Let the adventures begin!!
I guess the best place to start would just be the beginning. Welcome to the last thirty-six hours of my life….
I woke up exhausted on Friday morning, the morning I would fly to the Philippines. I didn’t really get much sleep that night, probably about five hours of off and on sleep. So I woke up and did my morning routine, said goodbye to my parents, and was on my way to the airport. Colleen and Danny dropped me off two and a half hours before my flight, and all was well. I spent a long time standing in line and checking my bags, made it through security, ate lunch, made a few phone calls, and before I knew it, I was on the plane and in the air, headed for Tokyo, Japan. From there, I would have a two hour layover before the last 4 hour flight to Manila.
The first plane ride was just short of eleven hours. I was really exhausted, but I didn’t want to sleep too much, because I wanted to get on Manila time (and it was daytime most of the flight), so instead I doused myself in movies for most of the flight with a little bit of reading as well. By the time all of my electronics ran out of battery, I only had an hour left in the flight, and they were just about to serve us breakfast (and by breakfast I mean chicken fried rice). So despite my bloodshot eyes and my narcoleptic tendencies I was beginning to pick up, the first flight went pretty well.
As we stood in a long line, waiting to leave the plane, the flight attendant came on the loud speaker with an announcement: attention all passengers headed to Manila. The connecting flight has been cancelled, please head to the nearest ticket agent to make other arrangements. We are sorry for the inconvenience, blah blah blah.
All I could do was laugh. I mean, honestly, how many times can this happen these days? I’ve been stuck in Phoenix, North Carolina, and now Tokyo, all in the last 12 months. It seems like flights never go as planned these days. So I thought to myself, hmmm, a night in Tokyo, I guess that doesn’t sound too bad. I mean now I can at least claim I’ve been to Tokyo. Oh, Tokyo, oh yeah, I’ve been there. Yep, spent the night there once. I was there a good twelve hours actually.
This is my excited to be in Tokyo look
Thus began the long and inconvenient process of working out all the details. As we filed off the plane they directed all of us “re-routers” to a nearby ticket counter to get new tickets. Of course you hear all kind of rumors while you’re standing in line as to what the new ticket looks like… same flight tomorrow, 200 dollar ticket voucher, pick up our bags downstairs, and on and on. By the time I made it to the front of the line, probably a good forty five minutes later, I found out what the real deal was. They put me on the morning flight with Japan Airlines, leaving at 930am, booked me a hotel room at the Radison, told me I didn’t have to worry about my bags (we’ll see about that!), and gave me 25,000 frequent flyer miles for my troubles (that’s a free domestic flight in case anybody is wondering). Not a bad deal!
So after this long process, I had to go through immigration and customs. Made it through pretty easily, and then asked someone where I should go to get the voucher for the hotel. He said go out the door and go left. So I did. I walked to the end, with no signs for Northwest, and then turned around and walked all the other way to the opposite end, and still saw no signs for Northwest. So I looked lost, and a man came to help me. He told me I had to go upstairs and go left. So I did. And they told me I had to go downstairs to the hotel counter. So I did. And then she told me I had to go to the information booth. So, yes, I did. And they finally gave me a voucher for the Radison Hotel and told me to go wait outside at bus stop 16.
I looked at the voucher which said that the bus comes twice an hour, on the 10 and the 40. I looked at my watch… 515pm. Perfect. I just missed the last bus. So I walked to the bus stop and began thinking about how I would contact Jeff in Manila, to let him know I wouldn’t be getting in that night. So I thought I could check if there was wifi… except I had used up all of my battery (Mental note… never use all of your battery, just in case!) I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if the Hotel has internet. So I was still waiting for the bus.
About ten minutes passed and I saw a Radison bus approaching, sweet it’s like twenty minutes early! But wait… it’s not stopping! It went right pass the bus stop and instead parked up ahead about 60 yards. So I contemplated what to do, and I decided instead of waiting for the bus to come to bus stop 16, I would go find the bus myself. So I walked to the bus and showed the driver my voucher. He motioned his hands as if to say wait here. Behind me a man approached and asked where I was going. He was an American pilot from Northwest, and I showed him the voucher and said the Radison, I think. So he said, well it looks like we’re going to the same place, might as well get on board. It didn’t make sense exactly what he said at the time, I mean it pretty much went over my head. But now looking back, it all makes sense. I got on the bus and the only other person besides us was a woman flight attendant. But over the next five minutes, the bus accumulated more people, who strangely enough, were all pilots or flight attendants. I think I must have been pretty tired, because it took me longer to realize than it should have, that I was on the special Northwest Airlines staff bus. I felt like I was riding in the cockpit or something!
Anyways, it was nice of the pilot to help me out. I guess he was a little angel sent my way to keep me on the right path towards the Radison. We made it to the hotel twenty minutes later and I made my way up to the room, and began trying to figure out how to get a hold of Jeff. They told me I would get one free 3 minute international phone call. Perfect! Well again, either I was really tired or just a little stupid, because I couldn’t get it to work. So I decided screw it, and I bought fifteen minutes of internet for 200 Yen, with absolutely no clue how much money that was in dollars. I got on skype, called Jeff’s home, and left a message. I sent him an email as well, and decided that the rest I’d have to leave up to God and hope that nobody went at the wrong time and that somebody came at the right time.
I took my free dinner voucher and headed downstairs to grab some food before passing out. Food and sleep, that was all I could think about. I ate dinner and sat next to a woman from the Philippines who was just in California visiting her two sons who live there. It was nice to have company. Not long after I headed upstairs and fell asleep pretty dang fast, at around 730pm. The first time my body woke me up and told me It was ready to get up was at thirty minutes after midnight. Then at 2am, 3am, 4am, and finally at 5am, I gave in.
It didn’t take me long to get ready, since I didn’t have a toothbrush, hairbrush, facewash, makeup, or any other clothes options. So I put a little water on my hair to fix it as best I could, put on the same dirty clothes, popped a piece of gum in my mouth, and headed downstairs for breakfast (voucher included as well). The people I sat next to for breakfast were speaking another language, which I quickly realized with Tagolog–the national language of the Philippines. They looked Filipino as well, and so I decided I should strike up conversation with them. The two women directly next to me were both from the Philippines, one now living and working in the States, and the other was visiting her children in North Carolina.
Next to them was another woman, who also looked and sounded like she could be from the Philippines. After brief introductions we came to find out that we were both heading to the same place…. Kiids International Ministries! What a small world! She is actually visiting family for a little while and then will be meeting a team from her home church (in Minneapolis) to spend 2 weeks working with Jeff Long at K.I.M. It was awesome to be able to talk to her and then in a couple weeks I’ll be seeing her again! Carolina from Minneapolis. Nice woman.
To make this long story a little less long, I got on the shuttle, headed to the airport, and now here I am. Sitting in a coffee shop, feeling icky and ready to take a shower, drinking an amazing–and probably 20,000 Calorie–iced mocha, waiting to board the plane. And in somewhere less than 6 hours, God willing, I’ll be getting picked up in Manila from someone at K.I.M.
Everything always works out. Sometimes it goes as planned, and other times it’s an adventure. To tell you the truth, I kind of prefer the adventures..
This one’s for you Brandon!
