Enrty 1 Hale Kai Yoga Teacher Training 2013

 

I made it!  President Barack Obama happened to be in Los Angeles on Friday, the day I needed to catch my flight to Kona.  I wasn't aware that just his presence in the area caused the airport to modify all of their flight schedules.  As I arrived to the commuter flight terminal in San Diego a little over an hour hour early, I proceeded to the check-in counter to check my 1 (big) 43 pound bag (I did good, thanks Jen!).  Anyway, as I was walking up to the check-in I heard my name over the loud speaker.  I told the woman who was casually talking my bag and requesting the $25 fee that the name they were announcing to immediately come to the ticketing counter was me. Why? I'm over an hour early, did I goof up on times?  She told me that my flight looked quite delayed and they needed to let me know.  Huh?So she sent me to security and told me to go straight to ticketing after I get through security.  As I was taking out my laptop and removing the sunglasses from my head to put in the security bins they called my name over the loud speaker again!  I was really getting anxious at this point. I yelled out a little "I'm here!" And proceeded to get looked at by security with a "who the ***** cares" look.  Once they were content that I didn't have any liquid or gel contraband, I made it through security and ran straight to ticketing.

Out of breath from frantically gathering my stuff and running to ticketing I got up to the counter and told her who I was.  "Oh no," she said!  "Not good, " I thought.  She picked up her phone and dialed someone and then ran around the corner and looked outside.  She came back to me without saying one word other than "oh no." She then tells me she was trying to get me on that plane outside because mine is delayed and won't get me to LA in time to catch my Kona flight.  "What?!!"  Unfortunately it was too late though.  The flight doors were closed. On a side note, that is so stupid.  The plane was sitting right there why can't they just re-open the doors?  It's not like the plane would malfunction if the doors opened and closed one more time.  Really?  So anyway, clearly I was upset and stressed.  The nice lady really wanted to help.  She mentioned since I was traveling alone she may able to help in some other way.  Good news! She was going to put me on another airline carrier that was already 2 hours delayed and would be taking off next.  Yay, how nice, I will make it then!  As I got on the little propeller plane and buckled in, the pilot got on the loud speaker and announced the president of the United States was at LAX and about to take off in his plane and because of that we were grounded in San Diego for 45 minutes.  Oh no!  My flight to Kona boards at 4:20 and I was set to arrive at 4:20.  Hopefully the terminal is the same and the gate nearbye.  No such luck!  Since I was on a different airline carrier I now had to get to a different terminal and I was about 45 gates away.

Once I got there at 4:20 I ran out of the plane to the ticketing counter out front and asked for a shuttle.  She told me to go to gate 65 to catch that shuttle.  She pointed me in the direction and suggested I run. Ok, so I was at gate 87 and needed to run to gate 65 to ultimately shuttle me to gate 43.  This is literally miles in LAX.  Not to mention my 2 heavy carry ons and my flip flops being an issue, I ended up taking my flip flops off to better "run" to gate 65.  What seemed to take forever, I finally made it to gate 65.  Get this, lady at gate 65 almost didn't let me get on the shuttle because it was for Alaskan Airlines travelers only.  Luckily she did let me on and I was quickly shuttled off to terminal 4 gate 43.  The shuttle bus driver told me I had 3 minutes to make it to my gate before they shut the doors and gave me directions to run.  As the shuttle pulled up to terminal 4 I jumped off the bus and my phone went flying out of my pocket luckily it didn't break.  I flew through some roped off area and completely ignored the TSA as they yelled "ma'am, ma'am stop!"  That was one of my favorite part of the adventure, I felt like such a rebel and they were too lazy to chase after me.  Gate 43 was in sight and I started waving my hands frantically as I was running up to it.  The gate attendant was waving at me, and motioning me not to stop running.  As I made it to the gate she said I had just made it and closed the doors behind me.  And that is how I began my trip or should I say, my adventure.

After all that being said I am overjoyed to have made it here safely.  This weekend we all have been keeping very busy preparing the text books, cleaning, merchandising the store, and preparing the rooms for the guests.  We all celebrated with my dear friend Alicia for her birthday yesterday.  I gave her a facial with my new Ayurvedic skincare products and she loved them!  It was a great day. My roommate Nicole and I are also having alot of fun giggling at night and having fun reuniting after last years teacher training.  Even with all the hard work we all make sure to still have fun.  We have been hitting the beach at least 2 times a day and taking nice long swims in the ocean.  We have seen alot of beautiful fishes and some turtles.  We keep hoping for our lovely dolphin friends to show up.  This evening 3 of our 16 guests are arriving, so it is all beginning!  I am so excited!  To be continued.....