Denmark-Part 1

It was sensible to divide this trip into two parts because of the numerous experiences prior to arriving to Denmark. This is the type of story my kids would love to hear, so blogging will allow me share this craziness with everyone! At this moment, I am resting in a Best Western in Fords, New Jersey (first time here) as we await another shuttle bus to take us BACK to the airport. Our journey began at the Raleigh-Durham airport yesterday morning at 10:00am as we prepared early for our 12:45pm flight to Newark. We boarded the plane and since this was my third experience on an airplane, I just held my breath as our plane prepared to lift into the horizon. The pilot and flight attendants went through the safety procedures and we even had our seat belts fastened when we kept hearing the announcement, "we still do not have confirmation for take-off, 15 more minutes." After several 15 minutes turned into 2 hours we ended up back in the terminal for Newark flight. So our 12:45 flight didn't leave until 5:00pm because of a thunderstorm in Washington, D.C. The other teachers who departed from Charlotte were already boarding the plane to leave for Copenhagen, talk about bad luck for all of us!




After a 2 hour nap in the clouds, we arrived to Newark safely and then plopped right on the floor keeping our fingers crossed as our fearless leaders, Bill and Lindsey, spoke with the representatives at the Continental Airline desk. They remained at the front of the line negotiating with Emmanuel (yes, we even knew his name) for 3 hours until we received meal vouchers and hotel rooms since we would be in New Jersey the rest of the evening. We located our luggage at baggage claims and slowly trudged to catch the shuttle along with the hundreds of other people who were also frustrated with the situation. At this point, we couldn't help to ask ourselves what would happen next?


Well, the bad luck continues as we rode 30 miles away from Newark standing up on a bus holding over the maximum capacity of fifty people. My arms cramped from holding on the the overhead rails, but great exercise right? After finally getting off the Interstate (or whatever they all it in New Jersey), we came upon the entrance of the Holiday Inn when the manager told us they were overbooked. So the shuttle bus driver just kept driving not letting us know where we were going. Now I was scared and wondered if it was too late to return home! Of course, I knew nothing else could possibly go wrong. Then, we had the room key that didn't work so another ten minutes of waiting on our suitcases.

I am already exhausted and we still haven't crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of being in Europe, I am looking at a 25 ft. statue of either Ghandi or an Indian hero, but thankfully we have ordered Domino's Pizza since we are famished from no dinner. As Bill would say, that would be the silver lining to this situation and let's not forget we will be in Denmark tomorrow (hopefully).

Lesson Learned:
No need to worry about the concept of time in an airport and to find the silver lining during all situations.