Last night I picked up Alicia at the airport from her trip to Chicago. This morning we went back to the airport so she could leave for her Rotary trip to San Francisco, Hollywood, the beach, Disneyland, Universal Studios, Las Vegas (for the Fourth of July), the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and I don't remember where else. Of the twelve inbounds in the Seattle district, ten of them are going on this trip (out of a total of about 54). Fifty-plus kids from many different countries traveling on a bus (and camping) through the American west for a couple of weeks. There has been a lot of ethnic and racial intolerance throughout the world to read about lately, and I see this trip as a partial antidote to that poison. It makes me hopeful just to think about it.
We swapped suitcases, Alicia left some things here that Christopher can take back to her host parents before she gets back (she decided - after a prudent count - that seventeen t-shirts was a bit much for a fourteen-day trip), and she was off. Her host parents will pick her up in a couple of weeks and then she leaves for home the next day. She'll get home a couple of days after Chloe and I leave her house in Pamplona.
It was great to see her again for a brief time and we (Steve, Christopher, my mom, and Steve's sister) got to say goodbye. At the airport we were at the Alaska Air ticket counter (several of them) for about an hour sorting out another boy's ticket. His travel agent booked him on the wrong flight even though months ago he'd forwarded Alicia's itinerary to the travel agent and told her that's the flight he needed to be on. I told him to be charming (his usual demeanor anyway) because there were no seats left on the flight, except in first class. His charm wasn't necessary because the ticket agent couldn't have been more helpful and took care of everything (I think he was a sucker for a group of international students traveling in the US). Then they (four of them) were off to the security line. Because they were all there it wasn't so bad saying goodbye to Alicia. I hugged her and told her I'd be seeing her again. As I was walking away she said, confused, "Wait, when?" I choked out, "Sometime." It's easier to say See you again than it is to say Goodbye.
The ticketing snafu was a valuable demonstration of why it's not a good idea to leave a passenger at the airport doors and then drive off (the case with two of the students, including the one with the ticketing problem). These are intelligent kids and they would have eventually gotten it figured out, but having a native-English speaking adult there helped to pave the way to a successful resolution.
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