My Style of Flying: Have Headache Will Travel

   –by Anna Kleckerova

Over the Christmas holiday, I had to go to Czech, my home country, to take exams that I have there. (I am completing two secondary degrees simultaneously–one here, one in the Czech Republic.) It was already very unfortunate for me having to study for two high schools, but it was necessary to have it done. My journey was planned to begin on the 15th of December. I was all packed and went to a nice brunch with Trey. We were sitting in the restaurant with plates full of pancakes, talking and enjoying our last moments before I left when I remembered to check my flight, making sure everything was still planned and on time. To my surprise, it said that my flight was delayed by about five hours! There was no way this could work because I was flying from Palm Springs to Denver where I was supposed to have only a 45-minute layover. So, Trey and I went to the airport early to ask “What’s going on?!” When we arrived, a man working for United confirmed that I will indeed be missing my flight to Denver by exactly five hours. I started freaking out, so he said he would try to find another flight to get me to Czech on time. It was about 12:45 p.m., and the man finally found another flight and said I can fly to San Francisco, but I would have to go now, because the flight takes off in a little less than ten minutes. Not knowing that I would have to run to my gate, I had left my luggage and purse in Trey’s car so he had to run for it. They didn’t even let me put luggage on the belt and told me to run. So I took my purse, said bye To Trey, and ran to my gate. I had to pass all the TSA checkpoints and everyone was yelling at me that I am late. Finally, I arrived to my plane without knowing if my luggage would fly all the way with me. As I finally got to my seat, some woman was sitting there. So, I went to her and asked her nicely if she can move because it is MY seat, but she refused. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so I just put myself down in the middle spot.

When I arrived in San Francisco, I only had a little bit of time to get to my gate, so I was running again. Sweaty, tired, and looking terrible, I somehow managed to get to the gate on time and get ready for my other flight to Frankfurt, Germany. It was luck that I fell asleep on the plane. After half an hour of my beauty sleep, they woke me up with an announcement over the intercom that something happened and they needed a doctor. We were already in the air, so I got pretty spooked–although I never found out what happened. Everything eventually calmed down, and after a tiresome journey, I landed in Frankfurt. Glad I was finally in Europe, my relief was quickly erased when I found out that my remaining flight itineraries were left back in the Palm Springs airport. With no idea where to go, I finally found my gate. But with my luck, my terrible journey didn’t end there. The woman working at Lufthansa said that she didn’t see me on the list for my last flight to Czech, and she explained to me that I couldn’t fly anywhere. After an hour of her calling and me being utterly exhausted, she finally got clearance to let me go to the plane and I successfully flew to Prague.

After about a month home and after I finally finished my exams, I was preparing to go back to the States. I left at the crack of dawn. It was cold and snowy outside, and my mom took me to the airport. Me being me, I got my boarding passes and went to a wrong gate, of course. Luckily, I realized my mistake and walked to the correct one, catching my flight back to Frankfurt. Surprisingly, nothing too bad happened on this flight, and from there I landed in Houston where the worst part of my trip was still waiting for me. Everyone was leaving the plane, and I was slowly following the herd of people off. There was a huge line for immigration control. Luckily, I had a four-hour layover, but nothing would prepare me for what was about to come. I finally got in front and went before the immigration officer. He was going through my papers, passport, joking around, . . . and then he stopped, looked at me, and said that they don’t accept copies of an I-20 (document for international students). When I tried to show him an original one with just my name and a signature on it, he said that there is no date, so they couldn’t accept it. I started being very nervous. He told me to wait and sent someone for me. A police officer came for me and took me to a small room. My international student agency told me to call them if something like this happened, but no phones were allowed in the room. I stayed there three hours being questioned about everything, but I had no way to see the time; I was scared I had missed my flight. The officers there were very nervous because the room was filling up with people every minute. People had to start sitting outside, that’s how packed it was. Some of them couldn’t even speak English, which made the officers even more angry. There were also little kids crying, and I felt really bad after ten hours of them flying. I thought, “They will send me back to my home country,” or “I will definitely miss my flight to Palm Springs.” I would be stuck in Texas without anyone. The officer was trying to joke with me about basketball, but I really wasn’t in the mood for it. They finally let me go, and I didn’t miss my flight (surprisingly), but this experience will always stay in my heart. It was the spookiest thing that has ever happened to me.

Happy flying!

–Edited by Trey Lucatero