When we left the hotel for the last night, we were all saddened by the abrupt ending of the trip. We had experienced different cultures together and walked through a substantial number of historical sites together. At dinner, we pretended like we still had the next day to eat together, but we all knew this was the symbol for the end of our trip together. After our last wonderful dinner, we walked back to the hotel for one last hang out on the rooftop. Several people were compiling a list of memorable quotes from the beginning of the trip. We listened to songs like Closing Time by Semisonic and Yesterday by the Beatles while they read their lists of quotes. We talked about all of the great times that we had during the trip and reminisced before going to sleep for the final time in Rome.
I was abruptly woken by a call from my mother at four in the morning because my flight from Rome was delayed so long that I was going to miss my connecting flight from North Carolina to Tulsa. When I was looking for later flights, I thought I had picked a different flight for the day. I was already heading to my train when I noticed that the day for my flight was actually Friday not Thursday. My mom had been trying to call American Airlines to change my flight to Thursday, but there were not any flights that could work for me, so I had to stay another night in Rome.
My train took me to the correct airport, but I did not know how to get to my hotel. I was wandering around when a taxi driver told me that he could take me to my hotel for 48€. That price made my jaw drop because I knew there was a shuttle that would take me to the hotel for less. After finding it, I left for my hotel, and I only paid 6€ for the shuttle.
When I woke up for the morning shuttle, it was running late, and I was already stressed about the amount of time I was going to have to get to my gate. My plane boarded at 10:30 am and I was told to arrive at the airport three hours early. I arrived at the airport at 9:00 am, and I had no idea which terminal I needed to be in. Somehow, I found where I needed to check my luggage. After I passed through airport security, my flight’s gate was not listed on the departure board. I checked the American Airlines app and it gave me the terminal the plane should be located in. I took a train to the correct terminal and I saw my plane in its gate. I was becoming less stressed.
I did not sleep on the flight to Charlotte because I was excited to finally be home after a stressful night and morning. When I arrived in Charlotte, I was shoved into an hour-long customs line. My flight was boarding in an hour and 45 minutes. I was constantly checking the time because I needed to run to my gate before the plane departed. When it was my turn to declare my items at customs, I said no three times and was told to go on through. I angrily walked to move my luggage for my next flight, but nobody knew where the luggage for my flight was at, so I spent 15-20 minutes looking for my luggage. After I found it, I took it to the next luggage check, and started sprinting to the TSA security check. I had 30 minutes before my flight started to board, and I was in the back of an unmoving line. I knew that the doors to the plane closed 10 minutes before their scheduled departure, so when I was still in line 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, I was starting to sweat a lot. My backpack slowly came rolling through the x-ray, and I was starting to shake with fear. I grabbed my bag and belongings. Luckily, my plane was at gate D-5 and I was about a 4-minute run from terminal D. The assistant at the desk saw that I was sweating and said, “You better give me your ticket before they close that door.”
I made it onto the plane with around a minute to spare. I was finally heading home.
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