Delayed! - 10/31/2009

I went down to the Turkish Airlines ticket desk at about 12:45 pm. Along the way I rode the elevator down with a woman who looked asian. I assumed that she was Korean because when I arrived earlier there was a Korean Air flight leaving and a lot of asian looking people wandering about. When I got to the ticket desk, I found that the asian woman was standing there, and she was on the same flight to Istanbul. She asked if I had heard the bad news about the flight being delayed 3 hours and I chatted with her a little bit about the situation and found out that she was heading home to Kyrgyzstan, a former soviet republic, known apparently for the practice of bride snatching. She was just making her connection through Istanbul and was distressed to find that she was likely to miss her next flight home. I don't think she was being bride snatched. :)

When I reached the counter the attendant said that they would start checking in at 1:30pm and waived me to the counters around the corner. I walked over with several others who were waiting for the flight. The area was still set up for the Korea Air staff, so I waited and watched with the growing mass of coach passengers as they reconfigured the area for Turkish Airlines. As I was waiting I watched a woman come to the remaining Korea Air staff member with a little brown dog in a small mesh carrier. I passed the remaining minutes listening to some heated discussion, I think relating to the dogs vaccination papers. It was very engrossing :) Fortunately for me the entrance to the line was constructed right where I was standing, so I was the first one they called to check in. A few minutes later I was carrying my bags to the security area and then quickly passed through the security checkpoint.

I walked down one of the jetways to see where I would be spending the next 6.5 hours. There were only a few people walking around and the restaurants (what little there were) were all empty. I passed on the doner sandwich figuring that I would have plenty of opportunity to eat good Turkish food after my arrival. I finally settled on the meatball hero and a bottled water. So much for low carb eating :)  After finishing the mostly satisfying meal, I tried calling Mom again. She answered and we talked for another 45 minutes or so and she caught me up on all the goings on in her life. I then called Shanna again to let her know my flight was delayed. After that I called Dad and talked to him for a while.

After catching up with Dad, I called AT&T to find out why I couldn’t login to the wifi hotspot. Turns out that they don’t have the contract here at JFK so I have to shell out 8 bucks for “Boingo”. After all that talking my phone battery is nearly dead (and I packed the charger in my checked luggage!), so I figured it was worth it to pay it, just so I could stay in touch while I am waiting. So far the service seems to be OK, though it recommends that I install some kind of extra software which I just ain’t gonna do! :) I Skyped with Shanna & the kids for a few minutes since they were planning to go out in the evening and there may not be another good opportunity. I pointed the computer camera out the window so he could see the planes and he asked if he could go on the airplane. I don’t think he understands yet that I am going away.

Not a lot happening here in the terminal. What sounds a lot like the fire alarm keeps sounding but nobody moves, so I guess it is not a fire alarm. Wonder where you are supposed to go in a terminal if there is a fire? Also, there is a little bird that keeps hopping around under the chairs. Seems pretty friendly.

I almost forgot to mention it, I am flying on Halloween, and many of the airline employees are dressed up for it. At least I think those are costumes? :P