Time to Spice it up a bit! The Guadalajara experience has been amazing! It's been nearly a week since I've been here, and I've been taking lots of pictures of random stuff. Unfortunately, I don't have interwebz on my phone down here, so I have to wait to get to the office before my G+ auto uploads them. So, as for this GDL piece of my adventures, I decided to take notes of my experiences and of course share them through pictures, words, letters and the occasional punctuation mark. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my notes are leaning more towards a blog about food in Guadalajara, which isn't bad. Hopefully I will be able to keep up on this more on a daily basis.
Monday June 18th, 2012 - The Dreaded Early Morning
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I had scheduled my flight, volun-told to do so, at 6:00....IN THE MORNING! What does that mean? Waking up reallllllly early. So, yeah that whole thing about arriving at the airport 2 hours before your flight? Not going to happen. I woke up at 4....Ok, 4:09. (Hey, snoozing only once that early is pretty good I think) Surprisingly, my dad was already up and ready. I had gathered all of my belongings that I had frantically packed the night before, and was driven to the airport. I do have to say, one nice thing about having an early flight are the short lines at the airport. I went up to the check in counter, and tried to check in, unfortunately, I was apparently in the wrong line. So I had to move to a different line....You know that one line, the long one with 50 people in it? I exaggerate but you get my point. I check one bag, get my tickets and head off to the security line. I hand the TSA person my passport and ticket, and head to the machine piece. I walk through, no problem. However my bag takes what seems like eons to get through the x-ray machine. They didn't like the fact that my laptop wasn't in a separate bin. (I swear there will be pictures, just keep reading) I get through and meet up with the person I'm going to GDL with. The flight from Tucson to Phoenix takes a mere 20 minutes. It took longer to get on and off of the plane. I had an aisle seat. Boo. Oh well. I sat next to a young lady who was on her way back home to Baltimore; (it's somewhere in New York I think). HA! I kid. Did you just face palm yourself? Anyway, she was home for the weekend. Father's Day. Good kid. She's studying Spanish and Literal Culture...at ASU. GO WILDCATS!
So the flight lands in PHX for a 1:30 layover. Our plane arrived 30 minutes early so our 1:30 layover turned into a 2 hour layover.
Fun! We decide to get breakfast, Roadhouse 66 Bar. I order the classic breakfast with Apple Juice. "We don't have Apple Juice". Grr. Fine Coffee it is. The classic breakfast came with Toast, Scrambled Eggs (the powdered kind), Bacon, and Potatoes. I can say I've had better. We wait in the terminal for the next flight. I get the aisle seat again. This time on the plane, I get an apple juice, and sit down for a nice movie... Talladega Nights!
Great movie! But I digress. Sitting next to me, is a fire fighter from Phoenix. Headed down to GDL for some work. What kind of work I'm not sure. Next to him, is a guy that works at Microsoft Xbox Service and Repair center. He dropped a hint on the release date for the new Xbox 720. What was the hint? Well, you'll just have to find out after the break....HA! I wouldn't do that do you, cause I'm not like those jerks on the news that make you wait until 10:57 of the 10 o'clock news to hear something that was far left field of what you were expecting anyway. Holiday season of 2012 or 2013. What do you expect, it's not like he can divulge sensitive information.
After the flight, I arrive in the GDL airport. First memorable moment? The glass walled cat-walk from the plane. We get into the terminal and proceed to get our bags. Then, well we weren't sure what we were supposed to do....everything was in Spanish! And of course I don't have internet on my phone, so I can't depend on my trusty Google. Eventually we figure out that we're supposed to go through the security to exit the airport. I put my bag through the scanner. After it going through, I approach this kiosk. The guy checks my passport and my declarations as far as items I'm bringing into the country. On the piece of paper, I mark 'Professional Equipment: Laptop'. Which I probably shouldn't have done. The guy asks me to push the button. A red button. "What is this for?" I ask. He says just push it. I'm hesitant, but what can I do. I push it, and a red light pops up on top. 'Shit!', pardon my French, is the first thing that pops into my head. In a thick accent he tells me to go over to table 5. I noticed they're going through people's bags in front on me. I'm not worried about them finding something, cause I have nothing to hide. I was worried 'How to hell am I going to pack all of this stuff back in there?' The guy does a quick check, just running his hands down the sides and middle without taking anything out. I have a sigh of relief. I think he knew how hard it was to pack everything in there.
We exit the terminal and into the "International Arrivals" area where we would wait to be picked up.
OH! Hello! :D
It's about 2:10 GDL time, and we were supposed to be picked up at 2:30. Well 2:30 rolls around, and we still don't see anybody there to pick us up. So, we decide to walk down the inside of the airport to see if they're waiting in a different area.
Nope, no one there either, we decide to go outside and wait to see if they're parked by the curb. Nope, nada. After about 10 mins, and trying to call our manager on roaming minutes. We decide to go back inside, and that's when I notice Mara and Mauricio waiting for us. Thank goodness!
On the next episode... Travels through GDL!
Previous Comments:
UT - NICE! I would appreciate food pictures too! :P
UT - Also, arriving in airports without English translations = nerve racking for sure. Glad you made it.
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