Goodbye

Like most people I don't like goodbyes, especially drawn-out ones. Luckily our US goodbyes were relatively painless as we had enough time to say farewell to everyone we wanted to. And I'm reading Stephen Colbert's I am America (and So Can You!) to help me get through this transition. Like everything Colbert, it's hilarious!

The only painful part of our departure was the six hour delay at Newark airport because of a security breach. Apparently some bloke intentionally or unintentionally entered a secure zone without an ID check. Since they couldn't find him they had to rescreen everyone at the airport. We had to deplane, go out of the terminal, and then go through the security check along with thousands of other passengers. The entire process took about four hours, resulting in our flight being delayed by six hours.

It could have been much worse. At first we were sure that our flight would be canceled. Instead, once rescreening began, things proceeded relatively quickly. While thousands of passengers were packed in a small area, most waited patiently, and Continental called in reinforcements to get stranded passengers onto alternate flights. Of course the fact that authorities felt like they had to respond to the breach in this way is another matter altogether. To me the episode highlighted what I most liked and disliked about living in the US.