Just Come Over Here For a Second

When I was in Egypt I had to fly back to the States for about 3 days for my brother's wedding. It turned out to be a fun event. That was good, since my 10 hour layover in Amsterdam gave me a 25+ hour travel time to get back to Egypt.

Seeing this story though reminded me of when I was coming back after the program ended. Going through Customs back in Chicago my passport is apparently flagged so I then have to go to secondary security. (Now a lot of countries will swipe your passport, thus your traveling is all computerized- the new US passports actually have Smart Chips in them-this also sucks since I love the different stamps)

So I have to sit this is area with all these other people, mostly foreigners, I guess all having some random problem obviously. A guy comes & collects a new crop of problem passports & goes back somewhere. The only reason I care that this is happening is just last summer in Chicago (which seems to have it out for me) a lady at the last second told me my bags needed to be checked- thus making me miss my connecting flight (too short a connection time admittedly) & I got to spend the night in O'Hare. That memory is suddenly flooding back.

Fairly soon its my turn. I get asked questions at the desk in the room (& not the ones down the hallways). Its pretty much all about me being in Egypt, coming back quickly to America, & then going back again.

And it all happened in a short enough amount of time where I still had to wait on my bags. Of course Chicago then delayed my plane for 4 more hours after it was originally supposed to leave.