European Traveler

So, perhaps the most funny and random travel experience happened to me during my flight from Seattle to Michigan on Saturday...

First, I was on a flight filled with priests and nuns (and some friends) headed to Rome for a week. Literally, it was the entire back of the plane filled with these folks and me. Now, some of you know I have a small obsession with nuns, priests, monks and the like who are out in public wearing their specific garb. I LOVE it! And more often than not there is at least one of the above on any one of my flights. I find it a little weird, but comforting. So, that's where we begin---surrounded by many foreign travelers and foreign-bound travelers and me.

As we getting ready to exit the plane (after a rather smooth and work productive flight), this woman was staring at me and saying, "Heidi? heidi?. Of course, I did not even acknowlegde her for a bit because my name is not Heidi nor does it even remotley sound like Heidi. After the third time she said it, I finally realized that she was in fact talking to me. I looked at her and she said something to me in german (I know no German...my ancestors are rolling in their graves). She realized I was not Heidi and while odd, the incident of mistaken idenity was complete (or so I thought).

I went to grab my bag from the Luggage claim area and all of sudden, this group of people with balloons and signs came rushing toward me exclaiming-- "Heidi! Heidi! Heidi!". At this, everyone in the area turned to look, I turned a nice shade of tomato and explained that no, I was sorry but I was not Heidi. While sad, they too were slgithly embarrassed for making the error. They had mistaken me for Heidi their foreign-exchange student*. No joke.

After that excitement, I was a little sad to arrive at my rental car and not have a crowd waiting with signs and balloons. And even more sad when my family hadn't thought the same thing... (just kidding, mom)

**I did meet heidi and she did resemble me quite a bit. But, seriously, who else does this kind of thing happen to??