Oh, what a day!
My flight this morning was…interesting. Was supposed to leave Milwaukee on a 7am flight to Chicago, then take a 10:20 flight to DC-Reagan. No big deal, right?! Of course it was! Needless to say, this did not happen. After standing in line for over FORTY (yes, 40!) mins with my mom who wanted to make sure I got my luggage onto my flight without having to check it and trying to self-check-in, I finally made it to the counter when the woman told me my flight was delayed until 9:25. (This I already knew.) I asked her—very politely, mind you—if I could get rerouted through their 8:35 flight to Chicago (which would clearly still get me into Chicago well before the “7:00” flight would have landed at 10:10). She promptly snapped back that it was already overbooked. My fault? Clearly not.
The next flight leaving Milwaukee for Chicago wasn’t until after noon, so she tells me I can take the bus. Said bus leaves in TWELVE minutes. I ask what the cost difference is and she says I have to pay for the bus! Excuse me?! It’s not even raining and there are no late arrivals, so I have no idea why my plane is delayed, but now I have to pay for a bus?! I think not. After more questioning, she says they can either pay for the bus for me ($26) or refund my flight. In that case, yes, I will pay for the bus and get my refund. I agree to pay for the bus, so she prints off some kind of ticket I have to send in to American Airlines to get the refund. Fine. Then she searches high and low for at least 3-4 minues for some special envelope I have to send said ticket in. Okay, got it…and I’ve got like 3 mins left to get to said bus. So she shows another delightfully hilarious girl and me where the bus stops. After going all over the place, we get to the bus stop, and, no lie, pretty much immediately the bus pulls up, takes tickets, and we drive away. That was lucky. (The next bus doesn’t leave for an hour.)
The bus driver says the lady is full of crap…the bus takes longer than she says, so the delightfully hilarious girl is going to miss her next flight to Richmond, though she has now had two chances to make it. Luckily, I should still make my flight.
Bus ride was uneventful. Chicago was…well, rude. Because basically, it’s Chicago. I do not enjoy it there. Pretty much I read Army Wives and watched people run through the airport.
So finally they start calling people to board flights. They go through the zones, and they finally get to mine and I give my ticket to the woman, and she starts to give it back to me, and then she goes, “Oh, there’s a problem.” Extremely uncool. Turns out, the woman in Milwaukee (who seemed a little off to begin with) didn’t notify anyone that I was taking the bus, so they marked me as a no-show. This then cancelled my reservation on the flight to DC! So I explain everything that has happened and she rebooks me on the flight to DC. Fine. Then she has to redo my reservations to come back because those got cancelled as well!!! She says it should all be okay, but I should make sure to check online tonight. Now that my flight is completely rebooked, I can leave to DC.
The kid next to me on the plane was bugging me, but other than that it was fine. No one seemed to realize, though, that some people need to get off the plane in a hurry—namely, me. Found a restroom, got to the shuttle, met some really cool people here for a charter school conference, and all was good. I’ve made it to DC, and boy did I forget how much I love it here!!!
So the people on the shuttle…I ran into them again! What are the odds?! I’m just walking down 11th Street NW, minding my own business but aware of my surroundings, when all of a sudden I hear this voice… “Hey! Hey! Um…Invisible Children girl!” I realized the shouter was talking to me! See, they asked if I was here for the charter school conference, too, and I said no and told them why I’m here – to lobby Congress for Invisible Children. So yeah, in a city this big with this many people, I was shocked.
Went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History today after walking past the Archives, which were PACKED!!! I hope to go there first thing tomorrow, then to a few other things to be told later. Anyway, the museum was very cool, but I only saw a small portion of it. My favorite part was about the military history of the US…it was touching. Also very interesting and unique Presidential artifacts.
Then was trying to go to Ben’s Chili Bowl for dinner but decided to see what was actually in the Old Post Office Pavilion. Turns out, you can actually go up inside of it, all the way to the top where the bells are!!! SO cool. Then grabbed a bite to eat in their food court dealy and hiked (only like 5-6 blocks) back up toward the hostel, stopping at a couple stores along the way. Good stuff.
Things I remembered within the first 6 hours I’ve been here:
1. Everything closes early.
2. There is a Starbucks on every corner. Literally.
3. Just how much I really love this city. <3
New things I learned about DC within the first 6 hours of this trip:
1. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY prefer to stay downtown. HIGHLY.
2. When the museums close, everyone goes to H&M and Barnes and Noble.
3. Even “extended summer hours” end early.
4. You can meet really cool people on shuttles.
5. Summer is really different from winter. Fewer deadbeats in summer, many MANY more tourists (all people in shorts), and lots of music on the streets.
6. This hostel is a BAZILLION times better than the last one.
7. People at this hostel like to stay in, even in the middle of the day. LAME.
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