Even from the get-go, my trip has already been an adventure. My flights, especially, made the journey over here exciting. To begin with, my 6:12 pm June 19 departure from Grand Rapids was delayed. Thankfully, we still left early enough (around 7) to make my next flight, and I sat in a window seat next to a nice couple headed to Denver. Arriving in Minneapolis around 7:30, though, did yield less than half an hour until the departure of my next flight. Racing through the airport, I boarded that flight in time but was pretty hot from the sweatshirt, backpack, bag, and purse I had on me.
From there I flew to Charles De Gaulle in Paris. My 8-and-a-half hour flight was through Air France (arranged by Delta, the airline I used to book my flights), which made the time kind of interesting. When dinner time came, I ate my pasta with a "bon appetit!" from the French flight attendant. Still not feeling the best at that point, I didn't eat too much of my meal, which was pretty big albeit tasty. The rest of my flight consisted of Hunger Games 2 (for a bit, there, I thought it was the new movie in the sequel, so I was crazy excited until I realized it's what I've already watched... oh well) and sleeping.
Since my Paris flight arrived later than planned as well, this led to more running in an airport. All was going alright until I got to security, something I hadn't anticipated. With minor hiccups, I made it through that scan and into the next line. Luckily, here, I eventually took the initiative and talked to one of the workers; although I was approaching the front of the line, I know this saved me precious time thanks to him waving me to be the next in line at the other window. Once my passport was stamped, I bolted to the gate and made it in the nick of time to my plane.
My Paris to Copenhagen flight went pretty quickly, probably because I was sleeping. In that instance, I was again hot, tired, and not feeling the best, so napping on that plane was much-needed. Arriving in Denmark, surprisingly to me, did not mean more security. The interesting situation, here, though, came with baggage. CDG was coming in at belt 5, so I waited there until a worker said our luggage would be at belt 3. After patiently waiting for two hours, I finally took a number to speak with a worker. Apparently, my suitcase went to Amsterdam. Who knows how that happened, but when 5:45 rolled around, I was very happy to see my brown suitcase come up the belt.
At the end of it all, I checked in to my program successfully from there. I'm very glad that none of my flights were missed in the midst of everything and that I was able to keep my composure, all the while reminding myself that things are out of my control and that I don't want to be "that American." Surely, even just with flying to Denmark, life has been an adventure, and I love that this is only the beginning of the story of my time here...
