Tuesday 21 December 2010

{Flying home for Christmas - The happy end}

Hi!

So here's part 3 of my story:

I. A.M. H.O.M.E.

With some delays due to bad weather I was in Luxembourg at around 15h30 :) Familytime...

Loves

P.S. My luggage was probably send to Lugano, Swiss. Nice work Air France.

{Flying home for Christmas?}

Hi!

I have a lot of time on my hands for posting these days, so here's a follow up. I actually slept in a bed tonight! Yay for me :)

So, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, I had rescheduled my flight and wanted a hotelroom... Mmm, well, I got one obviously. But it sounds easier as it was. First of all, there are loads of people stranded so it is very full and busy here. The Air France lounge is my saviour though(this sounds like Air France lounge = Jesus, hmmm), since there are no lines existent or at least the are shorter.

They had a lot of problems booking me a room though, since my flight to Luxembourg is operated by Luxair. Still, after 4 hours of waiting and walking back and forth to the counter, and some tears, I got a room for the night including dinner and breakfast.

First, I had to take a bus there, which was kinda hard to find, since the TGV station was crowded with stranded passengers too, but I found it. Then I got at the hotel, got a nice room, and finally after TWO days took a bath :) I then was so tired I actualy fell asleep for two hours or so. At 22h00 I woke up, got dressed and dragged myself down to the restaurant. I felt like I was sleepwalking, but I had to eat something, so I had salmon with bread and peas. Yay, real food. I then went up and fell asleep again.

At 7h30 I got my wakeup call, since I don't own an alarmclock anymore. I took a shower again, to make up for the last days, haha, got dressed and had breakfast. At the same time I was stalking all websites with departures and arrivals at CDG and Luxembourg and weather forecasts. At 9h00 I went down to check out and take the bus to the airport, where I am now.

It still looks good, the earlier plane from CDG is boarding and the plane from Luxembourg should be here in an hour. That plane is supposed to fly me home later today. I am hoping and praying it'll work and I'll let you know.

Loads of love from Paris!
[Hoping it is the last time I'll say this]

Monday 20 December 2010

{Flying home for christmas, or not.}

People!

Okay, so I promised I'd write from Luxembourg next time, but today I'm writing from Paris, France. Karma.

So, I was sceduled to fly from JFK to Paris CDG on saturday at 21h45. I'd arrive at CDG at 11h00 and then fly on to Luxembourg at 12h40, where I'd arrive at 13h30. Well, it all got a little problematic when the weather decided it'd be fun it there were snow everyday in the whole of central and western Europe.

So, when I arrived at JFK about 5 hours early(I shared a cab with someone leaving at 17h00), it turned out my luggage was overweight. I had to take out 7 of the 30 kilo's, so then I went wandering the terminal with books and my coats...

Okay, then I want to get through security, but it is the saturday before Christmas, so it is crowded, with a capital C. I'm becoming an expert at cueing these days. Then, while waiting at security I saw that my flight was delayed for an hour and a half. We were now sceduled to take off at 23h10.

So I spend the rest of the night chillin' at the Air France Lounge on JFK :) These lounges have saved my life the last days. By the time we took off it was 23h45. The flight to Paris was okay, I even slept for 5 hours or so. The we landed in a white snowy world. At CDG we were parked somewhere and then had to wait for 2 hours in the plane, before we could taxi to the gate, since all the gates were occupied. Then we had to wait for groundpersonell to attach the gate to the plane :)

Okay, then I was in terminal 2E, my flight to Luxembourg was cancelled and I didn't have a boardingcard to get into terminal 2D(were the flights to luxembourg leave), so I had to cue in 2E at an Air France helpdesk. In the cue I made some friends with some American and Dutch people :) After SEVEN hours of waiting(standing , pushing and no food/drinks) I was finally at the counter, where an Air France employee told me I had to leave Terminal 2E and go to the Luxair checkin in terminal 2D. So I had just spend all afternoon and evening cueing for nothing...

At around 22h00 I arrived at terminal 2D, where everything was closed. I couldn't find a Luxair representative and decided it'd be better to spend the night at the airport and go to Air France again in the morning. I installed myself at a radiator in Terminal 2D with two coats, hanging on my bag. Midnight the "Protection Civile" woke me up, asked if I was alone and when I answered yes, they told me it was too dangerous. They had some blankets and water in a trminal downstairs, so I spend another 5 hours there.

At 5h00 on Monday morning I went to Terminal 2D, they let me in without the boardingpass once I explained the situation and then I, again, cued for tyhe Airfrance desk, although it wasn't going to open for another hour or so. Two hours later I was at the counter again and this time it was no problem booking me onto another flight. I was assigned the 12h40 flight to Luxembourg. Then it started snowing again... So the flight was cancelled. Surprising. I then decided to see if there was any way to get my checked luggage back. At the luggage counter we were given forms to fill out, s the luggage could be sent to us in about 2-3 days.

Well, even so, I still wanted to find a way home. So I enquired after the trains. Well no one on the airport knows anything, I called home and heard that the CFL had announced there would be any trains coming into or leaving Luxembourg. So I resceduled my flight again to tomorrow morning and am now waiting for a hotelroom, which is quite a problem, since there are so many people stuck.

That is it for now, I'll update again when I know more.

Loves!

Friday 17 December 2010

{Living on a prayer.}

Dear God,

Thank you for answering my prayer for a white christmas, but it is a week too early. So now I am praying to you to make it stop snowing, or I won't be able to see that white winter wonderland in Luxembourg. Thank you and amen.

Charline

Wednesday 15 December 2010

{Muhahaha, guess who I saw}

Hello pumpkins!

How are you all doin'?? I'm great. I am in the air in 72 hours, on my way to Paris :) So I am freaking out woth excitement.

Here it is getting cold, on monday we had outr first real snow for this winter! But now it's just cold, which is less cool, since I almost killed my toes and fingers today while I was waiting for an hour and a half to see Jessica Alba, Ben Stller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson and Dustin Hoffman :)

But in the end, it was all worth it: I did see them(no pictures this time, I forgot my camera *blond*) and I can live with 8 toes and 8 fingers ;) As long as I can hold my cup of Starbucks...

Today I did part two of my christmas shopping in Manhattan, and I'm planning of finishing the present hunt in Palisades Mall on friday. Familymembers: You will get spoiled by all the presents :P

I also finished gathering all the required documents for the universities I'm applying to. There has been a small change of plans, instead of the University of Washington in Seattle I am applying to Smith College, an all-womens college in Northhampton, MA. I'll update on the applications some more when I get home :)

For now, love to all and enjoy the holiday season. I know I do.

xx

Friday 10 December 2010

{Dear facebook}

Dear Facebook,

I have decided to deactivate my account, being as I want to win a bet for a package of Oreo's. I know you will miss me, and, trust me, I will miss you, but don't worry in a week I'll be back.

Best,

Charline

Wednesday 8 December 2010

{10 more days...}

... and Luxembourg is the unsafest capital in world, because I'm there again :)

So, SAT World History is done. I'll let you guys know when I get the results in. Now coming up this Saturday is the TOEFL on which I have to score 104/120 or higher to be eligible for the universities I've choosen. Have I told you which ones I'm applying to? I didn't think so... Here's the list in order of soonest deadlines.

1. University of Washington - Seattle, WA
Deadline: December 15th, 2010
Status: working on the essays and the apllications/starting to stess a little bit...
2. Yale University - New Haven, CT
Deadline: December 31st, 2010
Status: working on the Common App, got some essays done, working on others
3. Williams College - Williamstown, MA
Deadline: January 1st, 2011
Status: working on the Common App, no essays started yet :s
4. University of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Deadline: January 3rd, 2011
Status: working on the Common App and essays
5. Georgetown University - Washington, D.C.
Deadline: January 10th, 2011
Status: haven't started on anything yet...

And then I am applying to 1 or 2 partner schools from EF, but their deadlines are in March, so I'm not worrying about those yet.

For all of these schools I'm taking either just TOEFL or TOEFL and SAT or TOEFL, SAT and SAT subjects :)


Then, to the less boring and more exciting news: I SAW ANGELINA JOLIE, BRAD PITT AND JOHNNY DEPP!! I went to the premiere of The Tourist(well, actually, I kinda stood outside freezing) and took the greatest pictures, which you can find on my facebook and hopefully soon on my youtube channel... It was really cool to see them from up close :D

That's it for now, I'm gonna go have lunch, and I will write you again soon!

xx