After the whole first airplane fiasco, I finally got on my airplane at LGA. Everything seemed fine until we were number 10 in line for take off. We ended up leaving 45 minutes late. This stressed me out because I only had about 1. 5 hours to make the connection to the other flight in Chicago, which was in a separate terminal and which meant I would have to go through security again.
My flight from LGA actually only arrived 10 minutes late, so I felt better about the 45 minute late start. However, it took us 20 minutes to taxi to the gate with 10 minutes of just sitting and waiting for huge airplanes to go by. It seems that everything about this flight was meant to annoy me.
As I got off the airplane, there was no one to direct me at all. I looked because I only had about 40 minutes to check in with Mexicana and pass through security again. I began the airport run with my gay brown teacher shoes and my short shorts. I knew that my connecting flight would be in terminal 5 because it was the international terminal. I got this information from the American Airlines magazine which had various airport maps.
As I’m running to terminal 5, I got increasingly nervous because I still hadn’t spoken with anyone about my connection. I ran past a general airport information desk and asked the man how to get to terminal 5. He gave me a billion directions which included stairs and escalators and a train. I didn’t take a wrong turn, and in about 10 minutes I was in terminal 5.
I went up to the Mexicana check-in desk and the woman began to talk to me in Spanish. I told her that I was going to Guadalajara. She took my passport and swiped it. She couldn’t find the voucher that American Airlines was supposed to have sent her so she went to a room in the back somewhere. She came back and told me to stand to the side and that someone would come back when American Airlines told them about the voucher. I asked her if I would make my flight because there were only 20 minutes left and she said that there wasn’t any reason for me to miss it. I, of course, couldn’t understand how she could say this when there were only 20 minutes until my flight was supposed to take off and I didn’t even have a ticket and I hadn’t passed through security yet.
I waited on the side for 20 minutes observing all of the Mexicana employees. One comment--no sense of urgency at all. As it was time for my flight to leave, I walked up to the lady and asked, “Do you have any news?” This was in English because I realized that this lady was speaking English to her co-workers and I wasn’t in the mood to speak to her in Spanish anymore. She responded that there wasn’t any news and that someone would be out shortly.
Finally a man came out, and in stead of calling my name or trying to figure out who I was, he held my passport in the air and waved it at me (and everyone else). I assumed it was mine, so I walked over and he gave me my ticket and my passport.
I ran to security (again with my gay shoes and short shorts) and got in a very short line. Of course, the line didn’t move and the longer lines did. My stuff finally passed through the scanner and they search both of my bags. These security guards were very vocal about people’s things, making comments about the stupidity of passengers and what they were bringing. They were also meat-heady. In any case, after looking through two of my bags, I was free to run from security to my gate.
I got to my gate and realized that the flight was an hour behind even though the screens in the American Airlines terminal said that it was on time. I was also really annoyed because the dumb Mexicana employees could have told me that I wouldn’t have missed the flight because it was an hour behind schedule. I finally got on the plane and was fed dinner and given coffee and beer. No one talked to anyone else either during the flight, so I was a happy camper.
Finally, I arrived in Guadalajara. I was scared that this was going to be bad too because my layover wasn’t that long and you know how baggage is always lost when switching between airlines.
But, my little taped up bag that Liz had bought me in LGA was one of the first bags that came out and my large bag came out later. From there I took a taxi with all of my things to Mariana’s house. I finally made it!