The day to leave for Georgia has finally come! Before we even left Staging, the Peace Corps told us that our scheduled flight to Georgia has changed a couple of times. Originally, we were going to check-out of the hotel at 4:00 a.m. and have a solid 13 hour layover in Istanbul. But now, we were able to check out at 12:00 p.m. and only have a one hour layover in Turkey. I got all excited…..which was premature. Let me explain.
We did check out at noon, that was great. We only waited about an hour for the buses to pick us up in Philadelphia to take a few hour drive to JFK in New York City. We got to JFK around 4:00 p.m- so three hours later. So Justin and I head to the check-in counter and were very excited to hand her our freshly minted special Peace Corps Diplomatic Passports. She took one look was like, “Miss, you cannot check-in because you are EIGHT HOURS early to your flight!” Puppy eyes and polite pleas did not work here.
So literally all of us moved to a deserted corner in the airport (hard to find in JFK) and busted out a card game on the floor and played for a few hours.
The second we were able to check-in around 7:45 p.m., we immediately did so and then proceeded to security. And that is where I am right now. Silently awaiting for the clock to hit midnight at our gate. Unlike Cinderella, I want the clock to hit midnight sooner rather than later.
Here are my closing thoughts, by the time we go on that plane, we could have been half-way to Georgia right now. True Story.