disappointment

the flight macy had to catch

the unnecessary snacks that
were going to be for the 7 hour wait in the airport

Right now there are just so many things flying through my head.  Number one – thankfulness for my real family.  Another situation occurred this weekend where I really needed my host family and they were not there to support me.  On Wednesday night, my friend Macy from Bowdoin visited me.  We had the most incredible time, until last night.  Last night, we somehow misread the schedule and thought the last bus to the airport left at 11 when it really left at 9.  Considering her flight left the next morning before the first bus would leave, we had a big problem. We thought of what to do and could only think of three solutions – change the time of the airplane ticket, take a taxi to the airport, or ask my host family to do us a huge favor and drive her.  It would take 260 euro to take a taxi to the bus station and is complicated and expensive to change tickets, so obviously we wanted the last option. Of course this same night I forgot my phone, so we rushed home to try and make it back before my host parents were asleep.

When we got back, my host dad was in the living room watching TV.  I explained the situation and re-explained at least 3 times to make sure I was clear.  I just kept saying I’m really not sure what to do, hoping he would offer to help us out.  I didn’t directly want to say can you drive us to the airport because I was super flustered and couldn’t think well enough to say it in a polite way.  He said, the ONLY solutions he could think of are taking a taxi or changing her ticket.  I explained the problems with those options – that a taxi is super expensive and changing a ticket is pricey and complicated – especially since I haven’t traveled very much and don’t even know how to go about doing that.  He just said, well, those are the only things I can think of I don’t know what else to tell you and went back to watching TV.  So, I told Macy and we went back up to my room to figure out a solution.

We looked up Swiss Airlines online and found a couple numbers to call.  The first two didn’t work and the third put us on hold for 15 minutes plus.  We were both incredibly frustrated and I decided to call my parents.  God I love them.  I explained to them the situation and dad immediately called the airline, explained the situation, broke a bunch of regulations and got the tickets changed to a couple hours later.  So, we got 5 hours of sleep and rushed back to the bus station.  They saved the day.

            

I am just so incredibly disappointed with my host family.  It was a 2 hour trip there and back to the airport.  This morning, they aren’t doing anything.  Why couldn’t they just offer to help us out?  I keep going up and down on how I feel about my host family.  They are fine.  They cook for me and even do my laundry and randomly clean my room.  But when they need to be there for me, they aren’t.  They just can’t compete with my family.  I would much rather have them be there for me in situations like last night rather than clean my room.  I appreciate everything they’ve done for me, but man do I miss my family.  I keep thinking back to all the people in my life – I know my parents, or the Bernards, or my brothers, or Aunt Nancy, or Aunt Ann would have helped me out in an instant.  The distance was the same it would take me to get from home to Presque Isle – one Kaitlyn and I have traveled many times to visit Corey.  I just am so frustrated.