Letter from August 31

Sender: Anastasia Lebedeva, Houston Airport, Texas

Recipient: Yulia Keda, Kazakhstan

Hi, Yul! The adventures continue. I'm writing these lines and I can't believe what happened to us.

9:40 AM. We are sitting in Terminal E. It's hard to describe what we just went through. Yes, we missed our flight! As Zombie and Zhenya noted, it's just like in a movie!

The alarm went off at 5:30 AM. I heard Anya's voice: "Get up fast! If we miss the first bus, we'll miss the flight!"

Our flight to Flagstaff, Arizona is at 9:20 AM. Breakfast is out of the question. Arriving at the stop, we were annoyed to find that the bus had just left, and the next one wouldn't be there for half an hour. Well, I thought, there's still time. We specifically got up early to at least catch the second bus. Rummaging through our pockets, we didn't find any change. And we have to travel with transfers; we'll need to take a bus in Arizona too. I ran back to the hostel, where, of course, the door was locked. I broke a twenty, ran to the stop. My breathing is uneven; that's what happens when you don't exercise.

Anya is angry. There's no mood for anything. We had a fight. Finally, the bus arrived. We loaded the huge suitcase, arrived in Downtown, and waited there for about 30 minutes, maybe more. Bus 102 arrived, which was supposed to take us to the airport. We are hungry as wolves, and it's an hour's drive to the airport. "We'll eat at the airport – there should be a McDonald's there!" says Anya.

We arrived at the airport at Terminal C. Where should we go? Anya checked online; our airline is located in Terminal A. We went down, took the train, and arrived at Terminal A. We remembered that the suitcase weighs more than it should. We had to move things into a backpack. Then we checked in online, got our tickets, and paid 25 dollars for the suitcase. Hunger is taking its toll. We looked at the clock. What McDonald's?! We have NO time. Boarding has ALREADY started! Looking at the ticket, we were horrified to discover that our flight would be from Terminal E, which we have to take the train to again! We went down. No train. We wait. It's supposed to run every three minutes. Where is it? There's no time. We're nervous. Boarding is already happening!!! We still need to go through security!

The train! Finally! Our Terminal E is located next to Terminal D. So when we got off the train, we still had to find our terminal. We went up the escalator and saw a huge line for security. 20 minutes until departure. Boarding is over. We approach every person in line and ask to let us through. Everyone lets us pass and wishes us luck. We quickly kicked off our sneakers, put our belongings into special bins, went through the scanner, and ran on! We are running with the second suitcase, 2 rolls of photo wallpaper in our hands, a camera around our necks, I put my sneakers on like slippers, Anya is barefoot! As luck would have it, our gate E1 is at the very end. We ran there, and they told us the plane had just left...

It's 9:17 AM. I don't know what to do. It was so hard for us to get these tickets. Where is our suitcase? It's flying to Flagstaff via Phoenix, and we are at Houston Airport. Tears in my eyes. I'm nervous. It's all because we missed the first bus! Anya is also tired of the bad luck, she doesn't want anything.

We ask a Bush Airport employee to help us. She calls another one and says they will help us! Who doesn't have bad days? Many people are late. Really? It seems to me that only we are unlucky. Especially after our flight to New Orleans was canceled and we didn't know what to do.

We went further. Anya can't find her phone. "It's all because I don't have pockets in my pants! There's nowhere to put it!" Bad luck again! She ran back to security to look for the phone. I'm waiting.

Another woman agreed to change our tickets. The next flight to Phoenix is at 11:29 AM! And they will put us on it! It's so good that we have a 3-hour wait between flights. Then we will make it to our plane from Phoenix to Flagstaff! We were very lucky to meet good people! Our tickets were changed, Anya found her phone! Security couldn't do anything with it, they say it's in a strange language! Everything worked out! In a post-shock state, we bought coffee at Starbucks and just sat at a table to mentally rest from everything! So much has happened this morning! Tears of disappointment were replaced by tears of joy. We are drinking excellent coffee. We are waiting for our flight. The next flight. Everything is fine. As it should be.