Starting my journey back today … scary thought. I’m excited about going home. But I’m going to miss this place and the people, especially Brent, Jonas, Tiina, Stuart and the Scouts. I made a real connection with that lot here.
I woke up at 8am and went to say goodbye to Jonas before he went off to school. While Brent was taking Jonas to school, I loaded up lappy to check my mail and facebook and had a wallpost from Stuart saying that we should have done that every Tuesday after Scouts. Looking back, it would have been nice, but I’m glad that we at least had that drink later rather than never. Brent then came back as he was working from home so that he could take me to the airport. We had omelette and back bacon for breakfast and then while he did some work I had a shower and shoved the last few bits into my hand luggage for the flight.
Before we went to the airport, we went to the Scout shop as I hadn’t seen it yet. I got myself a Scout’s Canada badge and a mug up badge for my camp blanket. We also managed to look around the museum and the two guys in there were such characters, one of them named Alan Griffin was a fighter pilot in the Second World War in London, so he was telling me all about that. The museum is packed with artefacts from scouting through the years, including uniforms, books, badges and figurines. That room was full of it all!
After the Scout shop we grabbed some lunch in Subway before heading over to the airport. As predicted my case was 1kg overweight so I took out the camp blanket. The lady then tagged the bag ready for flight and gave me some US custom declaration forms to fill in. Apparently it’s all done there so that I don’t have to go through customs in America, makes sense to me … so why didn’t they do that on my flight over?
He told me that my ‘dad’ could help me so Brent and I went and sat on a bench … while over there I put the blanket back in my bag … what were they going to do now? So at least that didn’t have to be carried anymore. I then filled out my customs form saying that I had no meats or fruits or money in excess of $10,000 … I wish! Once that was done I gave Brent a huge hug goodbye and thanked him for everything he’s done for me. I really don’t know what I’d have done without his help. After that, I was gone … on my way through security and out of sight.
Security was … the usual. Had to practically strip … well take off my jacket and shoes, as well as lay my laptop down and out of the bag. After that was customs where I had to show the form I’d filled and he put it all in my passport, along with another stamp. Once I was through security and heading to the gate was when it all hit me that I was actually going … so I had a little teary moment and pulled myself together before getting a bottle of water.
I found out I could get 15minutes of free wi-fi access and by this time I only had 20 minutes before boarding, so I did that so that I could update my Facebook status and send Brent a message that I’d left him some money … he can’t say no now hehe.
The flight was practically empty, only around 15 of us there, so I got a window seat and had a spare seat next to me as well. Take off was easy, I flicked through the magazine in the chair in front. Once we reached altitude it was a little bumpy, so the pilot lowered a little and it was fine. I played on the DS for the flight and when told to turn it off not too long after (the flight was only an hour long) I relaxed and closed my eyes … I was jolted awake when we touched down, so I must have fallen asleep pretty quickly. At least I slept through my most unfavourite part!
Next was a couple of hours wait in Dulles International airport, Washington … I finally found my gate and sat there until someone arrived so that I could get my boarding pass, as it couldn’t be issued in Ottawa. At least I didn’t have to transfer my luggage, it was done automatically this time, bonus!
