Home again......finally..no thanks to the French!

Home, finally after a long and arduous journey home through Stuttgart, Germany and then Paris, France, then Washington DC, then Boston. All that in only 3 days, not bad considering that the French are the single largest pain in my ass. I am sorry, I have tried to not become an ignorant American, I have tried to not fall into stereotypes, but this is a large exception.

Now, I have very close friends that are indeed French, and they are great people...cool even. Somehow, the actual people in France seem to really live up to the standard that the world seems to label them with. We as Americans also seem to have this issue, I am by no means exempt from this problem as well, but this experience has tainted me forever against France, but mainly Air France.

Charles Dugalle airport is basically one large, and I quote a Belgian who said this..."Hungarian Cluster Fuck". Now I know a few Hungarians, but I cannot say that I have seen them cluster fuck, per say, but I can imagine what it entails. The airport is a menagerie of bizarre gate areas that are totally separated from other parts of the airport...it is not one contiguous building with gate wings. There is no rhyme or reason to the numbering or LETTERING of these gates, and you need to take a shuttle to get to other gate buildings, but you never really know what or where they are, or which one is yours! So I got lost for an hour. Traveled all of my life, been to a few random countries and been through WY too many airports, but I have NEVER been lost in one. This would prove to be an omen.

I later found my gate, but noticed no plane..and the gate was marked for New York. No one seemed to believe me that is should be a Boston flight. I later found my gate was moved to another gate terminal all together. I made it in time, after going through the 5th security point- (it gets old REAL fast). I sat for another hour, and then stood for another hour after we were to have boarded, only to learn that the flight was now going to be cancelled due to a "technical problem". My theory, the snails escaped and they couldn't find them all. Anyway, after waiting for two extra hours, they cancelled...CANCELLED the flight. No extra plane, apparently that blew up in Toronto a week earlier. So we were shipped back to the main terminal to stand in line for 9 HOURS. That was NINE (9) HOURS to find whatever flight there was that would get us to Boston via 3-4 other airlines. 9 hours, after 4 hours already...I was a little punchy and a little pissed off. The sad thing was I was about 3/4 of the way through the line, so I would get the worst and the latest flight combo available. Thankfully I became fast friends with a man and his daughter that were traveling in Spain and Portugal, as well as a girl that was traveling in Greece for a month. So we had a few laughs at the expense of the French of course. We finally got our flights through DC, Toronto or JFK. Now the over annoying issue I think we all have is the SEVERE LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE the French seem to have. They said nothing, literally, told me I had only one option, and that was it. I had to demand a hotel, I had to demand meals, I had to demand a phone card that never worked, and I had to demand transportation. If anyone knows me, I never demand anything other than maybe extra foam on my freaking latte, that’s it. But I had to DEMAND that I get theses things. These people were doing this for 9 hours, they had to have been doing the same thing for everyone, so why was this such and issue? Why did I have to demand? When I did, they would shrug their shoulders and say, "oh..do you need that?"..or " oh, I suppose I can ask my supervisor." Then, they just hand you the papers, with no explanation of where to go, what to do or anything. Where is the hotel, how do I get there, when does the flight leave, what is the gate, what is my connecting flight.... you know NORMAL SHIT! It was like pulling teeth! I received no refund, support money, or a functioning means of contacting anyone that I was alive and leaving a day later. BUT, these things happen in life, to a lot of people everyday when you travel abroad. It was just my first time to have a cancelled flight and first time to be trapped, and it had to be in France!

I left late the next day and flew to Washington DC to connect to Boston. It was a pretty good flight actually, although long. Good food, couple of good movies, and comfortable seats. I had the last open seat; thankfully it was an isle in a quiet and more open section of the plane. So 9 hours later we flew over Boston and landed in DC. Shipped through customs to get my bag and have it re-scanned and put back on the flight to Boston. I had to check in at the front to get a seat on the next flight, and that is when the French reared their ugly head, again. I as told I had to check into Air France for a new seat. I stood in the first class to try and just do it fast, since I was a charity case. That didn't work. I stood in the regular line for 2 hours, only to learn that my flight was not Air France, but United Air. Generally, I am a pacifist, very calm and very yielding to others, no matter what. I wish I knew what happened at that point, but it had to have been scary because all I remember is the guy at the desk leaned back in his chair and slipped out of it sideways as his eyes grew to the size of an orange. He looked like I was going to slap him. I do remember standing really straight, and I recall my voice sounding deeper that it normally is, and I think I threatened him which is NOT a smart idea to do at an airport in Washington DC! The next thing I know he was walking me over to the counter of United Air, and we went to the front of the line. He never really said much after that. He did give me a form to fill out to get a refund and lodge a formal complaint to Air France and the FCC....I think he slipped me 10 bucks too, but not sure about that one.

So I get my ticket, and learn I have 15 minutes to get to the gate, on the other side of the airport, after security points that are really...really....REALLY LONG. I know we need them, and I am very glad for them, they have done a lot of good I am sure. Although I have never ever heard of anyone getting caught with a hand gun, knife or explosive or having arrested any criminal or known terrorist, so they are still getting in somehow. Anyway, I got yanked out of line...literally. My bag got torn apart, my passport was run thought the computer and rechecked- somehow I was born in Arkansas a couple of years ago, oops, and I was thoroughly searched, and I was asked all sorts of questions. I think the Frog squealed on me. So now I was 5 minutes late for the flight. I ran out of there to the gate like O. J Simpson over luggage and small people and what I swear was a Pomeranian, and luckily made it to the gate, the flight was late to board. The fun doesn't stop there though!

We had no copilot, nor flight plan. So we sat for an hour with no A/C waiting for the copilot. Finally showed up, and filed the flight plan and got a spot to take off; pulled away from the gate only to turn right back and park again due to a storm system that was moving into Boston. So we say for another hour with a little A/C. The interesting thing was that I was really calm. I think I blew off what ever pent up rage and homicidal tendencies I may have had at the French guy earlier. I mean I was really Zen, just chilled and cool, even bodily. I liked it a lot. Well, I think it had to do to the really cute girl I was sitting next to. Thankfully she was cute, but a great conversationalist as well. We talked about her work and family as well as her travels, but we talked mostly about my trip and the Middle East. It was great to close the trip with a beautiful girl and her perspectives on what she thinks will happen to America and the Middle east, and how we can bring in some of those values of true family and support of fellow man into our seemingly self absorbed society, as well as teach them the balance of a more feminine society, human rights and release of grips on Holy Wars and Holy societal laws. I think in all sank in that flight.

It was actually the perfect way to end the trip for me. I will expand on this later today, but I think the whole trip and possibly my own self came and settled back on me on that flight. Something soaked in gently and completely, like a hot bath or a long sweet breath. It is hard to explain right now, but I realized that my trip had come to an end, and I was no longer in Turkey, I was no longer away, and no longer alone. I was back to where it all started, where I left from, but everything felt different, looked different, sounded different but I knew it was the same. Then I realized that it was I that was different, or at least my perspectives and my attitude were different, but I was still all of the good things that I liked before, and learned so many new things about me, and I like these things too. As I said I will expand on this later. I think I need to sit a little longer with it.

I am very sad this morning. I dearly miss Tahir and his family. I miss the 25 cups of Chi a day with total strangers. I miss the sounds and smells, the food and the children shinning shoes and selling trinkets in the streets. I miss the shy women in the market, and the stray cats darting from doorway to doorway. I miss the mosaic tile work on the mosques, and the adobe houses that surround the mosques. I really miss the Call to Prayer, never thought I would say that one. But what I miss the most. are the people. I feel very sad, like I have left my family, or a loved one has moved away. I didn't bank on that happening, but it is one of the things that I have learned is a true fact and trait of mine, I make wonderful and lasting friends no matter where I go, even if I don't speak the language. I kind of like that. I will hold them all in my heart always and try to stay in touch with them all so that I can return one day soon.

Funny how deeply a people or a place can affect you.

More soon