My flight arrived 30 minutes early, and I made it through customs with no problem. The only unusual thing that happened to me was an Indian man following me off the plane, asking me if I was Polish or Russian. He had been staring at me pretty much the entire flight, I guess trying to figure out where I was from. When I told him I was American, but that my grandfather was Russian, he was so excited that he guessed right. How in the world could he tell? I wax my bushy Russian eyebrows clean off about every four weeks...
When I came through customs, there were huge crows of people holding signs - drivers looking for customers, family and friends waiting for their loved ones - but no Andy. I walked around several sitting areas and, unable to find him, sat in a waiting area for about 15 minutes. I started getting a little nervous; what if something happened to him? We never actually said where he would pick me up; what if I was in the wrong place? So I walk outside, where more crowds of people are waiting, and the heat hit me like I had just walked into a wall. Seriously, I stopped walking, and couldn't breathe for a few seconds.
Even though it was almost 9:00 pm, it was hot. And smelly. Hot and smelly - two very unpleasant things. Still no Andy outside, although there were plenty of men offering me rides. I must have said at least a couple dozen times, "No - my husband is coming." I don't think they believed me, because I it went like this for the next half hour: I'd go inside, look around a bit, then sit and wait. I'd get nervous and go outside, look around for a bit, and then go back inside.
There was a guard by the door who asked what I was doing. This is not a picture of the guard I spoke with, but just what the guards here look like. The first time I went out, I told him I was looking for my husband, who was supposed to pick me up. The second time I asked if there was another door he would pick me up at, and the guard said, "No, he will come. You go inside and wait, and he will come." Uh, okay. How do you know?Almost an hour after I landed, he did come. Boy was I happy to see him! I was so excited, I didn't even take a picture, like I meant to. I just ran over to him, with all my bags (yes, they came), flopping around behind me.
1 comment:
Phew! I'm glad he finally showed up! That would be so weird, with no cell phone service, to find people. How did we survive without cell phones?? I didn't know your grandpa was Russian! Do you remember how everyone going to London thought you would be Iranian, because of the crappy picture in the little booklets we got? My little sister is in London right this minute, and I'm sooo jealous.
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