Once again, flying has not gone well

Matthijs was supposed to have arrived last night. But he only got as far as Washington. In one day he experienced closed train routes to the airport, a cancelled flight, delays, the 1.5 hour process of going through American customs + security, mechanical failures, having to exit a flight he'd boarded, being re-routed to another airplane, and eventually a desperate call for volunteers not to board. This sounds worse than my bad flying experience.

Matthijs handled all of it amazingly well. His habit of leaving early for the airport meant that even with the extra travel time required for the train trip he was still on time. Upon arriving he discovered that his flight was cancelled and he'd been put on a slightly later flight - which meant that he could attend the church service being held at the airport. Because this new flight was delayed somewhat, he just made it through customs and security to be at the gate on time for his connecting flight - something that probably wouldn't have been possible with the amount of time between his original flights. And he managed to sleep somewhat and read and generally keep positive, while I anxiously watched how his second flight was delayed again and again, waiting until it left before I got in the car to pick him up. Eventually, he volunteered to be the one to stay when the replacement plane turned out to be too small, getting a hold of me just when I had my shoes on to leave, having come to the conclusion that his flight wouldn't be cancelled and I'd had enough of waiting.

Matthijs spent the night in a nice hotel in Washington and is sleeping of his jetlag there while waiting for his next flight. I spent the rest of the evening watching the Oscars - thankful for friends who could cheer me up after the disappointment of Matthijs' delay. Neither option was ideal. However, Matthijs' willingness to be delayed has resulted in his receiving a significant amount of travel vouchers from United, which we will both enjoy - the only question now is how: travelling back and forth to Amsterdam? Or exploring this new country?