While you may be thinking that making the NY flight would be what I was most stressed about, truth is, I wasn’t even thinking that. Before I could even get to the flight I had to ‘become American’! The only difference from what I was used to is on the plane, I didn’t have to fill in the Green Visa Waiver form. Just the US customs form. This was because by the time I got through immigration I would actually be a permanent resident so you get treated as such before you actually complete the process.
Being nearly last off the plane I had to lose my air legs quickly to try and get to immigration in an instant. This resulted in running on the moving walkways, running down the stairs – anything to get a few people ahead of the position I was stuck in. I ran under the portrait of George W that says ‘Welcome to the United States of America’ and I finally arrived at immigration queue. This was the first time I have ever encountered the queue for American citizens/residents was just as long as the ‘Alien’ queue. I promptly took my place, for the first time ever, in the American queue and waited. It was fast moving and before I knew it I was at the barrier with my yellow ‘official business’ envelope, chest x-rays and a big big smile. When I got in the line originally, I spied a teenage boy with the exact same yellow envelope but he had since disappeared, so I let the immigration official do his thing. After wandering off, he came back to tell me I must go and collect my luggage (ugh here we go!) and then place it near the immigration office and sit in the waiting area. Argh! I panicked… my flight… my flight! Anyway I had to go through this no matter what, so I waited for what seemed like an eternity for my bags. The good thing is, with them being so heavy, good luck if someone wanted to take off with them! In fact, by the stage they could’ve taken them and I doubt I would have even cared!
I decided to go with two trolleys and line them up and throw these heavy cases on to them. What a ridiculous sight. Anyway I eventually looked like I was partaking in an episode of Supermarket Sweep. With one trolley full, I ran this over to the immigration office, threw the brakes on and dumped that one there before bolting back to the carousel to pick up the next trolley and run it over. By this time it was about 8.25am. I hadn’t even been fingerprinted yet! The teenage boy with the yellow envelope emerged and sat nearby. His dad won a Green Card and was already in Texas and he was following. Before long, I was called over to get fingerprinted and to sign some official documentation and give them my final address for where they can send the Green Card. I was then told to sit back in the waiting spot. By this time it was 8.40 and boarding started for the NY flight at 8.15. I saw a Qantas staffer who saw my bags waiting that had the LAX-JFK tags already on them. As I couldn’t leave the immigration area I yelled out “Ummm excuse me!!!” I explained I am on that silly flight and that I thought I was the last one who would be boarding and if I should just forget about making the connection. She was lovely and simply said “No! You have plenty of time..” To which all I thought was “Uh-huh whatever you say!”. It was then, during what felt like the longest 3 minutes ever until I was called over again and given another stack of paperwork to take with me and another lovely immigration official came over an wanted to chat about having Irish ancestry and going to New York and other things that I couldn’t really concentrate on because I had 5 massive suitcases to move and a whole airline terminal to navigate in all of say… 15 minutes!!
As I became an American there was as much fanfare as say.. what happens at Parliament station when Connex actually run on time. Zilch. It was now onto the next challenge. Suitcases and airport security. As I neared my bags-from-hell a lovely staffer from American Airlines came over and told me she would be escorting me to the plane. I actually think I hugged her!! She wheeled my other trolley, the customs man flagged me through and my bags were dumped/thrown/done away with at the connecting flights carousel. Good riddance to the bags!! She then pushed me through the terminal and when we got to the security checkpoints I was whisked to the business/first class line. It was about 9.00am by this time and there was still about ten people in front of me. I then recognised a girl from the Qantas flight who was in as much of a panic as I was. The American Airlines staffer calmed us both down as I was trying to take of my shoes, find my hard drive at the bottom of my backpack and get my laptop out – all whilst holding my passport and boarding pass and making sure I didn’t lose any Green Card documentation.
I forgot to mention by this time I absolutely stink of long-haul travel smell, am dripping with sweat, my eyes are still swollen from all that crying (dry plane air does not help), my nose is red from blowing it too much and my hair is frizzed. Quite a sight indeed!!
We got through security and ran to the gate. Where I stood still. They hadn’t even BOARDED the flight yet. There were what seemed like 100 people just milling around in the lounge! Eeeek! I was telling the other random panic girl how absolutely disgusting I felt – to which she pulled out a packed of Wet Ones and we proceeded to have a ‘plane shower’ there in the lounge. It bought back so many memories of backpacking and I forgot how awesome you can feel by simply wiping your arms and back with a Wet Ones wipe. Simple things in life and all that… 🙂
After about 10 minutes we were boarding the flight and I got the row directly behind business class with… no-one in between. GOOD TIMES INDEED!!! I was so excited… literally jumping up and down in the seat. It was then that I realised I hadn’t even checked if my passport had been stamped properly or anything like that. When I looked at the passport I realised in an instant – all the hard work of the past 18 or so months was OVER. I was IN!! Yeahhhhh!! But too bad I had no-one to talk about this with. We were sitting at the gate for a while when through the PA, over comes the Captain in his official tone… “We’re going to be sitting here for a while….” I could handle that, I thought. Until he blurted the next sentence. “..we could be sitting here for… the next three hours.”
But… but… but… I have only slept for two hours maximum! I need a shower! I can’t sit in plane seats any longer. And more importantly… I was being met at the apartment in New York at 7pm. I would NEVER make it in time!!