Monday, March 19, 2007

Leaving on a jet plane

With an end to our adventure in sight and LA a mere 12 hours away (with a 3 hour layover in Atlanta), I feel like I can finally look back on the last few days with some perspective. I've gone through the most extreme emotional ups and downs, from jumping up and hugging everyone after getting our boarding passes to bursting into tears at the prospect of lost luggage. Though the last few days pretty much sucked, I am actually really happy that I got to spend the extra time with my stranded classmates and teachers. You go through entire semesters not knowing much about your classmates besides where they like to sit each day, but this experience has really broken down any barriers I might have felt. Karen, Jackie, and Candice's friendliness and optimism, Hajime and Amy's perpetual calmness, Daniel's logic,and Yugi and Cambria's humor were so comforting to me when I felt like running through the terminal screaming at the top of my lungs (which would have probably gotten me arrested by the airport police).

Big thanks to our beyond-amazing teachers. Even though Haven had so much to deal with, she kept trying to make us students feel better. She even offered to drive us in a van to Cleveland at 2am. And Sherin waited in a mile-long line for airport customer service for hours and was always the first one to take names, kick butt when needed, and come up with a plan. They were both incredibly selfless and I appreciate being able to get know them better.

I'm writing this retrospect with the assumption that we'll be boarding our plane soon and get out of the state of snowy New York and returning to our palm trees and sunshine.

No comments: