September 16, 2011

Bye Bye USA, Hello Ambien

New Orleans airport
I’ve been waiting for this day, September 14th for a long time. It came up fast, but it’s been a loooong day. I’ve been hanging out with my family and friends and eating non-stop for the past week before I leave. A few months back when I booked my flight I reserved a direct flight from New Orleans to Los Angeles, then Guangzhou, China, then Bangkok. I suppose the airline didn’t sell enough seats on the first flight so I was re-routed from NOLA to Detroit, then LA with a lovely 6-hour layover. Yikes. It went by pretty quickly probably because
of all the excitement and I was really hoping to see a celebrity at LAX. Didn’t happen. I’m not that nervous yet, it’s the same feeling I had when I left for Budapest 3 years ago. I prepared myself with all the necessary paperwork as well as mentally for such a long time there was nothing left to do but arrive and experience it myself. No matter how prepared you are there is always a surprise that pops up to throw you off your game. When I arrived at the New Orleans Louis Armstrong airport on Wednesday morning, Sean T. at the Delta ticket counter forced me to purchase a return voucher from Bangkok. They wouldn’t let me on the plane without it. I fought this for about an hour, talking to supervisors and some Delta rep at their Global office. I tried to explain that I have a visa from Thailand and the Embassy already knows my plan or else they wouldn’t have issued me a visa. Duh. These people wouldn’t buy it so I had to purchase a $2,336.82 ONE-WAY flight leaving the Kingdom. Keep your shorts on, it’s refundable, or else I wouldn’t have done this. Don’t they realize I’ve done my due diligence and know whether I can or cannot get on a plane half way around the world with a one-way? Surely Sean-Baby doesn’t deal with betches going from NOLA to Bangkok on a daily basis so I’ll cut him some slack. He’s just doing his job. With the help of a little sleeping pill and an empty seat next to me, the 15 and a half hour flight was not so bad. I even made a friend who’s checking out my blog!
Brunch with ma betches in New Orleans
Snowcones at Hansens' on Tchop

Aunt Missy and I enjoying margaritas and sombreros 


Crabs and schrimp
Michael (brah), grandparents, and mom at dinner 




3 comments:

  1. Leash Dawg! Glad you landed safely and Sean didn't give you tooo much trouble, we miss you so very badly in nola!

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  2. Mari - Miss your face!! Hope you like our snowcones pics!!

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  3. Leash, glad you made the trip...for some reason I was thinking you weren't leaving till yesterday (Friday) but thank goodness for you I had my days mixed up and you've already made the trip to your new home (temporary...I hope!) Marilyn was in town last night so got to hang out with her. Let me hear about your first night hotel stays...

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