Sorry, but I'm a little slow in getting back to normal after my journey to Argentina. Besides an extended return trip, I had a few late nights at work, a cold, a surge of spring allergies, and an overall desire to be lazy. I've been spending most of my time unpacking and posting pictures from the trip (about halfway done).

Argentina was amazing. It was such a busy trip that I can't seem to summarize it. There's just too many details and stories to tell. Another problem is that I'm the contemplative type; I prefer to mull things over and ponder before coming to any conclusions. This is why I often answer questions with an "I don't know" or "whatever" or the like. or maybe i'm just slow in the head or kinda dim-witted (or lazy). think of me what you like; I can take it. anyway, i'll have to write about argentina later, probably in small chunks over time. but it was a great trip.

I will, however, tell about the trip home. aye! Getting home involved a 3.5 hour bus ride from Rosario to Buenos Aires, and then a direct flight to JFK, about 11 hours overnight. BUT, my bus driver decided to take a different route and even run a personal errand involving a pitstop in an out-of-the-way town with lots of traffic. Add in traffic and road construction and we had a 5.5 hour bus drive. We pulled into the terminal about 7:30 for our 8:20 international flight. so , yeah, we missed that flight. too close. flight is closed.

Lots of waiting, announcements, general confusion, list making, baggage assignments and baggage hauling later, the 30 of us left behind are at the booking counter while our travel coordinator Sarah figures something out for us. We're told something about getting onto a flight leaving soon for Dallas Texas. okay, it's somewhere in the USofA... we'll take it. But I think it ended up being too soon, because that came and went without any movement on our part. The booking counter is right next to the check-in counter, but there seems to be a lack of communication between them. When we finally get tickets handed to us, it's for a flight to Miami leaving soon after. (I noted that this was funny since I had been shuttled there after missing a connection on another missions trip.)

Yeah! we're USA bound. It's all going to work out! We grab all our luggage and carts of multimedia equipment that we have to check with us and head to the adjacent check-in counter. Person #1 is checking in... excellent: I begin check-in... I answer security questions, proceed to the next counter... wait, stop everybody; the flight is closed. It's too late, they say. All the young people working the check-in counter grab their bookbags (sitting ready in a pile) and go home. AHHH! what the heck?

Our travel coordinators collect passports and work for a while with the booking agents while the rest of us chill out and eat various snacks that didn't get consumed during the week. it's a great time, really, considering that we have no idea how or when we are going to get home. Some of the group even shop the airport souvenir shops. When we finally see tickets in the hands of our 'leaders', they don't want to tell us what's going on right away.

That Miami flight was the last flight for the day for our airline (AA). So we load up the luggage again and cross the terminal to a baggage storage room. We separate out stuff we need to last the night and store the rest. After some more confusion and waiting around, we're told that we're hopping into ten taxis that are waiting outside and driving to a hotel 30 miles away where we'll stay the night and have dinner. Whoo-hoo!they could have easily had us stay at the airport all night, like those 7 and 9 hour layovers on the Zambia trip.

Somebody brought us various empanadas and water (sin gas and con gas) for dinner at the hotel, and we crashed in our cheesy 50's style hotel rooms. but a two star hotel is so much better than a bench at the airport! We had hot showers, bouncy beds, and a nice continental breakfast in the morning. Taking no risks this time, we were told we would be leaving for the airport at 3 pm, well in advance of our evening flights. And lunch would be provided at the hotel.

So we had the morning to see Buenos Aires. Free hotel, food, and transportation, unlike the rest of the folks who had to pay to see the city (the ones who actually made it on the flight the day before.) I took a taxi with some of the group to see the main government buildings and cathedral downtown. We saw some sights and shopped some shops. My group by chance met up with a few other groups from our crew at an ice cream shop. ha, ha. same thing happened all the time all week in Rosario.

Anyway, lunch was surprisingly very good at the hotel, and we made it to the airport extra early. We had plenty of time to spend all our pesos at the airport shops. All 29 of us got on our flights... four different flights, actually, and 6 or 7 people made it from the standby list.

My crew of 5 was in charge of all the multimedia bags, 21 extra bags/boxes/crates of video equipment. It involved lots of carrying and carting stuff around... overall, a big hassle, but what choice did we have? Well, when we checked in for our flight, we were told that once in Miami, we had to claim our luggage, go through customs, check it all back in again, and go back through the security line... all in a layover of about 75 minutes. :) as you can guess, we missed that next flight too.

At this point, we're all pretty whippy. My crew of 5 has been joined by a group of 3 from an earlier flight. We're overtired and overtravelled and pretty cynical about everything. We have a lot of good laughs about missing our third flight and hauling all this stuff around with us and other jokes that were really funny in the moment. We're just going with it; whatever happens is okay with us. At least we're in America now. We can speak English and use cell phones!

After recovering some bags that were missing for a while (they shut off the carousel before all the bags had come out!) we got tickets onto a later flight into Laguardia airport instead of JFK. Whatever... close enough at this point. All of us make it to New York, and so do all the bags. We hire a helper and a bus back to church. the end. sorry, i'm too pooped to write a conclusion, but i'm sure you've had enough as well. I'm still recovering.