Field School: The Journey Home (Las Vegas)

     The flight from Atlanta wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. During our boarding, we were told that if we had rolling carry-ons, they would have to be checked and put in the hold, but I had prepared for that and removed the bag I had from Bulgaria - I had put all the souvenirs into my Balkan Heritage Field School tote bag and then put that inside my I <3 Bulgaria drawstring bag that I had used as my dig bag for the past week (I realized on the flight later I had forgotten to take my passport out of my roller carry-on and was frantically praying to Hermes to at least let me get that bag back if nothing else because how did I forget to remove my passport). The seats were a bit roomier than the ones on the Paris flight because there were significantly fewer people on this flight, so the seats were slightly bigger. The flight was supposed to be four hours and sixteen minutes long.
     I met someone named Dawn Rose on the way into the flight because she and I had seats near each other, but her traveling companion had a seat higher up in the plane. Both a person behind her and I told her they were willing to switch with him if she wanted; the other woman ended up switching, so I kept my aisle seat, which was next to Dawn Rose's aisle seat, so we talked for a bit because I told her I was on a dig in Bulgaria, so we talked about archaeology for a while, and she told me where she traveled, before we both went to do our own things.
     The flight had a snack, so I had a weird "cookie" that tasted like doughy cake and some Coke. When they had come back, I asked what they had for hot drinks, and I got tea and asked for their cookies, which complemented the black tea well. The flight had been blasting cold air at us (the downside to the aisle seat and being short is that I can't reach anything above me like the controls for that) the whole flight, and before we took off, they made an announcement that there were no blankets on board because Atlanta had a shortage, so they didn't take any. I was so cold that I made more trips to the bathroom than usual (as soon as I felt the slightest need to go) just so that I could warm up a little bit. At one point during the first bathroom trip, someone pushed on the door with a lot of force, so I yelled "Whoa," because, dude, I am doing my business in here, please wait for a second, the door says occupied.
     Despite the fact that the airline was selling headsets for $2 a piece, I just did what I had done on my first flight out of Vegas, and watched movies with subtitles and no earpieces. I put on Love, Simon again, so if I nodded off for a bit, it wasn't that big of a deal. The final stretch of the time, I put on Thor: Ragnarok, and nodded off during that a few times as well. I kept checking my watch because I was so anxious to get home.
     Once we landed, I gathered all of my things and began to message Folklore Fiancé. They were already at the airport, and once I was let out, I was at gate D34. Folklore Fiancé said they had been at a different gate first, but then went to information. I asked them to call me, and they had told me where they were waiting. We decided to head to the carousel for my luggage and meet there. They asked me if I wanted them to grab my bags if they saw them. I said yes, if they could, but to be careful with the large luggage. Right after they said that, they saw the small one already, and while we were on the phone, told me they grabbed the big one too. We stayed on the phone until I found them waiting by the number 14 carousel. We hugged and my knee popped, so I had to sit for a minute.
     Folklore Fiancé led the way to their aunt's car where she was waiting for us in the parking garage. My luggage was a little worse for wear and it didn't have my lock on it anymore, even though I had a TSA-approved lock, which really irritated me. I didn't see it inside my luggage, either, and I am still angry about it because it was a brand new lock I had bought before I went. We loaded up the car and headed home. We talked about the dig, and I shared some snacks I had bought in Bulgaria with them, and we finally got home around 11 p.m.
     I gave everyone their presents that I had for them: I got Nana a pepper shaker and a magnet that was a mini mortar and pestle; I got three souvenir spoons (one silver, two ceramic) for my aunt-in-law, my sibling-in-law got a Bulgarian wooden flute, and Folklore Fiancé was given socks with traditional Bulgarian designs on it, a miniature notebook that was the very kitschy souvenir design but I knew they would like, a pegasus necklace, and then a necklace with a large charm with Bulgarian embroidery on it. They said they had never seen embroidery on a necklace before and seemed super excited about it, so I was glad I made the right decision on buying it.
     Folklore Fiancé heated up some kielbasa for me before I went to take my shower and soak my feet (because they are very swollen), and we went to bed late. This is my last blog post about my field school trip for the Pistiros excavation of 2018 through the Balkan Heritage Field School!
     That is, of course, until I go again next season 😉

Field School: The Journey Home (Atlanta)

    Boarding the plane and waiting for take-off from Paris took about an hour - which makes sense because there were a lot of people on that plane. The good: I had an aisle seat again, which makes it way easier if I needed to get up. The bad: as soon as my area was settled in, a baby screamed for the entire hour everyone else was boarding, and I was trying to continue to be patient. The really bad: everyone who knows me knows I don’t like it when people move my stuff without asking me (obviously not the flight attendants, that’s their job, I get it), but three different people tried to move my luggage and rearrange it and I had to tell them three separate times that it doesn’t fit that way.

    That was the beginning of my irritation with everything. Due to the fact that I can’t sleep on planes, I had a lot of movie-watching ahead of me. As soon as we took off and I said a prayer to Hermes, I tried messing with the screen in front of me. It didn’t work for a while, but I finally got it to work shortly after taking off.

    The first movie I watched was the remake of Overboard, which I forgot was a remake until halfway into it because Folklore Fiancé had talked about it with me before. The other movies I watched were 12 Years a Slave because I hadn’t seen it yet - it was really intense and a little confusing with the jumps in time, but overall a good film - and then I watched A Quiet Place, which was also really intense (although the baby at the front of my section screamed through half of it, so the effect wasn’t quite the same - yes, I had it up loud but airline headphones can only do so much). I could feel myself holding my breath during the movie. I didn’t find it to have a satisfactory ending, though.

    Since I decided to watch pretty heavy movies (and didn’t end up watching Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring like I said I would (sorry, Kiwi)), the rest of the time was taken up by watching pretty mindless sitcoms, like The Big Bang Theory, 2 Broke Girls, and the first two episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine (I managed to finish the second episode all the way through as we were in taxi in the flight).   

    The food on the flight was okay, but the chocolate on the French flights are always 86% cacao or something ridiculous like that. The Bulgarian chocolate was bigger and milk chocolate, so I liked it much better.

    The real problems began, however, when we landed. I got up right away, pulled down my luggage, and got ready to depart. However, things have changed since I last traveled internationally. We had to get off, go through passport control, and then go get our checked bags and re-check them for our next flight. I was extremely anxious that my bag had been lost because I didn’t see it for a while, so I moved to where the conveyor belt from the hold let out, so I could see it as it was coming down.

    It took a while before I saw it, and I think I got over excited and intense, because I picked it up and then it hit the ground really hard. Then it went lopsided. Oh no, what did I do, fuck, was all that went through my mind. Because, sure enough, I leaned it back and the wheel popped off, so I picked it up and put it in my grocery bag with my snacks. There were three screws exposed on the bottom of the bag, and cracks in both the top on that side and the bottom near the wheel part. (When I re-checked my bag, the attendant told me to just make a claim when I got to Las Vegas, so yet another thing to do…)

    We were directed where to go for connecting flights, dropped off the checked bags, and then had to go through security. This security was strange, though, because they told us to just put everything in our bags, leave our shoes on, and we could go through. I tossed all of my stuff in my carry-on or my laptop bag (we didn’t have to take out laptops, either). I guess perhaps it was because it was the connecting flights and they might have a different protocol. I got through it pretty quickly, which was surprising to me because of my random wheel I had in the grocery bag.

    I checked the monitors to see where my gate would be and it said A11, and I was at the F gates. I followed the signs to get to the A gates and I rode another “Plane Train,” as they called it to get to my gate.

    Just a few more hours until I’m home.

Field School: The Journey Home (Bonjour, Paris - Encore)

     I knocked on Cyrene's door around 4:50 a.m., since we had decided that's when we were going to head down and catch the airport shuttle as we arranged the previous night. When we were checking out, I was prepared to pay the city tax like I did last time, but the fellow may have remembered me from when I checked in, and he didn't ask for it, which was cool. Cyrene and I stood outside to wait for the driver to come and get our luggage in the shuttle.
     We got to the Sofia Airport around 5:12 a.m. because he had to drop off someone at the other terminal, and then unload all of our bags (two other people had taken then shuttle with us), and Cyrene and I parted ways so we could check our bags at our respective airlines. My bag was a little over 21.60 kilograms, but it was still under 23, and that's what mattered. Once I was checked in and headed to my gate, it was barely 5:45, so checking the bags and going through security didn't take long at all.
     Cyrene messaged me and told me where her gate was, so I meandered over to her to say our goodbyes, and we went to grab some things from the place that had snacks and drinks. I bought two bottles of water and a Coke, and it cost me over ten leva, which is bonkers; that is way too much - the Coke was 5 leva on its own. Cyrene and I hugged and went back to our gates, and I ate my breakfast (mini croissants filled with chocolate), and drank one of the waters. The boarding started shortly after that, and it felt like we were waiting forever to board. Luckily, I had an aisle seat.
     But I was next to a baby and their father.
     I reassured myself that it wouldn't be bad because I was only on a two-and-a-half hour flight. The kid did sleep for most of the flight, and I read the guide to Plovdiv I had bought at the museum there. That took up most of the flight. The baby did kick me a lot, and the father kept moving and getting into my space, but I was trying my best to be patient because I know traveling with a kid that has to sit in your lap on an airplane can't be easy. He was very apologetic about things, though, so I had no problem with them. The baby wasn't screaming the whole time, and when they were awake, they were just saying "WOW" about what was out the window or babbling in French.
     We arrived in Paris around 10 a.m. Sofia time, 9 a.m. Paris time, and had to go through security for the connecting flights. Apparently, I can't bring soda or water even though I had bought them in the other airport, so I chugged the Coke, threw away the water, and the little water that they had given me on the Bulgaria Air flight (which honestly I should have drunk as soon as I received it because it was small). The attendant also put my hand sanitizer in a bag because I had forgotten to put it in one because I carry it in my pocket. Other than that, I was able to get through security pretty easily.
     The next challenge was my boarding pass for Atlanta saying "check screens" for my gate. So, I had to find one of the screens, but none of them listed Atlanta as a destination for the time it was leaving, just Vienna. I had seen a machine that lets you scan your boarding pass to tell you your gate, but since I was in line for security when I saw it, I couldn't get to it. Since the screens didn't say where I was supposed to go, I had to find another one to tell me where I was supposed to be. I needed to be in terminal 2E, so I found my way there and where we waited for the bus shuttle, there was another machine. It gave me my gate number, and I took the bus shuttle when it came and got off at the second stop.
     There were a lot of shops on the way to my gate, so I popped into a few of them to check them out since I still have a little Euro left from my mistake at the beginning of this trip. Nothing caught my fancy, and I found my gate. None of the outlets were working, so I gave up on trying to charge my phone or my laptop since I won't really be able to use either of them on the flight over anyway. I ran to the restroom and then back to the gate. I finished the last two blogs and have been uploading my Bulgarian photos to my personal Facebook before I add them to my Ancient Geeko-Roman pages. Since I don't have my waters anymore, I might get some before we board. It's still about an hour before we're going to be getting on the plane, so I'll probably just walk around for a bit, and then come back before boarding time.
     Atlanta, here I come! 

Field School: Paris

     Time to wait once again! I'm in Paris, in the Paris Aéroport Charles de Gaulle, where I have been twice before now in 2008. I can't believe it's been ten years since I've been to France. I just heard that our take-off has been delayed because of the preparation of the cabin. But, I want to back up and recount the Detroit flight while I was waiting to board for Paris. I walked for ages because I didn't realize that the Detroit airport ALSO had trams. Is it because I haven't been abroad for ten years I've not noticed this? Either way, I walked almost the full 40-something gates to get to mine. Once I got there, of course, I had to go the furthest way to find an outlet for my phone. Not too long after I had sat down, they started calling for boarding. Once I heard my zone called, I got up and got in line, and I was given a new seat, which is fine. What is NOT fine is that the attendant felt the need to fold my boarding passes and shove them back into my passport.
     Now, I'm going to be real with everyone: I have diagnosed obsessive-compulsive tendencies. A type of OCD that isn't as overbearing as it could be, but still affects me. One of those things that set me off is keeping official documents straight and pristine. When I had to send away my birth certificate to get my passport, I nearly cried because not only did they fold it but they stapled it, too. That's unacceptable to my brain, so now all I'm thinking is the conservation I know and will have to flatten out my boarding passes when I get home to properly display them in a memory book (or a frame, which drives the Folklore Fiancé bonkers; I frame everything, and they don't understand why. This is part of why.)
     So, after that upset, I put my luggage in the overhead, and it looks like it won't fit. Luckily, a fellow sitting across from me helped me adjust it so it would fit. I was trying to get an agent to help me, but she seemed upset that I was asking her for help - which I get, she has other stuff to do. I was just anxious that it wasn't going to fit. The flight attendants rearranged the overhead stuff so it would fit before we took off, though, so I didn't have to worry about that anymore. I was relieved to see that I had an aisle seat because I avoided using the bathroom on my first flight because I was stuck between two skinny fellows and didn't want to disturb them. I was less relieved to see that the cupholder on my dinner tray was broken (these were the ones that fold out on the bottom of the tray so you can have a cup there without the whole tray being down) so I couldn't use that. And, I forgot my headphones, but luckily, the flight provided me with headphones for this flight!
     Except those were broken too. One side was hanging literally by the cords and wires. I tried it, and it ended up working out in the one ear, so I just dealt with that. I decided that I was just going to watch movies. Since the flight I was on previously had certain movies with subtitles, I was able to watch Love, Simon in its entirety (I had seen it with Folklore Fiancé in theatres when it came out, and we both cried...a lot) and then I watched half of Thor: Ragnarok.  On the Paris flight, I was able to finish the Thor movie and watched Hot Pursuit and the 2016 Jumanji movie before I found Thor: Ragnarok as an option. By that point, it was over half the flight out of the way, and I just decided to watch The Big Bang Theory - I do enjoy the show but I am very critical of the problematic aspects but I relate a lot to Sheldon, so I like watching it.
     The Paris flight had a dinner that was a pretty nice spread! I couldn't eat the dessert, though, because it was coconut cake and I'm allergic to coconut. I was able to eat the extra bread, though! I got bread, butter, cheese, green applesauce, a quinoa black bean salad I couldn't eat, and the main part was chicken in a sauce I surprisingly liked, and it came with kale mashed potatoes. I love potatoes, but I hate kale, so I was shocked that I liked it at all let alone finished it. The light breakfast they had was a muffin, plain yogurt (which was disgusting, so I dumped two sugar packets into it), and orange juice. I was able to get tea, water, and soda at different points of the flight and had hot chocolate with breakfast, which was nice.
     Once I got to CDG, I was hella confused. I realized then it was the first time I'd ever gone into this airport without a large group. I'm almost thirty, but traveling on my own still makes me a little anxious. Either way, I found my way to the gate I needed and got on another tram, where I missed my gate and had to ride it back after I got off and realized the opposite track was closed completely, so I should have just stayed on the tram in the first place. I went back and followed the long, winding hallways, and had to go through security.
     Again.
     Which I forgot about.
     And, as an American, my first instinct was to take off my shoes. Well, I looked up with one boot in my hand and went "oh, no one else is doing this," and put back on an untied boot and I stumbled through enough French to the attendants that they replied in very rapid French and I was not prepared because the last time I spoke French, remember, regularly, was ten years ago, when I was last in France. I am very rusty. Which is better than I can say about my Bulgarian, because, despite my best efforts, is still non-existent.
     Once I found my gate, I sat down and immediately started coughing and realized there was a strange smell that was making me choke. I realized then that it was cigarette smoke, which is another thing I am allergic to, and upon investigation, CDG does indeed have designated smoking areas past security. Which is where I must have been sitting. So, I got up to walk around to clear out my lungs. I couldn't find food that I liked for lunch, so my lunch is a Coca-Cola that is lukewarm (gross - another OCD thing: I need certain liquids super cold, but I needed the caffeine more this time), cookies, and Bueno bars (some of my favorite foreign chocolates).
     The attendant just informed me that because the flight to Sofia is full so that our carry-on bags (the large ones) have to be checked. I need to make sure that I've brought a lock for both bags just in case this happens again because now I'm going to be extra anxious until I get there. At least the flight is only a couple of hours! It's the shortest flight of my trip.
     We should be boarding by 1:30 p.m. Paris time and I should be in Sofia a little past 5 p.m. Sofia time!
     I haven't slept a wink, I'm really anxious, and really hungry.
     Cross your fingers I stay sane for the final stretch!

Field School: The Domestic Flight

     Here I am, sitting at the D gate, waiting for my flight. It boards around 11:30 and we are scheduled to leave at 12:18. So, I thought, another blog post before I get on my flight to Detroit! One of the downsides of going so far to Europe in the summer is the airlines are all very expensive if you don't have a bunch of connecting flights. I'm waiting for my flight to Detroit, and then in Detroit, I will be waiting about two hours to go to Paris. Once I'm in Paris, it's another two-hour wait until I get to Sofia. So, lots of waiting.
     My intention was to sleep in this morning until at least 7 a.m., but my fiancé's cat had other plans and woke me up at 4:30. I had to get up to go to the bathroom, and he and my fiancé's other cat ran out of the bedroom when I opened the door. My cat, Athena, usually sleeps in the closet and doesn't get along with other cats, so she usually stays in there. My fiancé's cats have the advantage of having lived in that house before, so they warmed up to it much quicker. I did manage to fall back asleep and was woken up by my alarm clock at 7 a.m. My fiancé got up and did their morning thing and I got dressed right away because I was anxious. I made sure I had my watch on and everything together. I frantically packed last night and forgot to put some of my snacks in my carry on (oops).
     I ate breakfast and had a chai that my fiancé so graciously made me (honestly without them, I would struggle to feed myself half the time) and grabbed the leftover Euro I had in my car from when I studied abroad in 2008 and 2009 to France and Italy and put it in my new wallet. One of the 2 cent Euro coins I separated for an offering to Hermes. I used my car key to dig a shallow hole next to the mailbox where I currently lived and buried the coin there. I poured a small libation of my morning chai to Hermes and said a small prayer. The contemporary Hellenic Pagan delighted in doing such a simple ritual that made me feel much better about traveling.
     My aunt-in-law drove me and my fiancé to the airport and we managed to go the wrong way a couple times! McCarran International Airport is HUGE and it was so intimidating. I had only flown out of Chicago, Philadelphia, and Newark (NJ) up until this point, so this was definitely an experience. I got through the baggage check pretty easily and the longest wait was while I was in line for security. As I waited in line for security, a heavy feeling washed over me because it was a feeling I hadn't felt in a while: it was how at home I felt at the airport. Hermes is my patron god, after all, so it makes sense that I would find comfort in an airport where travelers from all over the world are bustling by, a plethora of languages flying from their tongues. It gave me a sense of calm and belonging I haven't felt in a long time.
     Everything went by with no issue whatsoever, but I did take off my shoes and gather things together rather quickly so I could dump it all in the buckets and scurry over to the scanner. Once I had gathered all my belongings back up, I got my shoes on and repacked what needed to be repacked, and headed to towards the D Gate. However, I didn't see the gate, but a tram pulling towards us. It seemed that were were to take a tram to the D gates! I've never taken a tram inside an airport before. I've taken the L / El (I use both interchangeably; sorry if it's wrong, Chicago!) into the Chicago O'Hare International Airport but walked everywhere once I was checked in. So, that was an experience!
     Once I got off the tram, I headed straight to the D gate and sat down. I was having trouble finding an outlet and I was worried about my phone having enough charge (it was already at 59% even though it was at 100% at 7 a.m., but I had been using it until 10 a.m., so it was a little drained by then). The first outlet I found didn't work so I moved to another spot. Eventually, an outlet became available and I'm letting my phone charge while I write this blog post! My flight should be boarding in about forty minutes, so I'm debating on whether to read or write once I'm done with this blog post.
     But, knowing me, I might just bounce around on social media until it's time to board.
     Detroit, here I come!