Dippy Jones Across the Pond: Day 1 - Manchester England England

Manchester England England
Across the Atlantic Sea

And I'm a genius genius

I believe in God

And I believe that God

Believes in Claude

That's me that's me 

Yup! That's where I am now! True say.

It figures. Somehow, I just *knew* it’d happen... it really figures.

So my flight from Montreal wound up leaving an hour late because it had to de-ice before it could take off, so we were a half-hour late arriving in Paris. And when you only had an hour to get to your flight in the first place, that’s kind of an issue.

My Montreal flight got in at 12:11, with my Paris flight boarding at 12:25. The flight attendant told me that we’d be coming in to terminal E, and as my flight was from terminal E it shouldn’t be a problem, but no. I had to run across the whole airport, catch the sky train they have, and then run to the other end of the terminal... ay for asthma attacks in hot airports! (While it was snowing in Montreal, it’s a good 21 degrees in Paris, 18 in Manchester) ... After making it through security (I don’t know why they had a security checkpoint there... probably just to slow me down) I made it, gasping, to the gate at 12:45; 10 minutes before the plane was set to leave.

The whole time, I was thinking; if I can hardly make it to my flight on time, how on Earth will my luggage have made it? What with the arriving, being unloaded + transit... it’s unrealistic. So when I got to the Baggage claim (after dealing with the nicest Passport control lady in existence ^.^) it was no surprise to me that I heard my last name called out over the announcements... Apparently, my luggage didn’t make it to the plane. My poor lonely suitcase is all by itself, stuck in Charles DeGaulle. Luckily, Air France has another plane coming in today, so I’m just chilling at the airport for a few hours to wait for it. That way they won’t need to deliver it. Plus this forces me to stay awake, despite my ever encroaching exhaustion.

I actually got more sleep on the plane than I’d been expecting. I watched the Princess and the Frog while I ate my dinner (green curry chicken + rice, salmon + couscous, lemon cranberry cake and apple sauce) and drank my bottle of white wine... they had champagne on offer (apparently it’s just one of the perks of flying Air France, champagne with your flight no matter the class) but I decided it wouldn’t go well with my curry :P. Then I went to sleep. The fitful, my-chair-doesn’t-really-recline kind of sleep of an airplane, but the fact that Air France provides noise-cancelling headphones really helps! I hadn’t realized it, but somehow I was booked in their kind of upgraded economy section... Air France has First Class (where the chairs recline into full beds and I imagine the stewardesses peel grapes for you and feed them to you), Business class, 2nd Class and Economy. And I was in the 2nd class! It’s apparently luck of the draw when you fly Economy, you could be one of the lucky few who’s seat winds up being fancier than regular economy. But still awesome!

But now, I sit, I wait. Alone in Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport. The internet asks for coins I don’t yet have, and everyone I could phone is major long distance... I hope Jon will understand when I’m not on Skype as he’ll be expecting. I just wish I had some way to let him, and everyone else, know.