Alfaj0r.com

Here I am at the Los Angeles Airport, also known as LAX. It’s 10am, and I’ve been here for 2 hours… and I still have over 4 hours before I board the plane that takes me to Santiago of Chile (where in turn, I’ll take a plane to Mendoza).
This has to be one of my worst traveling experiences, or at least when it comes to an airport.
The flight from Reno was pretty scary. 5 minutes after take off, I went through the most intense turbulence I’ve ever experienced. A couple of bumps made me dizzy and lightheaded like usual, and I put my magazine down because I was obviously not able to read… and then we hit an air pocket that literally lifted me from my seat and shook me up. I was scared. Luckily, that was the very last bump on that flight, and I think it’s already apparent that I did no die on it. The best part of this turbulence came from a little girl sitting 2 rows in front of me. She was having a great time with the turbulence, and her innocent and hearty laugh lightened the situation in a very juxtapositional way. :unsmith:
I flew into LAX, and came in through gate 37. I had to go find my gate for my flight to Chile, but nowhere in sight could I find where I was supposed to head. Since I had about 7 hours to kill, I didn’t mind wandering, but what if I had been in a rush? :colbert: Some people surely don’t have that luxury.
My itinerary said that my flight to Santiago (SCL) was with American Airlines, so I went to the first desk that I found, and asked them where I should go. The guy had no idea, so he referred me to a desk across the aisle, where a lady was helping people out.
I asked her where I needed to go, after explaining where I’m going, and she told me that I needed to get to the international terminal, which is a whole separate building. She gave me some vague directions on how to get there, and off I went. I had gone out of the security zone, which meant I was going to eventually have to go through the security dance again, with the x-rays and whatnot. Might as well give me a rusty nail to poke my eye with, too, no?
Anyway, I walked to another terminal, where I saw a big sign that said “INTERNATIONAL TERMINAL”, but with an arrow pointing outside. Confused, I asked a lady with an airport uniform. She said “oh yes, you’re here darlin’. Just get in that line over there”, pointing to a group of people lined up for one of the crowded check-in line at one of the American Airline counters.
My turn finally came, and it turns out that my flight is not with American Airlines, but with LAN Chile. I found this out because another lady came from behind the counter to see what was going on with me, and she directed me to the terminal across the street. That’s right, I had to go outside, in the cold rainy LA morning, and into the International Terminal. Again, I personally don’t have a problem with that, but what if I was in a big rush, or I was disabled, old or traveling with children? That’s right, it’d be a huge pain in the ass.
I finally found the right place to check-in and went through security, and I’ve been sitting at my gate, waiting patiently and watching videos on the MacBook ( that I’m smuggling :ninja: ), like MythBusters. You’d think I’m content, but this terminal is so fucking loud! :argh: Announcements are being made every 10 minutes at a level so loud that he speakers are about to blow out. Top that with the cleaning lady that walks around every 30 minutes sweeping every single seat, despite me being the only one here and not sitting naked on every single seat masturbating with mustard. Seriously lady, I know you want to keep your job, but everything is just as clean as it was the last time you cleaned them! :argh:

At any rate, I’m seriously not that annoyed. I just have a considerable amount of time to kill, and I figured I’d rant about all the little things that could annoy someone having a bad day. Everything has gone well enough so far on my trip: I’m on schedule and the weather is looking nice. I was dropped off at the Reno airport by my girlfriend Dani, with a ziplock baggie full of chocolate chip cookies and a mysterious Christmas present that I haven’t opened.
I’m not complaining here, I’m just sitting here at the airport, looking important while I type away and people walk around from gate to gate, trying to get to their destinations. I’ll be getting to mine in 24 hours, as it’s 10:45 right now.
Well, wait, I lie. Factor in time zones and all that fun stuff, and it’ll be 19 hours. Yay!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 10:45 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.