One more night of drinking tap water

Yup. I'm currently enjoying free high-speed internet at the Hilton in Houston, Texas. As predicted, having two stops that are only half an hour each didn't work out as smoothly as my travel agent anticipated. It works out for me, I guess, to ease me into the warm temperatures (although this AC is ridiculous and I can't figure out how to turn it down) and have some time by myself before I leap into Guatemala.

My flight from Ottawa to Cleveland made it just on time for me to run across the airport with the sweetest couple of guys. They spoke in this jumble of English, Spanish and French that I completely understood. It was awesome. They were off to Mexico. I was totally unconscious for the flight to Houston, waking up now and again when the pilot would say things about not being able to land. We landed 15 minutes before my next flight was leaving and I had a seat at the back of the plane. As passed on by Andrew Rizk, the Houston Airport is freaking huge and I had to go really far to get to the flight from Houtson to Guatemala. Needless to say, the plane had left by the time I made it there. At least two other passengers from the Cleveland flight missed their transfer for the Guatemala City flight as well.

After a lot of haggling with 3 different tellers at the Continental Customer Service desk, I managed to get a hotel and food vouchers. One of the tellers wanted me to take the next flight to Guatemala City, which would mean an overnight stay in the Guatemala City airport. I bugged them to let me stay in Houston overnight instead since my Spanish is terrible and I would not be comfortable sleeping/trying to stay awake in the Guatemala City airport. "My mother would kill me."

So after a less-tearful-than-I-expected good-bye with my parents, Bren and Jeffrey, I spent most of my day sleeping and eating. Tonight? Emailing people, watching TV and more eating is the plan. I left my gym stuff and bathing suit in my checked luggage, so I don't have anything else to do, really. I think I'm pretty much in the middle of nowhere so there isn't really anywhere for me to go or anything to do.

Right now I feel very calm about the whole thing. A bit nervous, a bit sad, a bit excited. Generally, I'm not feeling too much of anything.