It's really quite interesting the set of circumstances that brought me to this very moment. Oh yeah, I should probably give more information about what my situation is right now. I am sitting in the Sakura Lounge of Japan Airlines located somewhere in the depths of the Narita International Airport.
To all of the people out there that don't know me, I want everything to be in control. My control. (And that's an understatement.) What happened to me these past couple of days just can't be further from that.
On Monday, June 15 I was dropped off at Sea-Tac Airport by my lovely roommate's mother, LaVaughn. I know. It's kind of bizzare that your roommate's mom drives you to the airport and not your roommate. Long story. But LaVaughn is a good friend and she's like family to me, so I was quite content with the arrangement. After checking in and the usual stuff that pertains with getting on International flights, I got on the plane just in time.
My flight made a short stop in Honolulu to re-fuel and all that good stuff. And then we were off to a 7-hour flight (Yes. I'm serious. No. This isn't a typo) to Tokyo, Japan. Throughout this first leg of my flights, I watched a few movies. Okay. Maybe a little bit more than a few. Hotel for Dogs, Last Chance Harvey, Race to Witch Mountain, New in Town, and InkHeart. Yep. Just a few. It didn't really sink in to me that something was wrong until the time they handed out immigration forms for Japan. Of course, I was like, "I'm going to Hong Kong and then to Jakarta. I don't need these forms." But they gave me the forms anyways. I started looking at the itinerary I had printed out and stuck in my purse. The captain had said that we were going to arrive at Narita Airport at 9:30pm. Wait a second, I thought to my self (or maybe out loud). The flight was supposed to have landed at 4:40pm and then I should have departed on another flight to Hong Kong at 6:40pm. I could literally feel the ground underneath me crumble. Okay. Maybe it was some turbulence the flight was experiencing.
You see. For a control freak like me, having your flight itinerary changed, being dumped at a foreign place with lots of people who speak some kind of English you don't understand, and having no notion of how or when you'll get to your destination is a bad thing. I still smiled and was still polite to the people I encountered, but deep inside I was hyperventilating. (Is that even possible? Internal hyperventilating.)
When my flight landed in Narita, I had to wait in line to get my little "situation" figured out. In line, I had the chance to observe human nature put under a series of misfortunes uncontrollable by anyone. People are rude. When people's comfort gets threatened, they get rude. As I was waiting in line, I had a revelation. Whatever we are experiencing right now is not the people manning the counter's fault - and why do we unleash 3 hours worth of delay anger on them? They weren't the ones flying the planes or manning the control towers.
So I resolved on shutting up, be polite, and muster up whatever strength left in me to smile.
It worked. The guy that helped me told me that they have booked a hotel room with complimentary dinner and breakfast on them. They also arranged a new flight itinerary. The guy saw that my final destination is Jakarta, and so he asked me if I would rather have a direct flight from Tokyo to Jakarta. I did not hesitate in agreeing. So it was settled. My flight to Jakarta was to leave the next day at 2:10pm. That left me enough time to rest, clean up, and lounge around.
Japan Airlines has a lounge with complimentary food, drinks, and wireless internet. It was paradise for me.
It turns out that the circumstances played out better than what I had planned myself.
What I planned consisted of waiting for 9 hours in Hong Kong International Airport - sleep deprived and alone.
What I got was free dinner, breakfast, and a great place to stay and sleep. I got a full 8 hours of sleep.
Accept the unexpected. It may end up being a whole lot better than you have planned.
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