Departure. It was quite a ride. Our trip back home began with a sad goodbye bus ride with Zoe and Mr. David. As breakfast was being handed out, everyone was preparing themselves for the long journey ahead of us. As we said our final goodbyes to Zoe our group headed to our gate to prepare for our flight from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam to Incheon, South Korea. Our flight was super quick which allowed everyone to rest up as our lay over in Korea was nearly 5 hours long.
Landing in South Korea was one of the easiest and smoothest times that our group has gone through security. Everyone made it out with no problems. We all began to settle at our gate and began looking for food. One of the best experiences after not eating on a plane was being able stuff our faces with beef bulgogi with pickled radish and white rice as a layer. After eating plenty, we all explored the South Korean airport. The airport was filled with luxury brand stores and food stations. After exploring and resting for nearly five hours our group finally was able to start boarding onto the plane. The flight from Incheon, South Korea to Seattle, Washington was approximately 10 hours long, so we knew had get nice and comfortable. Many of us slept a good amount on the plane ride to try and make the flight feel shorter to get home as fast as possible.
Although, after we landed in Seattle this is when everything took a turn for the worst. One of us pointed out on our app that our flight had been cancelled. At first thought no one believed it. That is until we started to get weather warnings from Chicago and how all/if not most planes were not landing or flying out of Chicago due to weather precautions. After retrieving our checked baggage and passing customs in the airport we sat in a hallway stranded waiting to hear back from EJ with news on how we were going to get back home. Many of us tired, others stressed, and others simply not even phased just chilling at the airport made this feel even more real.
After some time from waiting there were many ideas being thrown out to us. There was at one point even an idea to try and fly from Seattle to Dallas and then from Dallas to Champaign. Although many of the trips were just not feasible enough for a group of 15 people. EJ had finally decided to pick the best and fastest way get us back home safely. Hearing the plan for the first time sounded outrageous. Executing it would feel even more like a dream. This is because there were expected severe storms throughout the route we were traveling. The plan was to fly out of Seattle to Nashville, Tennessee and from Nashville rent a van and a couple SUVs for EJ and Keely and a graduate student to drive up to Champaign. The overall time frame for this to happen was about 11 hours. So, we grabbed our luggage and headed for our gate to make our 5:40 PM flight to Nashville.
We would end up arriving to Nashville around midnight to then secure our rental cars quickly for the drive up north and try to avoid the severe storms. Once everyone’s bags were packed into the cars, we wasted no time and started our six hour long drive back to Champaign. We got hit by the storms early in the car ride, to cope with this fear some of us talked, others slept and some of us even did some car karaoke. Six hours later, we all made it to Champaign safely and secured one of the best (and scariest) trips home ever for GLCM.
Blog written by Izak Sosa