Before I do a post about my days of interviews (at which I had a lot of fun!), I first must write down what happened on my travels home to Champaign from Athens, Georgia....
I must warn you, this is loooong but entirely the truth, nothing has been exaggerated....
I left Athens at approximately 2:20 pm. I was the only passenger on the shuttle with a driver who thought we were best friends and she talked to me for the entire trip. At least it helped the time pass.
I got to the Atlanta airport, checked in, and headed to security. I decided to take the "seasoned traveler" line since I consider myself an experienced traveler. I got out my laptop, put my coat and sweater and shoes in the bin, put my purse in a pin, opened my suitcase to get my liquids... couldn't find them... looked, and looked and looked.... couldn't find the bag of liquids... let some business people pass me.... finally remembered I put the bag in the front pouch of the suitcase so I "wouldn't forget it"! Oops! Went through security, got my stuff, put it on a table to put everything away... noticed I had lost my id somewhere... momentarily panicked... walked back to security (leaving my stuff on the table) and thankfully saw my id on the floor.
Little did I know that was the beginning to an eventful evening.
I then changed into jeans and a t-shirt (wanted to be more comfortable - soooo glad I did this!), checked in at the ticket counter (I needed to get a seat), and waited for my flight... and waited... then found out we were 1.5 hours delayed for maintenance (supposed to leave at 5:30, now learned that at 7 we would find out whether we were going to leave or whether it was canceled)... then they decided to just cancel the flight and said "Everyone please get in line, we will transfer you to Delta's 7:30 flight" (I was on American). Nice! 60 people quickly got in line - I was near the counter so I quickly got in line, got my new pass, and headed to Delta. Got to Delta, and got in line there for my boarding pass. Now, please note, American put one guy at the counter to help us and Delta put one guy at the counter to help us... not enough people to help 60 people find new seats in 30 minutes!
Anyway, I quickly realized that this Delta flight was going to put me into Chicago after the last flight to Champaign left. I called the shuttle and realized that my flight was landing at 9 so I could hopefully take the 9:20 shuttle to Champaign and be home by midnight. No problem!
Or so I thought...
Flight went relatively well, sat at the gate for a handful of minutes, I was unfortunately not super polite and got off before letting everyone in the row in front of me off, and quickly quickly walked to the bus terminal. Made it by 9:10 and was thrilled!
At 9:30 the van pulls up, a guy got out and the driver said "This isn't your stop, I'll drive you to your stop" and the guy said "I'll just walk from here". I should have known then that this driver was a little crazy!
I get in the van, the driver spends 10+ minutes calling dispatch to figure out how much money I owe, and the girl in the van tells me that they had already gotten lost trying to find the mall near the airport. The driver got really close and kept getting close and then would get lost so he finally gave up and just went to the airport. Then two professors walked up and tried to get into the van, but by this point the driver was panicking because he still had to take this girl to the mall and take another guy to the international terminal. Dispatch finally said to leave me and the two professors at the airport in case another van came before this guy came back. We thought "Yay! We'd rather have another driver that doesn't get lost anyway!" So we went back inside the bus terminal to wait....
and wait... and wait...
A bus pulled up at11:10 (yes, almost two hours later) and we said "Can we please ride with you?!" He said, "The van will be here in five minutes, it's $60 to ride with him and $95 to ride with me" (the van was cheaper because it was a pre-10 PM ride, technically). I didn't have $95, nor did some of the others (by then two more people were waiting with us) so the five of us got in the van. It took 10 minutes for this guy to take our money, write down our names, figure out we were all going to the bus terminal in Champaign, and tell dispatch that there were now five people in the van (the driver had picked up one guy at the mall). Then our driver asked the bus driver how to get to the international terminal (mind you, he had just been there a couple hours earlier), and then we left. The guy in the front seat helped the driver find his way to the international terminal.
Although dispatch had told the driver that there were two people waiting, he was surprised to find two people at the terminal waiting for us. It took 10 minutes to sort things out with dispatch, get the money, and get ready to go. The bus (which couldn't leave 'til 11:30) had since driven up next to us and left... we really wished we had been with him! (I cannot express to you the conversations that we'd already had with this driver... for example, dispatch asked the driver how many people were in the van... "one........ two....." I quickly interrupted and said "Seven!" Yup, that's just the beginning of it!)
Anyway, we finally pulled out from the airport and the guy up front told the driver how to get to the highway ... yay for the guy up front! (I was also helping confirm the directions with my iphone.) We caught up to the bus and told the driver to just follow that bus!!
We thought we were in the clear.... until we realized we were still 1.5 hours from Champaign and our driver only had 1/4 of a tank of gas. We said "Do you need to stop and get gas?" He called dispatch, dispatch said he should be able to make the round trip on one tank (I wanted to call dispatch and remind them that he had gotten lost in Chicago for 2.5 hours!). Anyway, we kept going. Then we got to "1/2 of 1/4 of a tank" (yes, I know it's an 1/8, but he kept calling dispatch saying we had "1/2 a tank" ... no no "1/2 a 1/4")... then the light went on and we still had 25 miles to go! We kept trying to get him to stop to fill up, but "he only had a gas card for a certain gas station" (yes, he did have all our cash but he wouldn't use that!) and "dispatch said he could make it".
We exited the highway, turned to go over the overpass.... and the car stopped! We ran out of gas! No joke, the gas station was on the other side of the overpass! We all started laughing! It was so frustrating, we were all exhausted (it was now 1:40 am), that all we could do was laugh! He kept pumping the gas, restarting the engine, and pumping it more ... we were able to make it to the top of the overpass and then it was slightly downhill so we coasted to the gas station. Then he couldn't figure out where to turn in... (sidenote: we had sped! a lot of the way so we had eventually passed the bus) the bus then pulled up behind us and the other driver got on the walkie talkie and yelled "Turn here! Turn left here! Get gas!" It was hilarious!!! (Yeah, you probably had to be there!) It was nice to know that others were as frustrated with him as we were.
Anyway, we couldn't get into the gas station because it was up a slope, so the guy up front and another guy got out and pushed the van. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for the guy to cash the work check thing he had, fill a full tank, and then go get money back. This gas station was across the large cornfield from my apartment complex and I thought about getting out to walk, but it was coooold (minus 5!) so I stayed in the warm van.
We finally left, worked our way through town, and arrived at the bus terminal a little after 2! The driver got out, got our luggage, and said "Who's bag is this?" No kidding! The last bag in? Hmmm... probably the last guy who got in... The guy from the front seat said "It's the last guy you let in the van! Just stand back, we'll get our own suitcases!!!" I felt bad for the driver, and I knew this guy was very very upset, but I think it had just been such a long night for us and we were exhausted!
I was soooo glad to see my friend Erin (and her friend from Chicago)! I can't believe they stayed awake to pick me up but I was soooo glad they did!
I got home at about 2:30 but was then wide awake and couldn't fall asleep until almost 4. That meant that I had been awake for almost 24 hours!!! Ridiculous! Also, it meant my journey from Athens took about 13 hours!! Craziness!!!
The good news is... It was all worth it! Even if I don't end up getting the job (which I do hope I get), it was a great experience, I met a lot of great people, and I'm very very glad I went!!!
Kudos to you if you read all of that! The next post should be more exciting! :)
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