Word: airporters
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Finally home! What a feeling! Preparing to step off the plane, waiting 20 minutes for the right airport bus to arrive and take me from the plane to the terminal, then going through the fiasco of smuggling my laptop through customs (only with the help of a friend of a friend of a friend who works for the Intelligence Service--otherwise I'd have had to pay 70% of the purchase price in import duties) and finally feeling the holes in the road through the shock system of my family's car. Unmistakably home, unmistakably Bulgaria...
...maps, the beautiful, bustling island 100 miles off the coast of China is clearly labeled: Taiwan. The swarms of tourists and businessmen who arrive at the cavernous Chiang Kai-shek International Airport know they have landed in Taiwan. Even hostile communist officials in Beijing sometimes refer to their old foes, the Nationalists, as "the authorities on Taiwan." But if the government on the island should ever begin calling itself the Republic of Taiwan, signaling that it is declaring its full independence from the mainland, the most likely reply from the People's Republic of China across the straits would...
...dragged on with no word from the airport and I spent two nights shivering in borrowed shorts and tee-shirt, my calm demeanor soon deteriorated. The baggage office answered only every third time I called, and the noise in the background at De Gaulle sounded like a World War II resistance fight led by Charles himself. However, the most upsetting part of the whole experience was the cavalier and almost hostile attitude of the flight attendants, personnel and those whose job it was to help me. They seemed to be saying: How presumptuous of you to expect that, in addition...
...stunned when, after my thirtieth phone call to the airport, someone told me that I would have to come and pick up my own bags. I had always assumed that in cases of lost luggage, the airline takes full responsibility for delivering your belongings promptly to your door. Furthermore, they are supposed to compensate you with petty cash for your first few nights sans toothbrush and clothing...
...course, there were unusual circumstances exacerbating my tribulations at De Gaulle Airport. Because of the Air France strike, the airport truly resembled the Paris zoo. Luggage of all shapes and sizes spilled out into the hall and angry passengers were fighting to reclaim their precious suitcases. My trek out onto the runway to grab my luggage resulted from the lack of any noticeable ground transportation...