Day 1

Wow! Crazy start. So I left for the airport on Friday at around 9pm, got there, said my good byes and got on the first plane which took me to North Carolina. I was excited for the flight because I like talking to people on planes because you'll never see them again and their usually interesting. Well I got on the plane and I ended up next to a Korean couple that didn't speak English, and the guy was really loud! People kept shushing him. When I finally got to North Carolina I was pretty hungry but my next flight was already boarding. So I eat my meal bars that my Mom packed(Thanks Mom) and got on the plane. Then I sat in the plane an hour before we even took off because the loading ramp was broken. Then a three hour flight. When I arrived in the San Juan airport I went to get my bags and to meet up with Betsy, the school principle. I got my bags but Betsy was nowhere to be found. I cancelled my Verizon service but I can still audio Skype on my phone when there is wifi. Well SJU, as it turns out, is the only airport that doesn’t have wifi. In fact I asked an employee if there was a place nearby that had wifi, and he didn’t know what wifi was... welcome to Puerto Rico. I eventually found a pay phone but it was broken and eat the only change that I had. After asking several people, one lady from Texas let me use her cell phone! I called Betsy but she wouldn't pick up her phone. I felt like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, stuck in a new country, alone. After that I wondered all around the airport for about an hour looking for wifi or Betsy. I finally got a lead on when I could find the mystical wifi, across the street at a hot wings restaurant. So I carried on with my 50+ pounds of luggage across the street. I had to take a cross walk that forced me into a parking structure that the restaurant was up against. I got next to the restaurant but I was on the wrong level. So I found an elevator and went down one floor. It was again the wrong floor but there was a Wendy's so I decided to go in and take a break. As I walked in the door I saw someone that I recognized from the school's website! Before I could say anything she finger spelled my name and I signed "Yes! That’s me!” We had both been at the airport for two hours looking for each other, and she didn't even know what I looked like. She was walking around the airport asking anyone who fit my description and looked lost if they were Chris Tingley. What a champ. I would have given up 1hr 45mins ago, but she stuck with it and found me. I was expecting Betsy Hoke, but Jen Johnson came to pick me up. We got to know each other on the 45min drive to the school. I thought it would be longer than that but it wasn’t. When we got to the school the electricity was out so I couldn’t text or call anyone so we eat a delicious meal at the school in the dark. After dinner we went to a festival were there was going to be food and music and a parade but the power was out there too so there were just a bunch of upset people standing in the dark so we went to the grocery store which had a generator and got groceries and went home. Sweet first day!