Hello from Dublin!
Well it took me all of three days to get here, but I finally made it! I was beginning to this would NEVER happen and that I would have to just go back to Dallas.
So on my last post I left off thinking that I had a flight at 8:30 AM the next day. I awoke at 6 to find that my flight had been cancelled and I had automatically been issued a ticket for a 1:00 PM flight to JFK airport in New York City with a flight to Dublin at 6:45. I called American Airlines to confirm and they said that the 8:30 flight wasn’t even showing on their screens. I made a leisurely morning of getting ready and then made my way to the airport. The best part about this is that on my new flight to New York, I got bumped up to First Class. The TSA lines at O’Hare are HORRENDOUS. Fortunately, since I was now FIRST CLASS STATUS I got to avoid these lines and instead went to the much shorter First Class line right behind a very large, Jewish family. I wanted to give them a shout-out, but since I am racially ambiguous, I wasn’t sure how well that would play off. People in Northern states don’t get as excited to see a fellow Jew the way Southern states do I suppose.
Found out that my 1:05 PM flight got bumped to 1:39 so I went to Macaroni Grill and got a much needed glass of white wine. The lady sitting next to me was very nice and was on her way to deliver a 401(k) plan to a company in San Marcos for Prudential. Since my company clears for her we had a nice little chat.
Make it over to my gate and I about have an anxiety attack that the plane is going to be late, I am going to miss my flight to Dublin, my bags won’t make it, we are all going to die, etc… Our flight to NYC boards and then we have to wait on the tarmac forever to take off so of course I am panicking that I am going to miss my flight.
While in the air I take a look at the map of JFK since it’s been a minute since that last time I was there. I figure out where we are landing and where I am taking off from. We are landing at gate 1 and I am taking off from gate 41…. I have 15 minutes to run 40 gates. I make it right as they call business class to board!!
If you have never flown business class on an international flight before, I suggest that you do it at some point in your lifetime. I have traveled to several different countries, all coach level, and I’m really not sure I can go back to that after this experience. It may have been the wine talking, but I just sat there with a big smile on my face thinking “It’s ok if the plane goes down. I will have died happy”. BUSINESS CLASS IS SO NICE. It helped that there was no one sitting next to me so I got to steal the little pack of toiletries to go along with my own little back.
Someone was always there to fill up my wine glass and bring me food. It was like heaven. They woke me up for breakfast and offered me cranberry bread. I freaking love cranberry bread. I watched The Duff and the first part of Get Hard. My only regret was that the flight was not longer.
I got off the plane and the line at customs was like 3 people so that took no time at all. Then came the part I was nervous for: Did my bags make that crazy, confusing trip?….
THEY MADE IT!
The only thing missing was one wheel off my pink suitcase. A small price to pay for all of the trauma they went through.
Got my cab. They took American Express. Had a lovely chat with my taxi driver. She was from Nigeria and was very chatty.
Got into my hotel. Got my room keys and wifi password (very much needed). A manager escorted me and my bags to my room (which is AMAZING). I took a sleeping pill and pretty much slept the rest of the day. Gabe (my coworker who has already been here a few weeks) came to get me and show me around. We had a great time wandering around City Center (their popular downtown area) and got food at a restaurant that would take my American Express (apparently, not a popular card in Europe).
Tomorrow is my first day at work and I am very excited to meet my group and get things started. I’ll post tomorrow about my hotel room and my first day.
Until tomorrow,
-Savvy
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