This was my last day of being in London and I was really sad to go. My flight going back home left at 12:20 pm and went to San Francisco, that was operated by Virgin Atlantic, then I had a connecting flight that left at 4:20 pm that went to Salt Lake, and that was operated by Delta.

Robert and I woke up at 7 am and got all of our crap together and got dressed and headed down to the lobby to wait for the others that were in our group. The hotel breakfast didn’t start until 8 am on Sundays, and we had to leave AT 8am, but some of us went in and ate some cereal anyways. 8 am rolled around and Robert, Cody, Spencer, and I left for the airport.

We walked to the Bayswater tube station and then went a station down before realising that we were on the wrong train, so we got off at High Street Kensington and switched from the Circle line (Yellow) to the District line (Green). As we got closer to the airport Robert, Cody, and Spencer had to get off to change trains so they could go to terminal 3, while I stayed on and went to terminal 4, this was my first time I was alone out in the streets the entire trip.

The train got to the airport and I headed to the ticketing kiosk where I printed my ticket then dropped my bag off and off I went to security. Security there is way different than security in the us, you don’t have to take off your shoes! When I got through security I did some duty free shopping and bought cadbury mini chocolate bars, shortbread cookies, and Dr. Pepper Zero. I waited for a solid 1.5 hours in the airport lounge for them to put up what gate I was leaving out of on the screens, during that time I filled out my customs forms and got an almond croissant and some sandwich from Pret A Manger. My flight was supposed to be displayed at 11:20 am but they didn’t put it up until 11:40, so I had 40 minutes to get to my gate.

I got to the gate and they took my ticket and checked my passport and they sent me into the holding room where all the other passengers were. They started loading the airplane and they went first class then they loaded from the back of the plane up, which is very smart. The airplane was configured with 3 seats, an aisle, 3 seats, an aisle, and then another 3 seats. I sat on the right of the airplane in the aisle seat next to a guy from San Francisco that had 2 daughters on the opposite side of the plane. We were supposed to take off at 12:20 pm but didn’t actually leave until 1:40 pm because one of the 3 pilots  was sick, so they had to call in a guy that was 40 minutes away. This was stressing me out because I already had a tight connection in San Francisco but now it was even tighter.

When we finally departed on out 10 HOUR and 30 MINUTE flight, I started to watch The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, and I thought that it was a decent movie. The stuardesses came around with drinks and sour cream and onion pretzels. When that movie was over I began to watch the new Fantastic Four, the one that totally tanked. About 30 minutes in they started passing out lunch, I got this chicken that had mashed potatoes and broccoli. The lunch also came with this super good pudding. After eating I resumed actually paying attention to the movie, then I fell asleep because the movie sucked. I woke up after a who knows how long nap, in a dazed and confused state, I just kinda sat in my chair waking up for 5 minutes. I decided to watch another movie and I watched Minions, it wasn’t great but towards the end of the movie it had scenes that had London in them and I was like, “Hey! I was there yesterday!” While watching the movie I was still stressed out because I was afraid I was going to miss my flight because the in-flight arrival estimation said we were supposed to get in 45 minutes before my flight from San Francisco was supposed to leave. I ended up buying wi-fi on the plane so I could email my family on what to do. They pretty much told me there’s nothing I could do until I actually missed my flight. A part of me wanted to miss my flight just so I could have the possibility of spending the night in San Francisco, and the other part of me just wanted to get the hell home. The Minions movie finished up and I began to watch Vacation, the one with Ed Helms (Andy from the office). While watching the movie the stuardess brought around these calzone things that actually weren’t half bad. After that movie I watched Straight Outta Compton and let my inner gangster out. During this movie the stuardess brought around chicken wraps with chips and drinks. With about 30 minutes left in the movie we began our decent into San Francisco. I finished my last movie 5 minutes before we landed and just started looking out the window. It was super cloudy so I didn’t get a good view of anything except for clouds. We landed and it was raining pretty hard; we taxied to our gate and I grabbed my things and off I went trying to make my connecting flight that left in 45 minutes.

I got over to customs and I had to print off this ticket with out face on it, and then the customs agent put me in the freaking SLOW line. Who does she think she it? So I ended up waiting 20 minutes in that line, and I ended up calling my aunt while I was waiting just to see what I should do. She told me that my bag would be handed off from Virgin Atlantic to Delta so there was no need to worry. I finally got to the customs agent that checked your passport and he stamped a paper that I had to go give to another agent. When I got through that mess I saw an international flight baggage carrousel and I decided to wait a minute for my bag, just in case. You know what came tumbling out of the chute? Yeah, my bag! So now I had to run to the Delta desk which was seriously in China. I got to the desk, out of breath and sweaty because I booked it across the airport with a messenger bag, a duffle bag that weighed a million pounds, and my suitcase. I told the desk agent, “My flight leaves in 15 minutes, my previous flight got delayed, how can you help me?” She frantically started typing into her computer and found that my flight out of San Francisco got delayed an hour and 10 minutes because the airplane coming in was late, so now it left at 7:30 pm. That was seriously the biggest relief of my life. I thanked her and went to security.

So remember those Dr. Pepper Zeros I bought at the duty free shop in London? Yeah, they were in my duffle bag and I sent them through security. They took my bag and got the drinks out, threw them away, and they swiped my bag with a stick testing for bombs. Uhhh excuse me, but those were just two un-opened bottles of soda, I don’t think they’re bombs, but whatever! After security I walked to my gate that was a nice and short 1 minute walk from security, and I just sat at the gate for half an hour taking in the craziness that had just unfolded. 7:30 pm came around and we loaded up, on my row there was a woman in the window and me on the aisle, so  lucked out yet again! We took off and I turned on some tunes and fell asleep. We landed in Salt Lake, I got my bags and went to the baggage carousel and got that bag, and then met my mom outside where she took me home and soon after getting home I quickly fell asleep.

This entire trip was probably the best thing I have ever done, it was fun and kind of an eye opener on what I want to do with my life.

Thanks for reading!

~R.P.