Flying ...

Our initial flight from CoolCity airport to LayoverCity was delayed for 2 hours, causing BestFriend and me to miss our connecting overnight flight to Rome! Thanks to a very helpful customer service representative for the airline, we were booked on an overnight flight to Frankfurt where we'd catch a plane to Rome. Even though we missed our first half-day in Italy, we got stamps in our passports for Germany, so I can now officially include it as a country I've visited. (Combined with Italy, I can now say I've been to 7 foreign countries! Yay!)

Yesterday, while waiting in LayoverCity to get our connecting flight to CoolCity, the person at the desk announced that the flight was overbooked. Would anyone be willing to give up their seat for a guaranteed seat on the next flight? Volunteers would get a $300 voucher to travel on the airline within the next year. BestFriend's fiance had already left to pick up BestFriend and me from CoolCity airport ... so she couldn't opt for the later option ... but I decided to take the later flight.

After our flight had taken off with BestFriend on it, I began talking with another man who also volunteered to give up his seat. I learned that he was a history professor at nearby school in CoolCity. And -- he used to teach at the same high school where I did my part of my student-teaching! Talk about a small world ... and then one of his former students (a year younger than me) ended up being on our new flight. The three of us had a long discussion because the new flight ended up being delayed for quite some time. We discovered we had all been on the same flight from CoolCity to LayoverCity last week! Again- coincidence?! He offered to give us both a ride back to our respective residencies, and we both took him up on his generosity. A unique and fun twist to the ending of a wonderful, wonderful trip.