The Adventure Home

August 18, 2007 by Tiffany.

I’ve always heard that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and I truly believe that’s true after yesterday. Imagine, to my surprise, that I had been upgraded to business class on my Air Canada flight from Paris to Montreal! I couldn’t believe it! I have never been in anything other than economy and really felt like a poser sitting in the wide, reclining seats.

I was offered champagne, newspapers, food on real dishes. Better than anything was the reclining action on the chair. I kicked up my feet, leaned back and relaxed. I was so amazed that even when the lady in front of me was fully reclined, I STILL had plenty of space to walk around. It was quite nice indeed.

Like I said, however, nothing in life is ever free, and I should have known that in the scheme of things, there would be something attached to the business class upgrade. Indeed, there was. We arrived in Montreal about 45 minutes late, due to a late take off from Paris, and strong winds. To go through customs I had to claim by suitcase, and I swear my bag was pretty much the very last one off the plane. It was ridiculous. Then, to my surprise, I had to clear customs twice! Once for Canada, and then again for the United States. Strange I thought, since I was still in Canada. Anyway, it became very clear that I was not going to make the flight, and nobody seemed inclined to help me out. By this time I’m exhausted and a tad upset. After standing in a corner of customs for nearly an hour, (having been informed by an Air Canada representative that I had missed my flight), I found that thankfully I could take another flight at 5:30, that was leaving in about three hours. I was just thankful that I didn’t have to spend the night in Montreal, but it wasn’t long before utter derangement set in, waiting for the next flight. I was tired and upset, and was starting to freak out that it was still light outside, since according to my time clock, the sun clearly should have set long ago. The next leg of the flight pretty much sucked, since I had a seat that wouldn’t recline an inch, but I was still glad to make it home. By the time I caught a shuttle to Glendale, it was 11pm in Los Angeles, exactly 24 hours since I’d left the door of MySuite Village. Long day you could say.

Today was crazy with tons of mail, running by work to check on my job status, and taking care of a rent check that went awry while I was away to no fault of my own. It’s amazing the work it takes to clean up one’s life after five weeks away. That said, I loved every minute of it and wouldn’t trade the experience for the world. Tomorrow I’ll head to Fresno to see the family and hopefully catch up on some more sleep.

For the record, I intend on continuing this blog, just not on a daily basis as before. But as things arise, I will post. Check back once and a while.

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