OK, obviously that's a lie, but at this point I'm not sure what else to say to make it OK in my mind that my Big Trip didn't really work out as planned.
The good news is that I'm no longer afraid to fly. The planes were big and roomy, the food wasn't terrible, and there was minimal turbulence. I can safely say that I think I'm OK to fly internationally....that is, if I ever dare to try it again.
So, what went wrong? I'm not really sure. I got off the plane, waited in line for Customs and Immigration for about an hour and kept changing my form - for some reason I thought it would matter that I listed "Town" as Sacramento instead of California. Come to find out, nothing really mattered. They hated me at first sight. When asked why I was coming to London, I told them the truth - I was coming to volunteer at the Sundance Film Festival. I didn't think anything about it, because that's what I was doing there. Long story short, apparently I needed a work Visa, I couldn't change my initial reason for admittance, and I was held in their slimy immigration pen for 18 hours until being put on a plane and sent back home.
The only funny part of the entire adventure was that in between a way-too-intrusive search and being fingerprinted like a common criminal, I passed by the boy band One Direction in the hallway, which made me giggle.
I was held in a pen, my stuff was all locked up, I was in the same clothes for three days, and I was crying the entire time. At the end, a special agent had to walk me onto the plane, hand my passport to the airline staff (I felt like "Dead Man Walking") and then I wasn't able to get my passport until we were landing. I took this picture when I finally got my phone back so that you can see what a great time I had. Lovely, no?
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