Last Post

This blog ends with 117 posts. I think that's pretty awesome. I mean yeah, I could've written more but I do have a life. This will be the last post for my Paris blog....it's a bittersweet day.

Traveling home was basically a nightmare. No joke. Seriously probably one of the worst days of my life. I woke up around 5:15 and made it out of the apartment before 6:30am. I didn't think making it to the metro with all of my bags would be too hard, but God it was horrible. It took me like 10 minutes to walk to the metro....it usually takes 2. My bags were so heavy it was insane. When I finally made it to my metro, a very nice woman carried my VERY HEAVY suitcase down the stairs. I had to carry my carry on and purse down first (I had my other backpack on my back) and then go back up the stairs for my final bad. It took me a half hour to get to the tram. It really should've only taken me about 10 minutes...but with my bags there was just no way I would've been able to move any faster. When I got to the RER stop at Cite I took the elevator down to the platform, so no trouble there. I had to wait a half hour to get the right train because not all of them go to the airport. That was really annoying because I was supposed to be there by 7:50 and it was around 7:25 when I got on the train.

I made it to the airport a little after 8. That is where all the problems started. I scanned my card to get through the gates but my suitcase was too wide so I couldn't make it through in time and it locked me out. I was like well shit, now what am I going to do? I asked this guy if I could go through with him and he thought that I was trying the cheat the system but I wasn't because I already scanned and verified my card, I just didn't have enough time to go through. But, he was a jerk and said no. Finally after like 10 minutes of standing there looking like a little lost lamb, this guy was like, "do you need to get through?" and I was like ummmm, yeah.....so he scans me through with his pass and then asks me to donate money to some deaf thing fund and I was like ummm, I'm sorry, I don't have any money and then walked away. Horrible....I know. I saw this cart and I was like sweet, I can just push my bags to the check-in counter. Wrong. You couldn't take the cart onto the tram that takes you to your terminal. So I throw my bags back on my back and jump on the tram. When I finally got to the check-in gate for Swiss Air there were about a million people in line...no joke. So I got in line and waited. Keep in mind that my flight was scheduled to take off at 9:50am. When I finally got to the counter the flight was boarding. So I'm freaking out because I was worried that I was going to miss the flight. I put my bag on the belt and the woman told me that one of my bags was too heavy and asked med to try to put some of my stuff from my suitcase into my backpack. I told her that there was no way I could do that because the backpack was so full there was no way I was getting anything else in it. Knowing this, I was like can I just pay for it to be overweight? The woman said I can, but she wouldn't check me into the flight. She gave me a sheet of paper and told me that I had to go to the counter behind me and pay for my bags before she checked me in. I didn't think that was right because the plane was leaving in like 20 minutes and I just wanted to pay it when I got back or something. I pay for my bag, which ended up being 100 Euro. I ran back to the counter and told the woman that I needed to get on the flight. There were a few other people waiting there with me that were also on the flight. She quickly checked me in and then asked for my home address. I wasn't sure why she was asking this, but I wrote it down for her anyways. She printed out my boarding passes and I ran like the wind to security.

I got through the passport check point no problem but when I went to the guy that was scanning tickets before security, my ticket came up red and it said that my flight had already taken off. I was like no, that's not right, the woman just printed out my ticket. If the flight had already taken off she wouldn't have printed it out. He wouldn't let me go through to security so I walked back to the counter where I paid for my overweight bag. At this point I'm crying because this morning had been horrible, and this was the last thing I needed. I got up to the counter and the woman just looked at me and is like "what's wrong?" and I was like h-h-h-h-he wouldn't let me past to go to security!!! Blubbering like a baby she told me come with her to another woman. She also scanned my ticket and said that my plane left but the other woman who I cried to was like no, it hasn't left yet, let her on. So they let me on. I get to security, make it through and then run to the gate. When I got to the gate I didn't see the plane but there were a bunch of people standing by the doors to get onto the ramp. I actually ended up getting on the plane and we took off 45 minutes to an hour late. The plane ride to Zurich was HORRIBLE, the worst plane ride I have ever ridden on. I was all the way at the back of the plane...which really didn't matter to me. The turbulence was really bad. At one point, they were serving drinks and they had to stop because the plane was shaking so bad that the drinks were spilling off of the cart and onto the passengers. I was gripping onto the arm rest with one hand while my other hand was gripping the seat in front of me. The woman in the row in front of me was praying out loud...like really loud.

We landed in Zurich....alive and people clapped. Being at the back of the plane really sucked because I was the last to get off and I didn't have that much time to make my layover to get to Chicago. I had to go through a passport check again as well as security. While I was waiting in line at passport check this woman called all people for the flight to Chicago and I was rushed to the front of the line. I got through security and then ran to the gate. However, you had to fill out this form before boarding the plane. I rushed to where the papers were and I told the guy what flight I was on and he just said that I had to put my name on it and that was fine. So I basically throw the paper at this woman and then start running to my gate. I couldn't find it and actually ended up running past it because I'm an idiot. When I finally found the gate the woman was like, "are you Amy Fontaine?" and I was like umm yeah....and she's like okay good. It was kind of bizarre. I got on the plane, took my seat....which ended up being next to sleeping beauty (but a dude) and the endured the 9 and a half hour plane ride to Chicago.

When I landed in Chicago I got off the plane and then stood in line for about half an hour in customs. I had to fill out this form on the plane that asked me to list everything that I brought home with me. I wanted to be honest so I listed everything that Renee gave me even though I thought they might take my flowers and the foie gras. However, the guy at the counter was really nice and he said that the stuff that I had was fine so I made my way to baggage claim. I stood there for a good 10 minutes and watched the same bags go by. I checked to see if I had the right belt, and I did. At that point I figured that my bags weren't there so I asked this woman what I should do and she was like oh yea, you were on the flight from Paris to Zurich and Zurich to Chicago, we know that your bags aren't here. I was just like great, that's just fabulous! So I went to the Swiss counter and told him what my bags looked like and he said that I should get them by 8pm the next day (Monday).

I met my family (mom, dad, Nick, Steve, Tracey and Kelly (my cousins) ) outside of baggage claim. It was so good to see them again. I was crying I was so happy! My parents even brought me a hot dog! It was delish!!! We went to Geno's East for dinner and I got my first legal beer...Blue Moon...amazing. I asked the waiter if he wanted to see my ID but he said no. I was a little sad. Ha! When I got home, my neighbors, Art, Kathy and Melissa decorated my house welcoming me home. That was really cute too. We cracked open a bottle of champagne and celebrated my homecoming.

The next day, after lunch with Kelsey and Casey at Chipolte, this man called and said that he had my bags on his truck and he was on his way to deliver them to Villa Park. My mom, who answered the phone was like no, we live in Lake Villa, which is way north of Chicago. Turns out, Swiss copied down my address wrong which caused the driver to drive all the way to Villa Park. He said that he would deliver my bags but he would be at my house sometime between 1 and 3 am. I said okay that's fine, someone will be up to get them from you. I went to bed around 11, because I'm still getting used to the time difference, and my dad and Nick stayed up waiting for my bags. I guess they arrived at 1:30 am this morning.

I checked my stuff this morning and everything was there, however all my clothes smelled like cheese! haha it was pretty gross. I had to throw out one of the cheeses because it just smelled so bad...probably because it was in the bag for too long. I sorted all the clothes and checked all the gifts and then started washing everything.

This has been an amazing year. I really can't even put it all into words. Thanks so much for reading my blog. I hope everyone enjoyed it, it's been a lot of fun writing.

So, this is it. One more final bisous!!!!!!

XOXO,

Amy