Stranded

I wasn't plan on writing this... but, anyway...

Yesterday could be one of the superbad days in my life.
So, I was on vacation to Puerto Rico 4 days ago. (I didn't inform many ppl coz kinda felt bad for traveling again after visiting Hawaii 2 months ago.)

About the bad bad experience....

We missed the flight back to NJ yesterday. It was just disastrous!

It wasn't anyone's fault. It's just the faith, I could say. Our departure time was 4.10pm. So after finished eating lunch at 2pm, we decided to return the rental car. Given that we just dropped off a friend in airport at 12.30pm, we're actually located very close to the San Juan Airport, less than 10min drive away. But, we had a serious trouble finding the rental office, which is located off the Highway 26. Eventhough we have the GPS, it failed to locate the address entered and brought us to a dead end. So, we tried to enter another rental car office's location and the situation just became worst when the GPS brought us further and further away from the airport and towards the heavy traffic. It's 3.30pm by then. So, we tried the last chance -- going back to the place we stayed and from there, drive towards the airport area, hoping to find the exit to the rental office. Yes, we did find the place after much trouble, but it's already 4.08pm, and the is no way that we would make it....

Still, we went to the airport, trying to figure out what we could do to catch the next flight. Many airlines had the last flight taken off by 4.30pm from San Juan, and staying another night seemed unavoidable. How about getting the next flight back to NJ. It's spring breaks for many university now and PR is always the hottest destination for college kids. So, most of the flights were fully overbooked, if not fully booked. On top of that, many airline counters were closed by 5pm, and we couldn't do any inquiries. In that moment, I felt like we're in the Amazing Race game. The goal was not to win any prize but just to go home. Finally, we found American Airlines had few free spaces for 8am-flight the next morning at the price of $370 one way. Reserving was the last thing we can do after trying so many ways. We're all tired, distressed, frustrated at the end.

On top of that, it's even more disappointing to find out that my grad school application has been rejected by a university after logging into my mailbox that night, and I had to re-plan my future after these years. I was lucky that I still managed to hold back that time.

Still, not giving up easily, we decided to try doing the standby, which was to wait for empty seat available from the Continental Airline so that we could avoid buying the new ticket. This required us to be at the check-in counter by 4.3oam. But, if it's one of way to get home and minimize losses, we would give it a try no matter what. To be honest, the 9 hours after making reservation and before 4.30am was so difficult, and I hardly get any sleep. We got up at 4am, got our "standby" boarding pass at the counter, and checked in by 5am. The first flight by Continental Airlines was 6am. Boarding started at 5.10am. It seemed that there wasn't that much passengers, but I dared not to keep my hope too high. By 5.30am everyone has pretty much boarded, and the workers started issuing boarding pass to the standby-er like us. There were like 5 standbys before us... When the lady handed 3 boarding passes freshly printed from the computer to us, I just couldn't describe how relieved I was. All the tension disappeared, and I knew my smile just reappeared. I thank God sincerely for helping us pass through this tough moment!

I might seem calm writing this. But, I know I didn't handle the situation well and maturely. Hurtful comments, unfriendly emotions and hostile feelings have been thrown out. Serious harm has been done to us all, and I don't know if I'll be forgiven for that. I just hope I could have behave calmly and not emotionally... I wish I have a way to repair the crack in the friendships.