Moving to Connecticut from Canada

February 4th, 2013

My recent flight to Connecticut was the worst flying experience yet. I had been anticipating this flight/move for weeks, full of joy and excitement to be finally moving in with Reese and starting a new life in a new country with my incredible boyfriend. I was startled awake at 3am the night of my flight with a pre-recorded phone call telling me that my flight, which was supposed to leave at 6:30am, was changed to 3pm! I was horrified!

I quickly texted Reese and told him about the switch. He was able to calm me down and I ended up phoning the airline to see if I could get on an earlier flight. Luckily, the airline was surprisingly accommodating and changed my flight to a 6:40am flight with a different airline. All was good.

I got to the airport and made it through security just fine. The plane was leaving on schedule, but as we pulled out of the airport, the pilot announced that there was something wrong with the breaks and that maintenance would have to come examine the issue. Great. Everyone on the plane let out sighs and grumbles and seemed very unimpressed, including me. We sat there waiting not knowing whether we would be taking off shortly or if we would have to get off the plane and board a new one. Again, luck was on my side, the pilot announced that the issue had been resolved and we’d be taking off shortly.

After about an hour, we were in the air and I treated myself to a romantic comedy to pass the time. Arriving in Toronto, many of the passengers were frantic to get off the plane since the delay caused them to be late for their connecting flights. My layover was supposed to be two hours, and even with the delay I wasn’t worried about making my connection since I still had an hour or so to make my flight. I wasn’t worried, that is, until I had to go through the new Toronto baggage system which doesn’t allow you to go through security or customs until your bags have gone through first.

After waiting a half hour or so I was able to pass through customs. No issues there, thank goodness! I had the ‘funny guy’ at customs.. He asked where I was going and why, I told him to visit my boyfriend in Connecticut, he asked how I met him, I told him we met at a comedy club, he was performing.. Then he accused me of being a stalker and told me to have a nice trip. I laughed and gathered my documents and I was on my way. I only had about 5 minutes to get to my flight, and when I arrived they were starting to board the tiny plane.

Taking a plane from Toronto to Connecticut means you take the smallest plane possible. The plane we were on sat 18 people and the pilots also assumed the duty of flight attendants. There was a total of 6 people on the plane which meant you had the option to sit anywhere.. Except me. I was assigned ‘emergency exit duty’ and had to stay where I was.

The flight in general was smooth. Despite this, the lady in front of me obviously didn’t like flying and she was noticeably uncomfortable. I was about to offer her a gravol or even the book I was reading to ease her nervousness but her husband took out the iPad and was able to calm her down with a movie. I tried reading for about an hour but then I began to get incredibly cold and my focus switched from reading to trying to warm up. I looked out the window and was relieved to see the ground and tiny houses, which meant that we would be landing soon.

15 minutes later we began our descent, a very rocky descent! The plane felt like it was swaying quite a bit.. Too much. I was pretty anxious about the landing, but it turned out fine and my anxiety quickly turned into excitement knowing my trip was finally over and I’ve arrived at my much anticipated destination.

Being such a small plane with very few passengers, my luggage made it to baggage pick-up faster than me.. If only I could say the same for Reese! Haha. He did finally pick me up, a bit late but he did pick me up and that’s all that matters. I’ve only been here in CT for a few days, I’ve unpacked and have started to claim space in the apartment. Reese has been very generous and making me feel at home.

My friend Ginelle encouraged me to start blogging as a way to keep in touch and also as a way to pass the time. I’m going to try to update every week or so for all who are interested to hear about what I’m getting up to here in the States.