California dreamin’
by ViTo • October 5, 2006 No commentsSeptember 14th 10:05. My plane departs from Barcelona to Los Angeles via Frankfurt. It’s gonna be a long trip of 14 hours. This is my first transoceanic flight. Nervous? Not much; maybe I’ve just had too much to do these last days. There are three of us taking this plane and starting a new life in America. Roger by far is the most nervous one. For him this is the first real time he leaves his home. On the other hand, Javi is not from Barcelona, so the last 5 years he has already lived on his own while doing his degree. The same goes for me after spending 2 years in Stuttgart.At half past eight, all of us are already in the airport, ready to go. It turns out our loved Barcelona doesn’t want to let us go since it’s pouring down. Our flight is delayed a little bit more than an hour. Good way to start 
. We land at Frankfurt at 14:15 when we were supposed to do it at 13:05. Needless to say that we lost our connection: flight LH451. What do we do now? Lufthansa representatives tell us we have been automatically rerouted to the 17:00 plane going to Chicago and later on, from there we will fly to Los Angeles.
You would think that we have plenty of time (3 hours) in Frankfurt until the boarding time, but our tickets have to be reissued, whatever that means. We quickly find the right counter and find only about 12 people waiting. Looks like we will have to wait for a bit. No worries. In the process you can see all kind of people from the business fliers who don’t have to wait since they have a special counter, to the American angry man who is out of his mind cause this situation is not what he paid for. We are simply resigned; silently waiting since this is our only option. Two hours later we are still here. At some point, I started wondering if everything is a set up, like a TV show, where they are testing our patience. After 16.45 we are finally given our new tickets. We have less than 20 minutes to get to the plane. Frankfurt airport is huge and we have no idea where to go. I think this is the only reason why we are not running: we don’t have a clear direction. 16:55 Finally, we find the place. We still need to pass the security control. We nicely ask the guards to cut the queue due to our situation. “No way, it wouldn’t be fair to other people“. duh! Are they in a hurry? They seem pretty relaxed to me… I see myself missing this plane too. Surprisingly, this time a 50 people queue takes less than 10 minutes, so we can board on time. We made it!
Not yet, ahead of us there still is a 10 hour flight. I thought this would absolutely be a torture yet it’s not that bad since nobody is sitting on my right. The stewardesses are extremely nice and they often serve snacks and drinks. Time goes by slowly… nothing happens. Two movies later we are not there yet. It’s beginning to get really annoying. On the TV now we can see the travel itinerary with a little plain drawing indicating our position. To my surprise, we fly over the United Kingdom and even over Groenland. In my mind, this doesn’t seem the shortest path. My mistake, I am used to map projection which do not properly reflect the earth shape. At least I have something to think about for a while 
According to the monitor, the outside temperatures is -60ºC. Maybe that’s why I am so cold. I am wrapped in two blankets and still feel cold. I may have fever.
Suddenly, California doesn’t look like such a good idea. It seems an endless journey; at a certain point I cannot sit anymore. My butt hurts and so do my legs and feet. I haven’t slept a bit. A lot later, we finally get to Chicago. It’s 8:00 PM local time and it’s already dark outside. We are quite tired since for us it’s three o’clock in the morning already. We are not sure of what to do or where to go. It turns out, this airport is huge, but not like Frankfurt, at least this is three times bigger. We even have to take a shuttle to switch terminals. Our next and final plane leaves at 10:55 PM so we should have plenty of time to rest. But…
We have to go through immigration. At this point I realize there is a huge difference between US citizens and aliens (that is the category we belong to). In the plane we have already been instructed about the required forms such as I94 which will be stapled to my passport as long as I stay in USA. Our visas are in order, so this should be a piece of cake. However, when prompted by the immigration officer he doesn’t even look at me and just mumbles something. It looks like he had a horrible day and just wants to get rid of me. I give him my passport with the required documentation stapled to it inside an envelope (that is how they gave it to me in the Madrid embassy). He literally tears the documentation apart and asks me “What’s this?” I’m not sure of what to respond. Doesn’t he does this a thousand times every day? Is he kidding? Doesn’t look like it… My answer is somehow a question too ¿my visa? He says nothing, but keeps doing other stuff. I think I got it right . The uncomfortable situation (at least for me) goes on for a while and finally I can enter the United States of America. This is my first time. It’s not like I was expecting somebody to welcome me to the promised land but I am a bit disappointed.
We pick up our bags which to my surprise didn’t get lost and check in for our next flight with United Airlines (UA131). At this point, we walk like zombies through the airport. It’s 5:00 AM for us. Another control and another wait. I’m getting used to it. We get into the plane and are informed that the estimated flight length is about 4 hours, but this time no movies will be shown. It doesn’t look good. However, I am so tired that I manage to sleep most of the time. When I wake up we are already landing, this was like teletransportation. The first thing that went smoothly. The landing time is 12:30 AM local time (or 9:45 AM our time). Our rides soon get there (thanks Albert and Pere), but the luggage doesn’t come out. Out of the 6 suitcases we had only one made it to LA. We wait. We keep waiting. After two hours watching bags going in circles we decide to go home.
Conclusion: a 27 hour trip with very little sleep is certainly not the best way to start a new life in America. I am exhausted, yet I don’t care: This is going to be great. Here I come California!
Let’s start California dreaming’…
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