A clima é um chato! (This weather sucks!)

You may be expecting me to already be in Brazil, but nope, that'd be too easy!

I was scheduled to leave on a 3:30pm flight yesterday from LaGuardia, but that was cancelled because it's been snowing frogs. So I called them up, (now would they do anything for me if I hadn't called?), and they booked me on an 8:40pm from JFK. In a way, that was better, since the 3:30 flight had me connect in Atlanta and then Rio de Janeiro, whereas with the 8:40 flight, my only layover to Belo Horizonte would've been in São Paulo.

«flashback»

I got to the airport around 5:45, after 4 subway trains and the AirTrain to JFK. The hardest part was walking to the subway with my (luckily) just under 50-pound-bag (once I took a hat out and put it in my backpack.

For those of you who don't know, the Delta terminal at JFK (terminal 3) is from the 1950's, and hence doesn't have quite all the...shall we say...amenities...of modern airports. Such as, a ticket counter that doesn't form a total mess of a line - not enough ribbon partition thingies, and Domestic and International flights are supposedly separated but not really.

I had been in the line for about an hour (and so, about halfway through), when I was hearing the complaints of people around me who had flights in the next 2 hours to Brussels, Italy, Manchester. The one (out of 10) clerks whose marquee above her head read "International Ticketing / Check-in" realized that some people better be taken care of or they'd miss their flight. She called out Brussels, Tampa, and Brazil, among others - so, I was able to go to the front of the line!

Because they rebooked me, and I had paper tickets (courtesy of my foster care agency, so I'm not complaining), I had to have tickets reissued, so it took about 15 minutes for her to do that. I was polite to her. I sailed through the security checkpoint (of course forgetting to take my keys out of my pocket the first time) and entered the land of internationality.

Since I was starving, I got a roast chicken platter from Sbarro (they were out of pizza due to mechanical problems) for only $9.30. It was the healthiest thing in the food court, aside from, of course, Burger King. I sat down at gate 14 around 7:45, listening to the conversations around me, usually either Brazilians, or Americans talking about how they're learning Portuguese, or how they don't know any. I felt torn between two worlds. This 8:40 flight kept being postponed, and eventually boarded around 9:40. I got some caramels from Starbucks - the only candy available at 9:30, as the Relay shops were closed, and those are the only convenience store-type places the Delta terminal has. Closing at 9pm, they seem kind of oxymoronic. See what I mean about amenities?

Onboard, I prepared for takeoff, putting in my nifty earplugs I bought when I came back from my cousin's wedding in Minneapolis in September. They help a little bit with the someone-is-shoving-really-long-needles-into-my-ear-canals feeling. I took them out when it was maybe 10:30 and we were still at the gate. Apparently, the paths to the runway are all really icy, so they need a "tug" to pull the plane there, but the tugs themselves are having trouble getting around; not all of them are strong enough to get over the icy ramp of wherever they live.

They served peanuts and water around 10:30, knowing people waiting for the in-flight dinner were getting hungry. I ate them, correctly assuming that it'd be a while (or, indefinitely) before dinner came. They started the movie, some American movie about a stockbroker who goes to Paris for business, I think. I put it on the Portuguese dub channel, so I'm not entirely sure what the movie was actually about. I spoke with the man behind me, a Portuguese teacher at some college in Schenectady, I think? We talked in mostly Portuguese, about what my Portuguese classes had done in terms of showing movies, how few students there are in these classes, and what I'll be doing in Brazil. His wife and I bemoaned the delays as the night progressed.

At least twice, the pilot told us, "So, in terms of new information, well, I don't really have any information!" They were waiting for a tug, and we were in that plane until 12:30am before they cancelled the flight. They said that another consideration was that regulations (union perhaps) restrict airplane staff's shifts to 16 hours, and once we would get to Brazil if we waited any longer, we would violate that. They said our luggage should be in Baggage Claim D, so most of us went there. A few stayed at the gate where it seemed they were talking with a staff person - I should have stayed there and listened. On the way to the Baggage Claim, many other passengers from our flight stopped some staff at counters who really knew nothing about our flight. That was for our gate's staff to deal with, they said. "But there was noone there! They told us to come to the Baggage Claim!" many cried. At the Baggage Claim, there were no staff people telling us anything about our flight. The line for baggage information was about an hour long - I didn't stand in it, but went to call Delta from the pay phones (the hotline works 24-hours, unlike the customer service people at the airport).

We had been given a breakfast upon leaving. Before I made my calls, I promptly scarfed up the bagel with cream cheese, banana, and orange juice. The granola bar I ate during one of my calls to Delta. The strawberry jam I neglected. :'(

I talked to a woman who spoke with the baggage info people, and then the people themselves, to find out that we won't be seeing our luggage tonight. There's noone on staff to take the luggage on the plane. Which means that it will be staying on the plane when it next goes to São Paulo - that means tonight, Thursday night. Through various phone calls to Delta, we were are able to at the least get on a Saturday night flight to São Paulo. This means I'm sitting at home right now, without my luggage, and I won't see it until Sunday morning. This has never happened to me before - I guess it's sort of adventure...but that doesn't mean I'm happy.

She said I should ask the baggage people in São Paulo about my luggage, and give them a claim sticker (they give you one when you check luggage). Yet, I'm only connecting in São Paulo, so I may not want to take my luggage then. I really have no idea how the hell they'll get it onto the flight to Belo Horizonte. I'll try calling later tonight to make sure I do have a flight to Belo Horizonte.

There's another problem - I can't call with my own phone, since Elayne (my foster mom) said that there's no use having my phone incur monthly charges while I'm away - she'd like to have it in my absence. I dropped it in a mailbox before leaving for the airport. I should never do that again!

So, here I am, in Brooklyn, with only a half of my possessions, just itching to get into the 80° weather. I could still call from pay phones or neighbors' phones to Delta, seeing if anything's opened up. Basically, the weather cancelled a lot of flights yesterday all over the Northeast, and then for the next few days, all the flights in the Northeast are totally full because of the overflow from the cancelled flights. It really makes me thing of The Day After Tomorrow - I just have to get out of this bitterly icy region, and I can get out the country. I thought of taking Amtrak to Baltimore or DC, but they've told me that all flights out of there in the next few days are booked too. I might go outside soon, but I really don't want to.

I'm not especially in a hurry to get to Brazil, but Sandra, my university contact, tells me that a lot of the students who would have helped me settle in and find things to do during Carnaval, will already have left Belo Horizonte by the time I get there, Saturday the 18th. (Carnaval is the 17th-21st) I mostly just hate this limbo.

I would upload the pictures I took at the airport, but my connector cable is in my luggage.

How ironic.