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July 21, 1996 This morning we took a short walk to get coffee and pastries. Got back in plenty of time to head for the airport by RER. Last night it was decided that I would leave my camera with Laura since hers is ge-fucked. She needs a camera for the work she has planned to do. I should have prayed to the flying gods last night. First I went to the terminal that handles all the charter flights. Didn't see Tower Air anywhere in that terminal so I asked at the information desk. "Exceptionale," she said "departe de terminal 1." She wrote down the terminal and check-in desk number ("halle 2") and sent me outside where a bus was waiting with a handwritten sign on the front - "Oakland," it said. Terminal 1 is circular with check in areas around the periphery. As I walk in a see a very long line. I follow it to the head of the line, looking for "halle 2." No surprise, the head of the line is Halle 2. I see the flight listed on the board: W0779: Oakland. While I wait on line I speak to a French postgrad student heading back to U.C. Davis. Food science. The board changes: W0779: Oakland - Retarde (delayed). Some American flight services guy is making his way down the line, he's asking if there are any Americans in line on the return leg of their round-trip back to Oakland. I say, yes, no, yes. I didn't have a round trip ticket. He pulls me out of line anyway and sends me over to some other desk to get a special stamp on my ticket. Some French charter company that I've never heard of before. This makes no sense to me but I'm willing to shut up and do what I've been told. The French post doc student's friend, in the meantime, doesn't make it though immigration. He doesn't have the original copy of his student visa with him; in fact, it's back in Davis. Finally I check in. The flight is to leave at 6:00 now. "Is that the final departure time or do you expect further delays," I ask. "Final departure time," she says. Not enough time to go back to Paris, way too much time to buy duty free. Everywhere the flight is listed it says: Edmonton - Oakland. Edmonton? A refueling stop, they say. Finally I see a Tower Air plane taxi toward our gate. Going, going, going... past out gate and it keeps going. The flight is delayed another hour. A plane approaches the gate. On the side of the plane are large letters: WORLD AIRWAYS. WO779. They've switched planes on me. They change our final arrival time twice. I have to call Daniel in SF twice. The second time they change the time it's because they've decided to skip the refueling stop in Edmonton. I hope they know what they're doing. In the end, the Tower Air flight that was supposed to leave at 3:00 turned out to be a World Airways flight which left at 7:00. The plane is a little, well, scary. The paneling is yellowing at the edges. Seat cushions are faded in ways that suggest they've been transplanted from other older or younger planes, it's as if the plane has been handed down several time. The instructions on the seats, restrooms and overheads are in English, German and Tagalog; it's as if the equipment is hand-me-down. Best of all, the flight attendants have that same quality. I spend some time entertaining myself by guessing why each was fired from other airlines. None are classic flight attendant material. All in all, the flight is okay. When Daniel picks me up at the airport he asks me "what kind of cockamamy airline is this?" The only clue he could find revealing the flight's whereabouts was a hand scribbled sign at the information desk. Copyright © 1996 by Lisa H. Weinberg |