Back in Turkey and $400 richer

May 16

Back in Turkey and $400 richer

Current Mood: Esctatic emoticon Esctatic

I am back from my week in the US. It was an exhausting week. I had to take care of some stuff for my Turkish visa, visit a ton of people (Amy, Andra, Eddy, Dave, Jennie, Andy, Kat, Jeremy, Lukasz, Rahul, Kim, my cousins (John, Dawn and Grant), my grand parents, Katie, Jennie (different Jennie), Nick, Rina, Dan, Jessica and Liz), pick up things for my friends here in Turkey and go to my brother’s graduation. I didn’t really get too much sleep while I was home. It was nice to be home, and it was great being able to see so many of my friends in such a short period of time.

My trip home was very long and exhausting. I was already very tired from the my week in the US, and I was dreading the 10 hour over night flight. I knew the flight was full, so I got there very early so I could be sure to get an exit row, which I did. With about an hour to go before flight time, Delta announced it had over sold the flight and that they needed volunteers to give up their seats.

I figured what the heck, it could be worth it. I didn’t ‘need’ to be back on that day. It seems like I am always waiting on things in Turkey, one time they could wait on me. Starting with me several people volunteered to give up our seats. They processed my $400 voucher (for use only on Delta) and took my ticket. Before they could process anyone else’s refund, things seemed to get very disorganized. They had told us we could leave only 3 hours later on a different direct flight, then they said we would have to stop in Milan, then they said there was a problem with both of those flights. I was annoyed, but I had 400 bucks in my hand.

With about 15 minutes to go before takeoff, there were only the four or five people who hadn’t given up their tickets waiting. The agent suddenly told us that we could board the plane and assigned us all seats. Apparently it wasn’t full. He said I could keep the voucher. When I complained that I had given up my sweet exit row seat, he said there were three empty seats left on the plane and that I could have all three to myself! Talk about good luck!

I ended up not sitting by myself. I asked a cute girl I had been talking to in the airport if she wanted to sit with me, which was nicer than having three seats to myself.

When I got back, I got the message from Murat that I should just take a cab because he couldn’t pick me up. I got back, did a bit of catch up on work, then went straight home and passed out. Slept something like 14 hours (in two sleep periods) since then. Still a bit groggy though.

In other news:

Murat left for vacation today.

Congrats Graham on your graduation.