Arrival

So I landed finally.  We had to sit and wait for about 15 minutes...felt like forever...but then I heard "Welcome To Amsterdam" and I sat there grinning like an idiot.  I was in a foreign country, I was in Holland and even though I wasn't in the air anymore, I felt like I was flying.  I was also a bit tired and cranky...I stood behind the woman who had just had her chair in my lap for 8 hours and she walked slow then had this stupid wheeled bag.  I was trying to follow her out of the plane but she'd stop and that damn bag would nearly trip me...I just wanted to grab her by the ponytail and throw her into a seat to just get her out of my face.

But, I behaved.

I exit the plane and hear people chattering around me...not a breath of English.

I follow the mass of people down the tunnel and into the airport.  There is a long hallway with 2 floor escalators and the wall is lined with billboards to my right.  Finally I'm at the end of the big empty hallway and I turn, trying to follow a sign that says "Baggage Claim, Arrivals Hall" and suddenly I'm in a sea of chests and shoulders.  I'm like a midget over here.  So here I was in a new country, with people around me speaking a language I don't understand and they are all so tall that they don't even see me.  I'm bumped into and stared at and really starting to feel overwhelmed.  I see another baggage/arrivals sign with an arrow pointing straight ahead so I follow it and it leads me into an intersection.  I stop just to make sure I'm going the right way still and the next sign i see in front of me for baggage is behind a glass wall and then it says something like 'immigration' and I'm not entirely sure that is where I'm supposed to go so I look left and see another sign for baggage/arrival and I'm looking frantically around me for Lars but I don't see him and I'm trying to reach him on facebook to find out where I'm supposed to go and I can't get him to answer me and then I start thinking Oh God, I didn't message him in Chicago so what if he isn't there?...I walk around a little more panicking that at some point someone is going to point at me and yell that I'm in the wrong place, or "Stupid American, you are doing it WRONG!"  Logically, I knew that Lars wouldn't be in this area.  I knew that for safety reasons, there are parts of an airport that only ticket holders can go and I knew that I was still in that area...but logic was not my best friend at this point.

Then I just thought to myself "Kendra, get your shit together, you can do this! Go back to the immigration/baggage sign that you saw and just go for it...it can't be any worse than standing in this mass of people you can't look in the eye." So I did.  I went down the stairs and dug out my passport and I handed it to the guy who gave me that "dumb american" look and I just grinned and went through the entry into Holland :).

I thought all my troubles were now over.....idiot.

So I walk out into the area where I'm hoping Lars will be...and I'm wrong.  I realize I have to find my 2 massive suitcases and wheel them, by myself, for God knows how long until I find him.  I finally find my luggage carousel, which is not labeled in any way, and my poor suitcases are just taking a ride all by themselves...it took me that long to finally figure out where I was supposed to go.  I grab them and head toward the Customs area, which wasn't manned. If I see something important like "Customs: Do you have anything to declare?" and there isn't anyone there, I'm just going to naturally assume that the guy is on break and I need to find somewhere else to enter....BUT people are going through the little glass doors.  They get on the mat and the doors open and they disappear into the other side.  By this point I was hot, sweaty, tired, hungry, terrified and a little pissed off so I thought "F it...I'm following them"...thank GOD they knew where they were going.  I FINALLY enter into the actual arrivals hall and see my Love waving at me. 

I just wanted to snuggle into him and melt.  I saw him and the first thing out of my mouth was "I'm so done with this!  I must really love you!"

Not the most romantic thing to say to the love of your life after not seeing each other for 11 months :). Thank God that he knows me and he just grinned and gave me a big kiss and I, for once, could breathe.

This is a shot of me that Lars took not too long after we found each other. I was just trying to find Starbucks but he found the fluffy clogs that he wanted to buy for me.  It was a great buy...they are so comfy and keep my feet warm as I sit here and type this.  More to come soon...I am trying to get 'up to date' on this :)