I wish I knew where to start. It's been a crazy 13 days in the life of the Ray family. I'll start with the flights we took to get here......
We left Monday morning (August 26th) from San Diego. We got the kids up around 4:00 am because we had to be at the airport by 5:30. It was surprisingly very quick getting through security and ready to board the plane. We, of course, were very early (this is me we're talking about), so we had a while to wait. When we finally boarded, our seating arrangement wasn't bad, except for we were on the very, very back seats. Not good when you only have a 45 minute layover in Atlanta.
That flight was pretty uneventful. I think it was 4 hours. We came prepared with lots of snacks and the kids had their own little televisions that they were able to watch some kids shows on. Graham played his DS for most of the time while Benny played with his toys. Benny just wanted to change seats a lot, so we played musical chairs, but the kids did great!
We arrived in Atlanta and by the time we finally got off the plane, we had only 40 minutes until our plane destined for Rome took off. We found out what gate we needed to get to and started our trek across the airport. Graham was walking next to me as we made our way and I accidentally stepped on one of his flip flops and broke it. Awesome. Graham spent the rest of the adventure to Italy with just one shoe.
We were devastated when we got to the airport train found out it wasn't working. NO!! So, we started running. Well....Jason and the kids started running. Benny was on Jason's shoulders. I trotted (remember I was 33 weeks prego). We made it to the gate with just enough time. We were the last ones to board. The flight was PACKED! The plane was huge, but completely full. Keep in mind that this was going to be a 9 hour flight to Rome. When we quickly sat down in our seats, the kids and I were in the middle aisle. 4 of the 5 seats in the middle were taken by Rays. Jason was two rows behind us and next to the window. Not good. I was in a bad state from trotting my way through the airport. Sweaty, braxton hicksing, not feeling well. I looked back and saw where Jason was and just started crying. I WAS NOT going to last 9 hours with the kids by myself. I took some deep breaths and kept looking at poor Jason with eyes that begged him to figure something out to fix this.
After we took off and I stopped crying, it wasn't bad. The kids were fine and too busy with their personal TVs to cause any problems (turns out on international flights, all the movies are free, so they were in heaven watching all of the new kids movies that just came out). Even still, I was nervous about how it would all play out. Jason saved the day, though. He was able to talk a couple of different people into switching seats around so that he was on our row. We put Lucy and Graham in the side row together next to the window and Jason, Benny, and I were in the middle aisle. Phew....life was better!
We spent the flight watching movies and passing out occasional snacks and activities that I had packed. My mom bought each of the kids a new toy to open on the long flight and that served us very well. Benny got new Hans Solo and Chewbacca Imaginext figurines that entertained him for at least 2 of the hours.
It wasn't all cinema and sweetness, though. I was sooo uncomfortable and had a hard time sitting for so long. My doctor told me to get up a couple times an hour to keep my blood flow good. I drank lots of water, so I had to get up many times to use the restroom. Well, about 3 hours into the flight, the man sitting behind me kept hitting his TV remote against his TV which was also my seat. He was an older guy, maybe 70 years old. He would hit it hard and say something angrily about how it wouldn't work. It got really annoying, but I ignored it. A little while later, I got up to go to the bathroom again and he let out this long, overly dramatic sigh and mumbled something under his breath. Trying to be polite, I asked him if he was okay. He then went on to explain in a very irritated voice how every time I move in my seat or get up, it makes his eyes go out of focus and he can't see his movie until he readjusts his glasses and waits for his eyes to focus again. I sat there dumbfounded for a moment and then pointed to my stomach and said, "Well, I AM pregnant and trying to entertain and three-year old. I'm doing the best I can." He then said in a mocking/laughing tone, "Well I didn't do that to you!" I was so shocked! I said, "Are you serious?" and then walked away. I was sooo mad, which when I'm pregnant means I immediately start crying. I had to wait in line for the bathroom, so I just stood there and cried. Jason came back and talked to me and after a while I was fine. But, for the rest of the flight, every time I adjusted or moved around, I would hear a sigh or an irritated grunt from the old man behind me. Awesome.
Lucy and Benny slept for a bit on the long flight, but Graham and I stayed up the whole time. He was happy with his DS and toys or watching a movie. I was happy that it went so well. I had geared myself up for some real airplane drama. Aside from trying to keep Benny from kicking the seat in front of him the whole time, the kids were fabulous!
We made it to Rome with only another 45 minute layover to make our flight to Catania. An Italian airport employee met us at the gate along with all the other people trying to make the same flight. He spoke English and proceeded to help us get to the gate we needed to get to. The main problem was that we had to trot/run to the other side of the airport again, go through security, wait in line to show our passports and then we could board the plane. Security went great...no problems. We quickly made our way to the passport line and immediately thrown into a mob of people waiting to do the same thing. We have since learned that Italians don't "do" lines.....they do mobs. The people in these mobs don't mind standing really close to you and pushing their way slightly in front of you. It was crazy. We were all tired and worried that we wouldn't make the flight. Benny was a wreck. With all the people standing around us (super close) he was losing it. So fun. We were quite the spectacle there in the Rome airport. Benny was crying sitting on Jason's shoulders. Jason was also carrying nearly everyone's carry on, too. I was sweating like crazy after trotting through the airport and trying not to cry. Graham and Lucy were trying to be patient, but kept asking, "Why is this taking so long?". On the other side of the passport agents desk, we could see our Italian airport employee gesturing us to hurry.....like we could do something about the smelly mob we were standing in.
Finally, we made it to the gate right as it was scheduled to take off. We hurried on to the much smaller and less crowded plane and found our seats. We thought we would be taking off immediately, but no. We ended up sitting on that plane for over 90 minutes before it finally took off. 90 minutes! All of that rushing and worrying and we just sat there! The surprising part about it was that none of the other passengers seemed irritated. Another cultural thing we are learning. This was no big deal to them. Several times I looked around at all the Italian passengers and was so jealous of their patience and "no worries" attitudes. We were all exhausted and cranky. Lucy fell asleep and Benny passed out soon after. After we finally took off and were in the air, I went and found empty seats I could lay down in.
We arrived a little over an hour later in Catania. We finally made it! Poor Graham had just barely fallen asleep when we had to get off the plane. He was quite the sight as we dragged him through the airport half-awake, half-asleep and with only one shoe on. Catania is a pretty small airport, so making our way to the baggage claim wasn't tough. Miraculously, all of our luggage made it! We had nine pieces of luggage and it all was there! We were so grateful!
We shuffled our way out of the airport doors and were greeted by a future co-worker of Jason's. Adam is our "sponsor". All the newcomers to the base are assigned a sponsor when they get orders to Italy. Adam answered questions, set-up our housing, scheduled some appointments for us, etc. We loaded up his mini-van, buckled up, and drove to our new home in Sigonella.
Sigonella is only about 20 minutes from the airport. That 20 minutes was just long enough to get me completely stressed and totally overwhelmed. I remember thinking, "What have we done" a few different times. I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. We were still in the city for the first part of the drive. It was dirty and crowded. As we got closer to the base, it got more green and more rural and a little more do-able. It was 10 am. We were so very tired, so very smelly, and so very anxious about the new life we would have here.
