, with plenty of beer and bloody marys; a good time for everyone! After 9:00 rolled around the captain informed us that take-off would be delayed "just about 10 minutes", because they needed to update the computer system in the plane. After 20 minutes rolled around, the captain informed us "it didn't work the first time, but we are trying again." An hour rolled around and the captain made another announcement: "...well...seems like this isn't working. We really don't know what we're going to do...umm...because we've never quite seen this problem before."
As the hours added up, so did the heat and rowdiness on the plane. The cabin was an oven, and people were getting ticked. Lawyer John's other lawyer friend, Bill, came over to visit in the meantime, and kept trying to persuade the flight attendant to give everyone on the plane free drinks. He was not giving up either. Pretty soon, in the midst of 2 hours of waiting in a hot cabin, the native Argentinian passengers began clapping and chanting, (in Spanish), "we want to smoke! we want to smoke!" Then some random woman walked past our aisle yelling, "we should revolt!". At this point, I was unsure what to be more afraid of; a faulty plane, or violent Argentinians.
The captain then explained that in order to avoid switching to a new, working plane, they would simply steal a computer from another plane and put it in ours. Yay! Finally, we would be on our way. Except, that computer didn't work either. So, after 3 hours of sitting on a hot, sweaty plane full of cranky people, Delta had us deboard and wait for a new plane afterall. Yes, this was unfortunate, but even more unfortunate because I still didn't have my carry-on, it was 11 at night, and I hadn't eaten since 12. I was starved. Luckily, Delta was giving out $6 food vouchers for the terminal cafes, so I used and abused those things to the full extent.
Back in the terminal, I reunited with the 2 ISA girls I met before. We ended up finding yet another girl from our program, so now there were 4 of us. We had to call the ISA emergency hotline to inform them we would no longer be arriving in Buenos Aires at 8am, but rather 1pm. The new time change now forced a lot of confusion about who would pick us up at the BA airport.
To make a long story short, we ended up finding 4 more members of the ISA group during the delay, which made 8 of us total. Since the plane took so long to get, Delta then had to call in a new flight crew in order not to break any laws about how long the crew could work. We finally boarded the new plane at 3am, and took off finally at 3:30am. Our whole delay ended up being 6.5 hours long. Ay caramba! I immediately passed out once the plane was in the air and slept the majority of the flight.
When we arrived in BA, we were unsure who would be there waiting to pick us up. After clearing immigration, customs, and the baggage claim (luckily nothing lost, and I was finally reunited with my carry-on), we went to the designed pick-up lobby, only to find no one waiting for us. We were worried, but then we saw a list of our names posted to a bus shuttle service desk. We checked in with them, and it seems they had been waiting for us. We were so happy! Yay- ISA got us a bus! But suddenly, businessmen started arriving and took us away...one by one. We all exchanged glances with the look of "oh crap. we are being separated." Everyone was taken away in separate cars, and finally a man came for me too. After we put my luggage in the trunk, I had no choice but to get into the car with this strange man. He was nice, very professional, but clearly knew no English. He tried making small talk with me, but the combination of his strong accent and my grogginess did not mix well. I was so nervous, especially since I read about the aggressive driving that happens in Buenos Aires, which happens to be very true. While I sat there in awkward silence for this stranger to drop me off at a family's house whom I did not know, the man drove aggressively and wildly, weaving in and out of lanes, while I prayed I would make it to my host family before we got into an accident. We finally arrived at my host house, and he helped me take the luggage out of the car. He rang the buzzer, and my host mom answered, saying she was on her way down. With that, the man said "adios", and there I was left in the street of BA, holding 2 suitcases for dear life. The last thing I needed was for a thief to run by and snatch my bags, after all, that would be just my luck.
My host mom swooped me off the street and I was finally at my destination! I never thought I'd get here, but I finally made it! After this crazy start to the trip, I can't wait to see what lies ahead!
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