Devil & Angel

My friend, Katie, wrote a note for me about what we went though at Nashvllie airport today. I didn't make it for going home. I am staying at Murray for an other week. It's sad but at the same time I realized I need to practice speaking English more!! whoa barf... stress at the airport. So, Ellsa Chen is this awesome girl from Taiwan. I was taking her to the airport so that she could go home for a conference. So, we hung out all night, had a sleepover and got up to go the airport in the morning. We had an awesome morning of driving to the airport, listening to great music, and car dancing. Then... We get to the nashville airport and go to the check in desk. Ellsa drags this 50 lbs suitcase and I'm carrying a bad that feels like it weighs 87 pounds all the way to the desk. United Airlines. Ellsa talking to them and turns out, they have no record of her confirming the flight. It's confusing because she has an "open" ticket meaning she paid for the ticket a long time ago and then just calls to book a flight without paying. So, she called like a month ago and booked the flight through this Singapore airline who said she would have a connecting flight from nashville to chicago, chicago to LA, LA to Taipei. But, United was like, "what, she ain't in the computer, she can't go, and we can't help you, but call singapore". So, we go to the payphones and call sigapore. They can't help us either because ellsa didn't have the paper ticket from like 8 months ago, this old ticket from when she came to the states. stress... so after spending and hour and a half on the phone with singapore, we leave nashville. We cried because it was stressful and we were upset, so we rode back in silence. Then we get back to Ellsa apartment, find her old ticket, and called singapore...again. After 30 minutes, we get a flight from chicago, to la, to taipei on wed. but we needed a flight to chicago from nashville and singapore couldn't help us. So, we had to call United Airlines. They couldn't figure out what I was talking about. So, after another 30 minutes, they said that there were no flights and that we would ahve to book through a different airline. Internet. Nothing under 250 dollars. Suck back to singapore. Had to explain that we needed to cancel and try something else, but they didn't understand. SO finally I was like, any flight that involves nashville, chicago, la, and taipei. (note, we had to go through those cities because of her open ticket status) so, we got one booked for next tuesday, may 1. Then, they told me to call United and confirm that she was on the flight. So, I did. after 20 minutes of explaing that I am not ellsa, but I'm speaking for her because she is stressed and english is hard, and what I needed, it finally got worked out. So, next tuesday, ellsa and I will go to nashville...again. and hopefully, ellsa will get to go home. This really stressed me out. I can't imagine not being able to speak english and having to figure all this crap out. I can speak english and I was still confused with all the airline jargon. So, next time you see an international student, give them a hug because it's difficult. Not that I know firsthand, but I understand a little better now. And, give ellsa a hug, she needs it. Katie said: I don't like 1800-742-3333 b/c I called to singapore airline 8 times a day!