Hey.

So I have returned. Let me tell you about my return. In my opinion, it was an adventure.

When I flew into Cornell in August, I chose to fly into Ithaca, because that is the city in which Cornell was located. I soon learned that it is in fact more expensive flying in and out of Ithaca than other larger cities nearby, even when taking into account the bus fares to and from those cities. Syracuse and Rochester were the two cities I could remember from those conversations. I decided to choose Rochester before much researching. Before I knew it, I had bought a plane ticket. It was under $400, round-trip. I was proud, for I had bought it pretty early on, and it was relatively cheap.

Alas, the clash began. I soon discovered that I had scheduled the wrong date. It cost $150 to fix the date. I had lost my earnings from flying out of Rochester. Too late to change now. I stuck with it. I soon discovered that essentially nobody flew out of Rochester. Everybody who flew home flew from Ithaca or Syracuse. Reason #1 would be that Syracuse is closer to Ithaca than Rochester is. Reason #2 would be that Cornell provides transportation to the Ithaca and Syracuse airports.

Transportation. Never fear, I thought. I boldly went online and bought a Greyhound ticket for $28. Not too bad. The flight was set at December 18, 5:09pm. The Greyhound was scheduled for 2:00, with an arrival time of 3:50pm. Good enough. As the day approached, I realized that the Greyhound bus station was a couple miles from campus. Not to worry, the city bus provides free transportation for first-year students. And I also realized that the Greyhound bus does not go to the Rochester airport. I needed a taxi to get from the Rochester bus station to the Rochester airport. (I came to realize later that Greyhound also provides transportation to the airport at a cheaper rate than a taxi) I called up a taxi and asked them to pick me up at 4pm. Affirmative. Now the trip began.

I woke up at 10am, did laundry and my final packings, and I was able to hit Bus #81 at 11:40 to Uris Library, #30 at 12:14 to the Commons, and #14 at 12:25 to the Ithaca Bus Station. Not bad. I was one and a half hours early, which leaved room for lunch. I bought a muffin and a coffeebread thing.

The Greyhound arrived at 2:40. That was bad. I had an interesting conversation with a student from Ithaca College that spanned from school to politics to religion. I eventually left him a John Piper tract. Meanwhile, I had called the taxi guy and told him that I was going to arrive around 4:30. I did. I was very much in a hurry now, because my flight was to leave at 5:09. I ran off the bus and found a bunch of taxis. One of them waved me over, and I asked if this was the one reserved for Larry. He said “yes” but I’m not sure if he heard my question. Nonetheless, I got in. Then I realized that I didn’t have any cash, so I rushed out to an ATM machine nearby. I got in the car, and the driver, seeing my hurried condition, drove at a relatively fast pace. During this car ride, I got a call from the taxi driver I called up earlier, and I realized I was in the wrong taxi, and the guy was still waiting at the bus station. I was too speechless to apologize, and he hung up before I got the chance to do so. I arrived at 4:55. The taxi cost $25.

I ran into the Northwest Airlines line. Luckily nobody was in line. Unluckily nobody was at the counter either. I waited there quite foolishly until 5:15. About this time, I was telling myself never to fly Northwest ever again. I was referred to a phone against the wall, where I could call a Northwest representative to try to reschedule another flight. The phone rang for about two minutes, and nobody picked up. Then I went around asking other airlines if they had any flights to the Bay Area that night. Delta, AirTran, and JetBlue said no, they’re full. I decided to call Northwest again. This time, someone picked up. He said they were full for the night, but they had open seats for 6:45am the next day. Because it was a one-day notice, and because it was the season for spending much money, the ticket cost about $900. They also had another flight for the afternoon of the next day for $600. Considering that I only have a $700 credit card limit, it wasn’t a smart move to purchase it. I went to the sofas, reminded myself that God was God, and I sat down.

Then I realized that I never asked United Airlines yet. Oh trusty United Airlines. I inquired, and they had a one-stop flight at 7:51pm. I was to stop in Washington, DC, then take a plane to San Francisco. The plane to San Francisco had one available seat that was worth about $400. One seat. Amazing. I took it.

The departure time of my second flight was half an hour ahead of the arrival time of my first flight. And the planes were in seperate terminals. That meant I had to rush. The first plane took off ten minutes late. During this plane flight, I came up with an idea that I really liked. I will not disclose that idea to the public.

The first plane flew faster than normal. I arrived in Washington with enough time to spare. I boarded the second plane and found myself next to none other than a Cornell student. He was an international student from Indonesia. We also talked a bit, but we both soon fell asleep. The second plane arrived around 1:30am, a little later than expected, but it didn’t matter anymore. I was in California. My dad picked me up, and we went home.

Lesson of the Day #1: God is God.

Lesson of the Day #2: Fly out of Syracuse.

– Larry