Introduction

I am essentially a real life George Costanza from bulging wallet to being short and stocky to even wanting to wear sweat pants all of the time if society would let me. I once had a brand new coat whose zipper would always get stuck.

This blog will be about weird and somewhat comical happenings in my life with the occaisional rant about random things. I love to rant.

So how should I begin? Let me first stay that I am in my first week of a 4 month study abroad program in Paris. I am taking a semester of law school to study French/International Alternative Dispute Resolution practices. Basically means I get 4 months off of law school to sit and listen to peoples problems and try to give them a solution that works for both parties.

So what event has happened to me so far? Well I currently do not have my luggage. Essentially it goes like this...I arrived in Paris from Minneapolis via Dallas. My luggage did not. The employees at Paris said it would probably be on the next flight over from Dallas, so the next day. This made sense, since I only had about an hour between flights from Minneapolis to Paris at Dallas. I made the gate when they started boarding. No problem. It was kind of awkward though showing up to my host family without any bags.

The next day. I call American Airlines, no bag. They say it got sent to Dublin. Yes the land of shamrocks, 4 leaf clovers, and Guiness. Why was my bag sent to Dublin? American couldn't explain that one. They did say though that Air Lingus would fly it over to Paris on the next flight, give my bag to Air France (some weird airline regulation), and then give it to American. They said this would take 1 to 2 days.

I guess at this point I should say I stupidly forgot to pack an extra pair of clothes in my carry-on, like I always do when flying. Why? Well my "logical" thought process told me, "if you can't have your toiletries on board you will stink anyways, so why pack clothes?" Yes why would I pack extra clothes....I am an idiot.

So recap: me no bag, bag getting drunk and lucky in Ireland, I am hating American Airlines.

I let two days past and try and call American. No one answers entire day. I finally, on day 5, go to the airport, which costs 18 Euros to do. I begin going through the chain of people until I finally make it to the lost baggage people. They call Air Lingus. Air Lingus has no record of my bag ever going on a flight from Dublin to Paris (even though the computers show it has) and has no record of it in Dublin either. Shit.

American then tells me that my bag is "hors de systeme" translation, "I am fucked and my bag is gone forever". It really means that my bag is no longer being tracked by any computers because they don't know where it is at. At this point I demand to have the phone given to me and numbers I can call to Dallas with so I can get some answers. The American represenative got mad and said please in a questioning matter, meaning she wanted me to say please. I instead said, "Merci" and took the phone from her. Amercian in US tells me they will send me a form that I have to fill out, wait 12 weeks, and if nothing happens I will get my case handed over to the claims department. Yes you read that correctly 12 weeks. After more "discussions" I finally hang up.

I decided to go to the zoo to take a nice long walk and calm down. The day before I had bought two shirts to tide me over (not realizing my bag was completely lost). At the zoo to top off a wonderful day what happens....

a seagull shits on me. I was wearing a black shirt. What can be more symbolic then having a flying object shit on me after finding out American had lost my luggage forever.

Next post....Airline compensation and shopping spree in Paris