Well, many people have asked that I share my experience as to how I got home and the adventure I had while trying to get back to America. Here goes... Be prepared for a long one. It was quite a trip!
When I finally made the decision to come home, I was informed that an "agent" in Indonesia would have to take me to immigrations and from there to the airport. I met the agent at the school I was going to be working at and was given an itemized list of what I owed the school for visa paperwork etc. The list equated to $461.66. I had pulled $700 out of the bank in Newcastle a week before I left. The purpose of this money was to buy things in the airport, use it for odds and ends until I left the country and then, whatever I had left, I would put into my new bank account in Indonesia. I had what remained of the money in an envelope in my wallet. I had no idea how much money was left and took the envelope out when seeing the amount I owed. I prayed I had enough money. I got all the bills out and began to count. I had not a dollar more or a dollar less than $461. To the dollar I had enough. I couldn't believe it. In the last two weeks, out of $700 dollars and random spending I was left with the EXACT amount owed. Was that a trip!
I had not seen my passport since my arrival in Indonesia since they had taken it and was hoping this was the reason I would need an agent to help me leave the country. I arrived at our meeting point five hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. The man spoke no English and there was another man that was driving the vehicle. I entered the vehicle with them and we left. To where, I didn't know. About 40 minutes later, We arrived at this beat down building swarming with people that said IMMIGRATIONS. One of the men ushered me out of the vehicle and I followed him as we darted in and out of crowds to a back door. The man directed me to sit down in the midst of all these foreign people. He then disappeared into a back room. I sat there for close to 15 minutes wondering what was going on and hoping that I wasn't left. Soon, the gentleman arrived and ushered me outside where we stood for an additional 15 minutes. All the sudden, another man met us and we I was told to get back into the vehicle; now with three men that spoke no English. I did and we proceeded on. Once again, not knowing where. Finally we arrived at the Juana Surabaya Airport. We all left the vehicle and the men told me to sit while they disappeared again. I was alone for close to an hour before they reappeared again. I still had not seen my passport and was praying that one of them had it. We sat there for about another hour and then one of the men handed me his phone. On the other end was female that told me I would need an addition 150,000 Rupiahs to leave the country. I had absolutely no Rupiahs left on me so I had to find an ATM Machine and pray that it worked. Thank God it did and I got the money. Finally the men directed to into the airport where we got in the ticket line. I was surprised to see that all boarding passes were hand written and when I stepped up to the counter, they did not have me on their list of individuals trying to leave the country. They had to call Singapore and get a confirmation that I could enter their country. Thank God that Singapore agreed and I was issued a handwritten boarding pass. However, the troubles checking in did not stop there. She informed me that my baggage was too heavy for the allotted amount. I explained that I knew they would be too heavy and was willing to pay as I had payed on my way in to Indonesia from Singapore. I handed her my credit card and she promptly told me that they only accepted cash so.... I had to leave my spot in line while the men that were with me stood there and go back to the ATM Machine. This time, I withdrew 2,000,000 Rupiahs assuming it would be enough. I got back to the ticket counter and she told me that I didn't have enough. I began bawling and told her that I would just throw stuff out of my luggage. The had no idea how to convert it into how much American money I needed and the lady just felt bad for me, so she dropped the amount of extra kg's I had in my luggage to an amount that was sufficient for 2,000,000 Rupiahs. Finally, after an hour at the ticket stand I was free to leave. The men then took me up the stairs and into a room labeled "Immigration" I was told to sit down across from this desk with a big Indonesian man on the other side. He took my passport and began examining it. He started to interrogate me asking why I was leaving, why I came, why I didn't like it, and started to try to convince about how great Indonesia was. I again began crying. Not as a ploy but out of pure desperation to go home. He looked up at me, paused for a minute and said, "OK. you can go." I'm sure I will never quite understand and appreciate the depth of those words. Only someone that is told, "no. you are not free to go" would probably fully appreciate those four short words. I left his office and the men and I parted ways. I got to my gate and suddenly realized that the lady at the ticket counter had kept all of my papers to get me on my flights out of Asia. I had to run downstairs, leave my passport with the scary man at the desk, and pray that the lady still had the papers. She did, sitting right on her desk. I thanked her for them and went screeching back up the stairs. I stormed right into the immigration office and once again, asked for my passport back. He gave it to me and I was on my way. Just when I thought the plane was going to take off, we were stalled by two immigrants that were not allowed access into Indonesia. The plane had to wait for them to re board as it is policy that they not even be allowed to wait in the airport until immigrations sorts things out. So finally... after an already long day, the plane left the ground. I watched as I left Indonesia, a dream unfulfilled, and hopes destroyed.
Once I arrived in Singapore and deboarded the plane. I stood in the airport I had been in just a few short days earlier and bawled. I bawled until my sleeve was soaked with tears. I had a seven hour layover and nothing to do. When finally boarding the plane I was, at that point, already so exhausted and not looking forward to a 13 hour flight. We traveled all through the night and followed the dark sky into Germany. Five hours into the flight we hit such bad turbulence that the captain directed all flight crew staff to take their seats and get strapped in. No one was allowed to leave their seats for the restroom or any other reason. I braced myself in my chair and became numb as we jolted back and forth in the dark night. All the sudden, everyone heard these horrible, "BOOM BOOM" noises coming from the very back of the plane. I was seated in the back and it was so loud through the turbulence that I thought the plane was falling apart; we had lost a wing, or an engine was going one. A flight attended ran back there and threw the bathroom door open to which he found a completely drunk Russian man pounding against the ways. The lady next to me explained that he had been sitting directly across from us through the whole flight and had drank a gallon of whisky he had brought on the plane. He was complete drunk. He refused to sit down and the flight crew pleaded and pleaded with him. He began to eye them down and try to call them out. The turbulence was so bad that I could not hear all of what was happening but everyone in that section of the plane was straining their necks to see and hoping this man would sit in the midst of an already stressful flight. He continued to refuse to sit and demanded that he be reseated. The flight was full but he insisted that an old man and a young Chinese girl remove themselves from their seats as he demanded that he wanted to sit in their seats. They were more than happy to agree as no one wanted to upset this man anymore and when they finally went to move, the Russian decided he had won that game and didn't want their seats anymore. He chose to pace up and down our section of the plane for onwards to a couple hours, glaring at people, fighting with the flight crew, and he even almost shoulder checked an old grey haired man that was trying to give him his spot for the restroom. I had it. I could not sit back and do nothing any longer. After watching the crew serve this man an additional three meals in the hopes that he would eat something, him throwing the meals to the floor, glaring at Innocent bystanders, I decided to do something. I had to stretch my legs anyways, so I got up when no one was standing back there besides the drunk Russian. I said nothing but just gave him a firm look letting him know that I saw him, knew he was there, and did not expect any problems. Of course, as predicted he approached me and made the wrong more by touching my shoulder intentionally. I told him to not touch me again and leave me alone and we wouldn't have any problems. Of course, he moved closer to me and wanted to engage me in a conversation. I told him that I, unlike others, was not willing to put up with his crap and was completely disgusted at the way he was behaving. I told him he needed to sit down, shut up, and leave everyone alone. He began to try to ramble something to me again and I told him, Enough! I was not willing to listen to him. I said something like I'm not scared of you, you don't intimidate me, and I will not deal with you any longer. I said that I was sick of watching him walk up and down the isles trying to "scare" everyone. I tried to move to the other side of the plane and he followed. It was then that I got extremely firm and used a few choice words I won't write in this blog. I moved to another section of the plane to make it clear to him the conversation was done and this was not friendly banter that he could have fun with. When returning to my spot, I found him sitting nicely in his seat, eating the meal that was provided for him, and not bothering those around him. I guess it gave the flight some excitement, but excitement I didn't appreciate not did the rest of the passengers.
So finally after hours, I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany. What a boring airport! Not a single place to shop, no halls to roam through. Oh man, was it boring and to top it off, all I could do was think about my situations. Finally, after an 8 hour layover, we boarded the plane. The first thing the captain said was, "well folks, we should have you in Denver right on time." I was worried because I only had an hour and half to get through Customs in America an on to my next flight into Rapid City so I was depending on every possible minute I had. Of course, we landed 20 minutes late and with the time it takes to taxi a huge plane like that to the gate, well lets say I was stressing. If you have never been through Immigrations in America, it's not a fun thing to do. It's unlike Immigrations in any other country and you would think every person has a bomb. Put it this way, going through Immigrations in any other country is like going through America's simple security check. Easy, quick, and you're on your way. In America, you have to go through the passport section. Then you have to get your luggage even if it's going on to another flight, then you have to recheck your luggage in at another counter, then you have to go through Customs, then you have to go all the way back through security, then onto your gate. I got to my gate with not a minute to spare and they began boarding the minute I got there.
Finally, after a long journey, I arrived safely in Rapid City, South Dakota.
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