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Sunday afternoon, my fellow travelers and I gathered in Newark International to board our plane. Despite the eerily optimistic “ON SCHEDULE” sign beside our flight, we were kind of worried. Maybe it was the deserted airport, or the fact that almost every other flight in Newark was canceled, or maybe it was that all other airports had closed or were closing, but something didn’t feel right. Huge lines of people were rescheduling their canceled flights all morning and all through the afternoon.

We looked out the window as we awaited the boarding of our plane (which was now covered with snow) and saw that the visibility outside was practically zero. This was beyond scary. Yet the staff looked happy, so everything had to be all right. Right? I mean, we wouldn’t be flying out in this terrible, terrible weather if the pilots weren’t completely sure that we could take off, right?

We boarded our plane late and me and Simmi poured over the safety manuals and actually took time to memorize the exits ans safety procedures. We didn’t know whether Continental was crazy for flying out in the worsening storm, or just suicidal.

Then the stewardess informed us that the plane would have to be de-iced for about an hour and that the runway had to be cleared so the plane could get enough traction to take off. But we were still flying out. Wait, what?

Around 7pm, when all the other people had rescheduled their flights and were probably at home watching their cars get snowed in, we were told the flight was canceled and we were told to get off the plane. What finally forced Continental to cancel the flight? Oh, that’s right,  NEWARK CLOSED DOWN. It was kind of scary thinking that if Newark hadn’t completely shut down, we would still have (tried) to fly out in that blizzard. Crazy people.

Remember those huge lines of people who were rescheduling as we were checking in? Well, they took most of the seats on flights to Europe that were leaving Monday night and Tuesday. So we were informed by the crazy people at Continental that the only next flight was on the 30th. After we begged, we finally were able to reschedule our flight to leave on Wednesday, December 29th.

So thanks to the late cancellation and Continental, we will now be arriving in Egypt three days late…on Thursday.

But Newark and Continental kept pulling tricks on us. First, they were all like, “Look you’re boarding!” Then, “Psych! You’re not. LOL. Get off the plane.”  Then they told us, “You’re flight might not be canceled for sure. Just delayed.” Then, “Psych! LOL It’s canceled for real now. The airport is like, closed. LOL.”And finally they told us, “Go get your baggage! We will send it to Carousel 9.” Then, “PSYCH! LOL, we can’t find one of your bags! LOL.”

Yep, they made us wait for more than three hours for one of my friend’s bags  because they couldn’t find it. They lost her bag even though the plane didn’t even move! Oh Newark. Oh Continental.

While we waited on the floor for my dad to pick me up from the airport and for Ioana to get her bag, we recorded our reactions to the hectic day we went through:

Insha’allah, we will fly out Wednesday and get there safe and sound.

We don’t need Simmi looking sad again: