And We Flew Home

I'm terribly backlogged, but I'm still optimistic enough to try go in order. We flew home. It was just another trip, but this one was memorable because:

- Austrian Air placed our family all over the plane again despite several e-mails and phone calls; some counter workers in the Swechat airport now have Rob-shaped bite marks. This cinches their slogan as "Heaven in the Air -- Hell on Earth" which we thought up for them. Think it would get them sales? We begged complete strangers to switch with us once again so that Joss, Sebi and Will wouldn't have to sit by themselves in three different rows. I couldn't help but notice that they managed to get a dozen or so AFS students all together in a group.

- Once we reached New York, we were sent to a holding pattern over Rhode Island; then we were diverted to a small airport in Connecticut. We had to stay on the plane. Will had a panic attack and the flight attendants popped open the back door so that he could waggle his hand outside and feel the fresh air. We refueled and were able to land at JFK.

- We spent three hours navigating JFK even once we landed. At one point (not the worst) Rob, MA, and Maddie each had an overloaded luggage cart, Sebi pulled a rolling bag, and Will carried Joss, who was slipping out of his arms and popping his buttons as we went from terminal two to terminal three, over curbs and by whizzing taxis. The person or committee who designed JFK is going to have their own eternal torture working in a JFK-shaped circle of purgatory.

- We finally arrived at our hotel to find MA's two brothers had both been waiting there for hours. Thanks John and Jeff! It was the one thing in the whole trip that made us feel like human beings instead of shippable goods. And it wasn't easy coming out to see us since we were staying in Jamaica. They talked to the kids and helped us get dinner and we talked about the latest TV/movie/internet phenoms that Rob and I had missed over the summer.

- Breaking up the trip was nice in that we all had a chance to take showers and jump on the beds, but we were still exhausted by the time we reached SLC. Certain kids still broke down in tears when we had to get off the plane (was it really fatigue or were they just sad to say goodbye to their personal TV/movie/game consoles?).

- Delta didn't lose our luggage as we had hoped were certain they would. Instead they had it all waiting for us in their lost luggage office and the shuttle driver nearly fainted when he saw it all. We came home to find everything clean and in order and our friend had put up a 'welcome home' sign on the door. We swore we were never going to leave again and fell into bed.