For a quick update, we were suppose to fly to Muscat on Friday. At 3 am we got a call saying that we needed to leave at 4 because a blizzard had hit OC during the night and we were afraid we wouldn't make it to Omaha on time to make our flight. So, at 4 am, we left the apartment to go and push our teachers van out of the snowbank it had found itself in. Then 30 minutes later we were on our way slowly trucking. As we were leaving Sioux City, poor ole' prof decides that he must potty now and we make our way up the unplowed off ramp to find a semi and car blocking the pass. Therefore, the three men in the truck had to shuveled the trucks out and the entire 2nd half of the off ramp. Around 8:30 or so, we made it to Omaha airport to find out that flights to Chicago would not be flying out, and we would not make it to O'hare before out flight to London and the next flight we could get to London would be Tuesday. Therefore, we took the 2 hour trip back to OC. Eh.
The next few days were spent relaxing, watching blizzards pass through, and trying not to dwell on the fact that instead of being in -30 degree weather, it was a good 80 in Oman.
Today was nuts! We started out the day thinking it was a day to relax, get our stuff together, wash clothes, but last minute (and I emphasize the word LAST) we got a phone call from our travel agent telling us we can get a flight out of Omaha but we had to leave OC within the next hour. Because of blizzard warnings for the next day, we decided to leave OC...
1.) We were given an hour to repack/shower.
2.) Drew David drove his car into a snow bank and we had to push him out.
3.) We forgot/couldn't get a hold of one of the girls and therefore spent 30 min trying to find her, knocking on a house which wasn't hers, and made her pack so we could get out.
We spent the night at Ohare, in the baggage claim because our 20 hour lay over was too long and they couldn't check our bags all the way through. It was freezing, which tends to be the norm during the winter, and the doors entering the building just wouldn't keep closed. A few of us wandered through all the ariport sections that we could get ourselves in to keep us pre-occuiped, although it was rather boring. I finally found a somewhat warmer place to lay and woke up to the sound of a woman yelling at me, asking for my boarding pass. I thought it was some kind of joke, but it wasn't. Thinking I was homeless, she told me I needed to gather my things and leave the building. Finally I convinced her that I was with the large group, and then she told me I needed to be more careful because I had been sleeping with homeless people. Oh, people. Eventually, and rather slowly, 8 am came and we were able to go up and find ourselves a table or 3 at the food court where we spent the next 6 hours waiting to check in. I was ready to be out of the states.
Finally we made it out of Ohare, to London and to my beloved Oman...
