Julie, Fred, mom, dad, and I boarded our first plane at BWI to Miami May 16th. On the plane I was sitting away from my family but after taking my seat I quickly realized that the middle seat of 3 was not available for people to sit in because it had a table on it. Score! I would have a little extra room to catch up on sleep after working evening shift and getting up early. Although a few minutes later, I realized my butt was becoming increasingly wet. When I stood and felt my seat it was soaked. Of course my next question was immediately: is this a spilled drink or urine from the previous occupant of this seat? I placed a thick magazine between me and the seat and smelled my hand...I didn't smell urine (a smell I have become increasingly familar with over the past 2 years in nursing school) so I rested in peace and slept like a baby.
We arrived in Miami and ate dinner during a layover. We boarded our flight for Manaus, Brazil. I had window seat but for some reason I felt claustrophobic this time having someone in the middle seat so I switched with dad for a aisle seat. Everyone was settled in for the flight and we were receiving our dinners. The drink cart was beside me when I suddenly felt something wet on the top of my head. I looked over toward the cart and saw that my sweatshirt sleeve was covered in red wine splatters. Fred, Julie and the other person in their row decided to have wine with their dinner but I ended up wearing it instead. I laughed until I cried because this was just the kind of day that seemed to be following me.
We arrived at about midnight in Manaus and took a cab to our hotel. I anticipated it to be a decently nice city since I understood it to be one of the larger cities in Northern Brazil. We squeezed into a taxi and the streets were almost completely abandoned. Business and commercial buildings looked abandoned and graffiti covered buildings and cement walls. This new scene made for a tense ride through the darkness since we could not even speak to our Portuguese-speaking taxi driver.
We checked into the Holiday Inn and prepared to go up to our rooms to crash for the night. Dad and Fred piled into the elevator with the big luggage first. When the elevator door shut we pushed the button to go up and dad and Fred reappeared. This happened about 3 times until we decided to give them plenty of time to ride up to the 8th floor, but then some Asian guests pushed the button and, as you probably could guess, the doors opened only to display my dad and Fred in the elevator with all of our luggage with perplexed looks on their faces. We laughed until we cried at this ridiculous scene when all we wanted to do was sleep. Finally dad and Fred's elevator must have made it to the 8th floor so mom, Julie, and I loaded into the next elevator and pushed the button for the 8th floor. The elevator doors soon closed behind me but our elevator was not moving. I kept pushing the 8 button but there was definitely no movement. Of course my aunt and mom are blind without their glasses so they were little help in trying to solve our problem. After what seemed like 5 minutes (but was probably more like 1) the air flow in the elevator kicked off and we looked at each other in panic. It began to warm up in that small space and the tightness became increasingly evident. We obviously were not on our way. All of our deep fears related to elevators crossed our minds at this point. Then the elevator doors opened and there stood the same Asian guests patiently waiting. They were able to explain through hand gestures (because they didn't speak English) that you need your room key in order to operate the elevator. Ok, yes, that makes sense. I had never been in an elevator of this sort so I totally missed the slit for the key and of course I could not read the Portuguese instructions. So that mystery was solved, but my uncle and dad had all of the room keys. Another dilemma. By God's grace our new Asian friends were on the 8th floor too so their card worked for us to go up to our floor.
Another moment of great laughter where you just can't take things too seriously and I am grateful that I was with people who can also find the humor in ridiculous situations.
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