This was my travel back to Hope.
In Prague, where my journey was starting, everything was going everything well. We took off on time and the flight was smooth. But just about 30 minutes to landing in London Heathrow Airport, the captain announced that we will have about 25 minutes delay because Heathrow Airport was really busy that Sunday.
So we had to circle above London for roughly 20 minutes. This is quite normal in London Heathrow airport, so I was expecting that, but the worst is yet to come. With no time to waste I get on the plane to Chicago O’Hare, which was my next stop. In my own surprise we actually took off from London on time. We landed in Chicago on time as well, but I got to the Homeland Security area and I saw 500 – 600 feet long line of foreign people waiting to be admitted to United States.
Since, I had only 1:45 h for a transfer I could not afford to wait 1:30 hr in the line. So I used my express connection orange card to cut the whole line. It was a good and fast start. In 15 minutes the officer called me to check my documents. My I-20, which is a paper that allows me to enter U.S., was not valid. I went to the back room, so they can check my status. Luckily it took “only” 40 minutes of . With only 45 minutes until the plane leaves Chicago to Grand Rapids, I had to transfer from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3. Again, I had to cut line at the security check point and with only 10 minutes left I caught the plane to Grand Rapids.
The flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids is only 28 minutes, so we were quickly in Grand Rapids. I was really happy that I finally made it, but unfortunately it was not the end. We were rolling on the taxiway when captain announced that Grand Rapids International Airport had more airplanes to accommodate or take then gates available. So at 11:50 pm on Sunday, January 10th, we were waiting 45 minutes in the plane on the taxiway for a gate. Finally, we started to roll to the gate, but the captain announced that the jet bridge broke, so they had to call maintenance staff. We waited another 15 minutes. Just about 1:00 am on Monday, January 11, I finally got off the plane and about 2:00 am, I arrived to Hope College. Nevertheless, London views never gets old!
