I'm back in Chicago, and it's snowed! That makes for one very happy Ryo, although Ryo's trip back here was not a very happy one...
I left our house in LA at around 6:30am (after 2.5 hours of sleep), and after wading through some congestion at LAX, hopped on my flight at around 8:30am. The flight landed in Kansas as scheduled, but then we were told that Midway was closed due to a snow storm. Our flight was cancelled, then after standing in a line that was obviously too long for the dinky airport, got reissued a ticket (or something). Then I sat/stood in another line at the gate for about 3 hours to actually get on the standby list, took a short nap, yadda yadda yadda and finally got on a plane at 8:30 or 9pm (my flight was originally supposed to arrive in Chicago at 3:15pm). Once we finished loading up, they found out that Chicago was once again closed, so we sat in the plane for about an hour, and finally took off at around 10pm. We arrived in Chicago around 11pm (must've been the longest "approach" ever... I dozed off a couple of times between when we went on approach and when we actually landed). I had bumped into my neighbor Neoline in Kansas and we had agreed to share a taxi back to campus.... only problem was, the entire baggage system in Midway had been completely overwhelmed by the schedule changes and the rush of incoming flights, and it took for ever to (not) find her bags (I had carried on my luggage). There were thousands of bags lying around, hundreds of people looking for lost luggage, nobody knew which baggage from which flights were coming out where and when, babies were crying, wolves were howling, the lizzards were eating flies, I was hungry and basically it was pretty much as chaotic as chaotic could be. At the end, we found one of her bags and gave up on the other at around 2am, and got in line for a cab... which it self turned out to be a 30 minute wait (the line was so long it doubled back twice and extended into the baggage claim area). We met another guy from our school to share the cab, so we chatted while in line and that wait turned out to be pleassant, all things concerned. And the cab ride was almost surreal, with the snow and all. I almost cried (well, not really) when I saw the Reg standing in the snowy nightscape... home at last!!
Apparently two of my roommates have yet to get back, and I have a feeling that a lot of people will be missing class tomorrow. But hey, I'm back, and I've got snow. What more could I ask for? (Well, a massive snow ball fight would be nice...and maybe a few more inches, please?)
Posted Mon, January 5, 2004 13:48 by Josh
Snow :( We don't have snow or a Ryo :( Well, I gotta go get some eats with my father but I thought I would drop you a note. Note. Have fun Ryo, Chico misses you, Josh
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