Chicago, we have a problem

I'm writing this unfortunately not from Dublin.  I'm in Chicago.  It's 16 degrees and kind of snowing.  I'm going to try and keep this as positive as possible.

Lies

The flight from Portland to Chicago went well.  It was about 4.5 hours and I got there with around 1.5 hours until the flight to Dublin.  After being incredibly overwhelmed by a new airport (and a very confusing one at that), I finally found out where I was supposed to be and got to my gate.  The scheduled departure time was 7:15.  I checked in with my passport and got my boarding pass.  There were a lot of kids my age (all sounding like they were studying abroad as well with different programs) and some older people.  An announcement was made that there were some mechanical problems with the plane and that we would be delayed until 8:15. 

About 10 minutes later without any announcement, the scheduled departure time changed to 9:00.  We were given free $10 vouchers to spend in the airport.  Almost all of the food required going back through security so I settled for the driest $9.50 chicken salad sandwich I've ever had.

At about 8:50, twenty minutes after we were told we were going to board, the intercom came on and announced that our flight had been canceled.  Oh fun!

After receiving a hotel voucher for the night, all the people that were supposed to be going to Dublin waited outside for the hotel shuttle to come and pick us up. 

It was COLD.  Luckily, Colorado has prepared me for the worst.

So I'm now sitting in my hotel room eating my free $20 worth of dinner.  I would much rather be 3 hours away from being in Dublin, but hey, what are you going to do?  I have to call in tomorrow to try and figure out when I can get on a flight.  Supposedly Aer Lingus is bringing in another plane.  I'm hoping I can get out of here by tomorrow.

 

My favorite part about this experience was being around people from Europe.  A lot of the people on the flight are going home and many of them have Irish accents.  Hearing people talk with Irish accents got me even more excited to be in Ireland.  It was also interesting to watch how the Europeans dealt with this major inconvenience.  Often times I see Americans go crazy when something wrong happens.  The Europeans knew the situation sucked but nothing could be done about it so they tried to make the best out of a bad situation.

Not exactly the start I was hoping for but it is what it is.

Let's try again tomorrow...Dublin, here I come (cross fingers)?