After 24 hours of long and arduous traveling, I finally made it to Lausanne. My journey started around 7 am Saturday morning with an already delayed flight out of SFO, a bomb threat at Heathrow, and plenty of canceled flights due to the unusual amounts of snow across Europe. Immediately I realized that my day would be filled with sitting in airports for hours and copious amounts of communication among family members and British Airways officials. After being on hold with British Airways for nearly 70 minutes, we decided to pack up and head to the airport. Upon arrival, my tenacious and shameless Mother barged into the Administration office at Sea-Tac where she yelled, "my daughter has a crisis". The worried department manager quickly rose and asked what the crisis was. Turning out to be a small concern in the realm of thousands of canceled flights and stranded passengers, the nice lady (named Sandy) helped anyway. Miraculously, she re-booked me on a direct flight from Sea-Tac to London Heathrow, which was originally a canceled flight that was two days late in leaving. I said my goodbyes to my beloved family and hoped on a plane (about 6 hours later). My 9 hour flight to London was easy and relaxing, minus the entertainment system failure. Upon arrival in an unseasonably and unusual winter wonderland in London, I realized I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. I disembarked off of the plane and transferred terminals where my flight to Geneva was supposed to leave from. After seeing six canceled flights on British Airways to Geneva before mine, I panicked a little bit and spoke with the customer services desk. My flight was supposedly on time, which made no sense because it was scheduled to leave at 11:45 am and the Geneva airport was closed (and had been since 6 am) due to unexpected heavy snowfall and the need to de-ice and clear the runways. My flight was allotted the reward of being one of the first 'tester' flights, so to speak, to land in Geneva since its re-opening at 12:30. So off we went after I sat in the Heathrow airport for another 6 hours praying that my flight would go. We finally arrived in Geneva and it was so beautiful. Everything was a complete white out with about 2 feet of new snow. I got off the plane, once again, grabbed my luggage and hopped on a train to Lausanne. For the next 45 minutes I stared outside at the gorgeous snow that covered all the trees and Swiss chalets. I felt thankful and happy to have made it home. Many of my friends remained stranded in various towns across Europe ranging from Munich to Zurich. Although it took twice as long to get to Lausanne, I felt so blessed that I made it in time to start school this morning.
Today is Monday in Lausanne and it is 4 pm my time. I started school today, which embedded a serious of emotions inside of me. I was eager, yet scared, and excited to embark on my second journey abroad. My class schedule is going to be quite a challenge but I think that I am ready for it. I am taking International Business Law and its Environment, Intercultural Communication, Western Heritage 3, and French 3. I am excited for a series of interesting projects and field trips to come.
Thank you for all of you who have made it possible for me to be in Lausanne again. I appreciate it beyond words can explain and feel so grateful for each and every one of you. I am beyond elated to be home again.
Love to all and God bless
A little glimpse at the snow covered houses and train tracks from my balcony
