Friday, oh Friday. Oh, my dear Friday.
I woke up early; I didn't get much sleep. I got ready. I tripled checked everything. I left early to meet Jourdan at Piccadilly station so that we could go together. To the airport that is. For my weekend in Paris that is.
I forgot to note in the last post that before bed I checked my email to find my confirmation email. Instead of finding a confirmation email, I found a cancellation email instead. Supposedly "per my request" on top of that. I'm not quite sure how my phone calls to these people verifying everything about my flight, making sure that there would be no problem for the next morning and being reassured by them that everything for my flight would be fine, turned into a cancellation per my request. I had called Jourdan and Oniwa Thursday night when I got that email to tell them what was going on. I was still going to go along with everything though and figure it out at the airport because ofcourse fly.co.uk was closed and they wouldn't open until 10 am. I called my credit card company again at like 1am to verify everything. They said that they saw the charges and they let it go through, that there was no problem and they weren't holding anything up. I talked to my dad and just decided to go through with everything in the morning and sort it out at the airport since there was nothing else I could do.
So back to Friday morning. I went on the hour long tube ride with Jourdan (once I found her at Piccadilly haha) and then at the airport I, of course, couldn't check in and then the lady at assistance sent me over to another area and there I spoke to Rachel. Rachel was very helpful and kind and tried so hard to help me. I really should send something to British Airways about her. What it came down to is that even though I had the initial confirmation number, a ticket was never actually issued to me. It was still too early to call them even though we both tried. The only other option was to buy another ticket right there but that was $475 and there is just no way ever that I could afford, justify, or spend that amount of money on a weekend trip where I only had one full day in Paris. Plus there wasn't a return flight for me at the time. It was way more expensive than what I originally paid for. Anyway I had to bite my tongue because I was tearing up and about to break down in the airport. Jourdan was so upset too. She was offering to help pay for my ticket, which I wouldn't let her do. Rachel held a sit for me on a later flight so that I could talk to the people that were screwing me over and arrange for a different time. She told me to be firm with them because they are ruining my travel plans. She was really on my side and helped me out the most that she could.
We met up with Lindsey and Oniwa because they came separately. I told them the news. Everyone was really bummed out but very optimistic and hopeful that things would work out. I know that Jourdan and Oniwa reallllly wanted me to go. And I did too obiviously. This was something that I really wanted to do and I organized the group of us to go and I made the meeting so that we could search for tickets and hotels/hostels and now it looked like I wasn't going to be able to go. I was so heartbroken. I left them so they could go through security. I went down to the tube telling myself to not cry and continuing to bite my tongue. When I got down there the one worker asked me if I was okay. I just smiled at him all teary eyed and got on the tube. Then I rode home for the next hour thinking about what I was going to say to this horrible company when I got to my flat.
I got home and made that call. I was so mad! At first I was calm and rational, trying to be polite yet stern. Then when this lady was talking over me and not listening to me and telling me incorrect information, I talked her down. I told her I was upset and disappointed; that I am supposed to be on a flight to Paris right now and I'm not. Instead I am being charged for a flight that I'm not on AND they are charging me a cancellation fee of 100 pounds! (that's like $165 dollars!) I told her they lied to me about everything; that I have done everything in my power to make sure everything was fine for my flight and I was assured that there were no problems. I had made so many phone calls and I want everything refunded to me. I said that I was over it and that I wantt the flight taken off, the cancellation fee taken off, everything. They weren't going to help me get on another flight and I was sick of it. Now I wasn't screaming or anything...I wasn't acting out of control. I was still reasonable and polite because that is just how I am. But I was the most mad I think I have ever been talking to someone and i have never been so stern and demanding of someone in customer service. It was really hard to hold it back. Anyway there is no guarantee of a refund but if I get one itt would be in 28 days. I can assure everyone that there is no way I am paying for anything. I got her name although she tried to avoid that at first. Who knows if I even got the right one. I really hate that lady. I am so sure she is one of the girls I talked to on Thursday that reassured me that everything was fine and now she was trying in all of these different ways to blame me. First she said something about how I was supposed to call the airport. I told her NO ONE told me that. then after a minute she said that Oh, sorry that note says that we needed to call the airport. I could have screamed. She didn't even know what country I was in! She thought I was in Spain until the 30th. Oh my god. If there was a problem on Thursday I was supposed to get a phone call on my cell phone here. I left it with them both times. Guess who called me? NO ONE. They were saying my card was declined. When I talked to the cc company, they said everything was fine and it went through. And I doubled checked with them. I was going to lose it.
So then, I called my dad. I told him that I was staying in London for the weekend and he goes, "You're kidding me." He assured me we would take care of the money thing when I got home and said to not let it spoil my time here. I was so heartbroken. He was talking to me on the phone and I was just crying. Finally I hung up and then I called Sara. I told her what was going on and that we needed to do something so I wasn't sad.
Our solution?
The London Zoo.
Sara said it was going to be a beautiful day. She lied.
ahaha. It wasn't really bad at all. The rain here doesn't last long. It was like maybe 10 minutes at most. But it was funny and I was giving her a hard time because she was like it's not going to rain! Then it did. I really didn't care at all...it didn't bug me. But I did use it to my advantage to be melodramatic. I told her London was crying for me ahaha.
By the time we started getting close to Regent's park, it stopped raining. We weren't quite sure how to get to the entrance but we just started walking. We ended up walking all around the perimeter of the zoo. If we had just gone a little further initially, we would have found it. In our defense, it was not clearly labeled at all on where to go. It was a good walk though! The boys that helped me at the entrance with the ticket and whatnot, were pretty obvious on wanting to keep talking to me. They kept offering me things and wanted to answer any questions I might have, etc. It was kind of funny b/c afterwards Sara was like where did you get that? What, you got that? How come I didn't get one? She was like man my guy sucked hahaa. All that I really had were all these ridiculous pamplets and they showed me what the visitor's guide was so I could buy one if I wanted. Sara was like no one told me about that! It was funny.
S/N: I forgot to mention all the guys the day before whe we were waiting to meet for the Alt. London tour, that offered to buy us drinks. Guys here have no time to waste, I guess. It was one after another! This one guy came up to us with his friend while I was talking to Sara and he interrupted saying, "Would you girls like some drinks?" I said no thank you and he wanted to know why not. I avoided eye contact and said we had somewhere to be. He was like ah Fuck it, we'll go to you then. I was like oh no, no, that's okay and then we left.
Another S/N: Earlier, when I was walking to the tube to meet Sara, this girl approached me and basically she was currently in an interview and she said they through her outside, gave her 10p, and said she had to talk to someone and trade them 10p for something useless they might have. They said it couldd be anything but she couldn't come back in to the interview until she had done that task. They girl was maybe a little younger than me, dressed up, outside with only a coin in her hand. She did seem slightly timid so I could see why they might force her out to talk to strangers. Tom had told me how their interviewing process is different, he didn't say anything like this, but it seemed legit. Plus she was giving me the money. I wanted to help her out, plus it seemed like a game, like where you trade items for other items and see how you end up. I like games. haha. No but really I wanted to help her especially because I had a bad morning, I wanted to do something nice for someone. I told her I would but I didn't know what I had on me. I had my camera, wallet, coins, keys...not giving any of those up! But I found an extra hair tie. It was one of my snazzy ones too but I looked at her doubtfully, like me giving her a hair tie wasn't good enough. Her face lit up though and said, "That's perfect! Thank you!" We traded and then we both went on our way. Good story.
Back to the zoo...
When we walked in the first thing I saw was a drink cart and I got an espresso! I told Sara I was SO happy. It was our goal to find me some coffee b/c the other day I told her how coffee just makes me so happy; that if I have it, it is like nothing can be wrong. So I had my espresso and then we turned around only to see GORILLA KINGDOM! Omg, it turned into the best day ever. I had no idea there were gorillas there! I love gorillas! I geeked out and told her all about how I wrote a report and gave a speech in thee 4th grade about gorillas for A.T. and how I have a giant gorilla
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