Way back in the month of July, Monica called me up and invited me on an adventure. She called to say that she decided she wanted to teach English in Thailand ... and I should go with her. Obviously, I said yes.
This decision led to many back and forth conversations with various companies in Thailand. Trying to find the right fit, until Monica brought up taking a TESOL course and the benefits involved with the investment.
Eventually we landed on XploreAsia and that led to everything we needed to do for travelling to Thailand getting clumped together about 3 weeks before departure. These things included:
- Booking the flight to Thailand
- Visa applications, specifically a Non-Immigrant B (if possible)
- Police clearance form
- Doctor visits (to hear of the horrible diseases that come from Thailand: Japan Encephalitis, Schistotomaisis, RABIES ... those are the scary ones)
- Packing up our lives into suitcases
Our departure date was set: Friday, November 1st. Somehow we managed to gather up everything we needed in the time allotted. Monica and I had been in contact on and off (and on as the date drew closer) determining what the other was bringing, what we should bring, what to leave behind, and how big of a suitcase the other was taking. By the time that last week in October rolled around, we were as ready to go as we could be.
Then the fateful day arrived. Monica was already in Huntington Beach staying with a family friend, I was driving up to LAX with my parents that morning. My parents and I stopped for breakfast along the way, and as we're preparing to pile back into the car, I get a call from Monica, "So I just heard this from Drew's sister, there's been a shooting at the airport."
I tell my parents and as we try to figure out what to do, Monica says they've closed the roads and evacuated the airport. My parents don't want to turn back, we're already half way there. So we start heading up to Huntington Beach to meet up with Monica. On the drive we're listening to the news and trying to get any information about the airport. All we learn is that there's been a shooting, the shooter was believed dead, and the news people--in an attempt to tell news while waiting on a developing story--call other airports to see if this affects their flights. The main answer being "not really."
We make it to Huntington Beach, find out where Monica's staying and move to the shopping center closest to her. We make a stop in a Starbucks to use their wifi and try to find out more information. I tweet at my airline because LAX officials mentioned how following their twitter account would give the most up-to-date information and I hoped the same would be for my airline. No luck. After looking online and seeing all signs pointing to "yes" that my flight is leaving ON TIME at 3:15 PM from LAX International, my mom makes the executive decision to drive closer and be by the airport. Maybe by the time we get there it will have opened up.
We drive all the way up to the airport and at the exit for the 1 to drive into the airport, there is a police blockade. My mom maneuvers with hopes of finding a back entrance, since all we need to do is get to the International terminal and no news station has cared to mention it during their entire news broadcast. What appeared to be a hopeful back entrance on first glance, turned out to be a staff entrance and gets us nowhere. We resign and park at a nearby shopping center to wait it out.
My hunger takes over and I request some real food rather than coffee shop food. This lovely little pizza place has 7 tvs on and all are turned to the news station and we sit there and eat our food and watch the news like hawks. Even after we've finished the restaurant lets us stay and keep our eye on the news while we wait.
At 4 PM there is a press conference with the mayor. On the news scroll on the bottom, it said the road blocks have opened up. At this time, my flight still says that it is leaving ON TIME at 3:15 PM from LAX International. Which technically could mean it hasn't left yet, so we head back for LAX...
...And quickly learn that the removal of roadblocks is a lie. We drive around some more, and get ourselves caught in some awful traffic that barely moves. At 4:45 PM I get a notification from Google and (finally!) a tweet from my airline saying that my flight has been DELAYED 2 HOURS and will depart at 5:15 PM from LAX International. I call Singapore Airlines and bombard them with questions: how am I expected to get on this flight, I'm sitting in traffic outside the airport? Is it really leaving at 5:15? How can this plane leave without all these passengers? The woman on the other line says there is the possibility of a little longer delay, but if I think that I won't be able to catch the flight, I can always rebook for tomorrow or later. I tell her that I can't make the decision because I'm not with my partner who's going on this flight with me, so I'll call back.
I call Monica and tell her the situation. We're sitting in a neighborhood outside the airport and there is a bunch of traffic. There's no way we'll get to the airport at 5:15 in time for this supposed flight departure. I didn't want to rebook our flight in case we wanted to wait it out, but I left it in her hands to rebook and change it as necessary. My parents and I drive back to a coffee shop and wait to hear from Monica.
Monica calls me back about an hour later. She just got off the phone with Singapore Airlines. The soonest they can fly us out of LAX is Monday and we'd get to Thailand by Wednesday. So her and her mom are looking for other companies to book with but we have that flight booked as a back up. We come to the decision that we should still try to get in to the airport since we still have no idea as to what our initial flight is and what's going on there.
My mom comes up with the idea to park at The Parking Spot and we can ride the shuttle into the airport. We ask for an estimated time to get into LAX, the woman says 45 minutes. It's 6:05 PM. We go for it.
The shuttle we end up on has the best driver in the world. She's speeding through and blazing her way and driving like she owns this town. And then, like magic, a roadblock opens right in front of us. And that 45 minute shuttle ride turns into a 10 minute one. My parents and I unload my suitcases at the International Terminal and get in there. We find the desk for Singapore Airlines and not a single worker is behind it. The only people behind the counter are doing janitorial work. We start talking with people in line to find out what's going on. My mom talks to the man in front of her who mentions how when he called Singapore Airlines and they said everything was "going off without a hitch" he asked what country that person was located in. They responded, "India." And he said, "So you actually have no idea what's going on here, do you?" "No, sir." "Alright, thank you." *click*
There is a larger group of people who have obviously bonded and are talking to each other. My mom goes over to eavesdrop and learns the sad, awful truth: the Singapore Airlines flight left around 5:40 PM without boarding a single person from the LAX airport. They even made announcements through the airport for the flight and took off while all these people were waiting because no one came to work the counter and check in their passengers. So the flight took off with a half-full plane and made it's way to Tokyo.
I called Monica to share the news with her. She was almost (finally) to the airport, and I told her to turn around, it wasn't worth it.
My parents decide that we're driving back to San Diego. And if we need to get up early in the morning to get back up to LAX for some miracle flight that comes through last minute, we'll just deal with it. My mom didn't want to be in LA one more second, and, they had to feed the dog!
We drive back to San Diego under the premise that I'm not leaving until Monday. We arrive home around 10:50 PM and the night is perfectly summed up by this picture.
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| I give up! |
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