Aug 3- Travel Day 1

Today we departed from Baltimore at 3am and safely arrived at Dulles airport around 4:30. Because the flight was small, everyone had to check their bags before passing through security. There was also some trouble with oversized bags at the desk so we arrived at the gate only about 20 minutes before boarding. Good thing we left early. Our flight to Toronto was relatively smooth with few hiccups until we received a notification that our connection was delayed two hours. As we waited the delays piled up. We were originally scheduled to leave for Winnipeg at 9:30, then 11:50, then 1:00, then 2:00, until we finally boarded the plane at 2:30. Waiting in the airport, some of us began to feel nauseous and queasy from getting up so early and waiting for so long. Eventually most of us went to get lunch at an airport restaurant which we paid for using the meal vouchers given to us by Air Canada. We entertained ourselves with games of wavelength where even those of us that didn’t know how to play ended up becoming experts. Jonah stayed behind to guard the bags, which he did in style.

When we boarded the plane another issue prevented it from leaving the tarmac for another hour. While other travelers complained that this was “the worst travel experience of their lives,” we stayed positive and enjoyed all five hours of the delay together. On the second plane many of us got some much needed sleep as the flight lasted around three hours. When we touched down three of us(Julie, Alex, Elena, and Miles) taxied to Costco to begin buying food, whilst the others grabbed our luggage and set up at the Air BnB. Because of the delays we only had about 45 minutes to find everything we needed at the store, turning an already stressful experience up a notch. After purchasing $2,500 of food and bewildering the cashier, Julie and I(Alex) traveled to another grocery store to collect the last few things on our list. After four hours of shopping and lugging food in and out of the truck, we cooked chicken, packed our bins, watched the olympics, played some card games, and got to bed.

Alex