Journal
Day 18 May 30, 2013
Adios, Honduras!
We had breakfast early this morning,
(pancakes, eggs, etc.) and then it was off to the airport! And what a pain that was. Remind me not to travel in a group of 15 ever
again! For some reason, we had to check
in as a group, so we handed over our passports and waited “patiently” for the
woman to come by and tag our suitcases.
We stood around for awhile when, to our (pleasant) surprise, we saw a
bunch of young Honduran men come up behind us.
They were all dressed in periwinkle polos and had duffel bags with
them. Each of them had an interesting
hairdo (Mohawks, gelled back, etc.), and each was extremely attractive. We had
Jubin ask who they were, and it turns out they were the 21U National Honduran
Soccer team. And they were going to D.C. but were on our same flight to
Houston. What. Good. Fortune.
After everyone was checked in and we
had filled out our “leave the country” forms, we had to pay our $40 fee to
leave the country, so that was another long waiting process. From there we went through security with no
problems except more waiting. We chilled
at our gate for awhile and creeped on the soccer players, picking out our
favorites like any group of teenage girls would do. It was a good way to pass the time honestly.
When we boarded, there was a woman
in my window seat, but I didn’t want to tell her to move, so I was just going
to sit in the middle. However, the guy
behind me had seen me talking to Lindsey earlier, so he offered his seat up so
I could sit by her and he went up to my row.
It was really sweet of him! Then
Ivy came back and wanted to sit by us, so he asked the guy in the aisle if she
could sit with us too. He was very kind
and let her, and the flight attendant joked that she should by him a
drink. She said she would, but he declined.
The 3+ hour flight to Houston went
smoothly, although we were pretty disappointed that all the soccer players were
near the front of the plane. Some of
them walked past us to use the bathroom which was a nice change of
scenery. But here’s where it really got
interesting:
Ivy and I had been napping, and when
we both woke up we saw one of the players (probably the most attractive one)
come down the aisle to use the bathroom.
Next thing we knew, we saw Laura walking back with him, so we followed
her with our eyes to see her sit right
in-between him and one of his teammates.
Talk about a heart attack. We
were so confused and proud of her! I
couldn’t wait to get off the plane and grill her for the deets.
When we were finally able to get
off, we rushed into the airport to interrogate her. She told us that she had been sitting in the
back row all alone when the player, whose name is Lesvin, came back to use the
restroom. He saw that she was all alone
and said that there was an empty seat up front and invited her to go sit with
them! I was like, you go girl! So she did, and for the last 30 minutes of
the flight, she had a nice chat with him about soccer and other topics. Apparently the team had a tourney in D.C. and
then they were going to come back to Houston and then back to Honduras. They were here until June 6th. Each of the players came from a different
team, but this team was the all-star team of sorts and they hadn’t been playing
together for long. He asked her when her
next flight was, and she told him not until 7:45. His wasn’t until 5:45, and it was only around
3:30, so he asked her to get coffee with him at the airport! He even asked if she lived in Houston and
wanted to see their games!
The sad thing was, as soon as we
landed and got off the plane, we were separated from our eye candy because we
had to go to the US citizen line while they went to the visitors line. We all split up between airport destinations
(some went to O’Hare, others to Indy, some to Dallas, and even St. Louis), went
through customs and re-checked our bags and went through security again, and as
soon as those shenanigans were over, we scoped out which gate the team was at
so we could find them again. We found
the one we thought was it, and then we went to our own gate to drop off some
stuff before scavenging for food. Even
though we were craving some good old fashioned American cheeseburgers, we ended
up going to Einstein’s Bagels and Panda Express because it was less expensive. I was still okay with that, because let’s
face it, food is food. And, better yet,
it was American food. (Yes, I realize
Chinese food is not American, but I got a bagel, okay??) Anywho, we decided to go back to the gate to
sit with Jubin and JoAnn because they had been watching the bags and we felt
bad. But after we finished, Laura,
Kayla, Lindsey, and I decided that we wanted to go find the guys. As we were passing the food court area on the
way to their gate, we spotted the team eating right where Becca, Lia, and Brian were sitting. There was our in. We walked over to talk to our friends, all
the while scoping out the males. Then
Laura saw Lesvin and went over and talked to him and some of his friends as we
looked on and Kayla took creeper pics.
Before long, they had to say goodbye (but not before they exchanged
Facebook information and hugs), and then we went to get ice cream and go visit
the O’Hare peeps at their gate. Turns
out their flight was delayed to about when our flight to Indy was because
O’Hare shut everything down, and they were livid! So we chatted with them for awhile, and Kayla
told me about how she sat by a Spanish rapper on the plane because she flew
first class. He gave her a CD with his
music video on it, so we watched that on her computer. We had never heard of
him before, but hey, it makes for a good story!
During our wait, I also caught up on missed texts and SnapChats from the
past 3 weeks.
Finally, after waiting for what
seemed life forever, we were able to board our plane to complete the last leg
of the journey. This time I sat by an
old man who was really cute, but was, unfortunately, an Illini fan. I don’t know why I always end up by them; I
sat by Illini fans on the way to Mexico too!
But our plane chilled on the runway for what seemed like forever until
finally we were able to take off. I was
just very anxious to get home and see my family and friends, even though I was
sad the trip was over.
When I got off the plane, I walked
through the airport to see my parents waiting for me! It was so great to see them and my mom had to
take a bunch of pictures of course. But
we got my bag and then headed out. It
was already almost 11 but I was definitely craving a cheeseburger, so my
parents, bless their souls, stopped at Steak N’ Shake so I could get a good ole’
American burger and a milkshake. Heaven,
let me tell you. It was amazing. Goodbye, rice, beans, tortillas, and chicken!
We drove home from Indy and didn’t
get home until around 2 am. As much as I
liked being back, I already miss certain things about Honduras. But who knows? I might be back soon ;).
Photos:
My view from the plane!
Soccer team ;)
Breakfast
Espresso Americano, we will miss you!
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