A Week In St. Lucia

The Past/Landing in St. Lucia

    After 5 hours on the airplane with my family and half of the wedding guests that boarded in Ontario, we finally landed. A chiming sound went off and a flight attendant's voice is heard on the speakers:                                                                                                                                                                            "Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to St. Lucia. Local time is 5 pm. Please remain seated with your seat belt fastened until the Captain has turn off the fasten seat belt sign. This will indicate that we have parked at a gate and that it is safe for you to move about."

I looked around my surroundings. My mom just woke up, so she is a bit groggy and tired. Sandie and Sebastien are sitting behind me with his cousin, Patrick, who also lives in Toronto. His girlfriend Emily, who I didn't meet yet until just now was sitting next to me on the aisle seat . I got to know her for a bit and told her that I'm also in the wedding. How I knew Patrick was after when we all took off from Canada in an airplane, I heard Sandie and Sebastien talking to him and his name was mentioned. I asked Sandie, "who is Patrick and how do you know him?" She told me that he is Sebastien's younger cousin. Sebastien and Patrick are the only ones in their whole family that both live in Ontario. The rest of their family members are all in Quebec.

   With the plane still going, I looked out the window where my mom is sitting. Which is beside me on my right. I am in the middle, of course. She gets the window seat. Looking at St. Lucia for the first time, I see water all around the land, a couple of roads, some shops and stores. Although the shops aren't big like back in Canada, they are rather smaller, but still pretty decent looking.

"On the behalf of Delta Airlines and the entire crew, I'd like to thank you for joining us on this trip and we are looking forward to seeing you on board again in the near future," the flight attendant's voice continued, "have a nice evening!"

    After few minutes of waiting for the path to clear, we all finally sat up, got our things and exited out of the airplane. Apparently, there's no Jetway, so everyone all has to walk down the stairs outside to go in to the St. Lucia airport. When my family got indoors, we all look around for a line. The air felt really cool and breezy. Some people are walking in different directions with their suitcases. Others are either waiting for their luggage to arrive or looking for places where they are supposed to go to. Finally, Sandie had found a line for everyone and told us all to follow her. Since the airport is a bit packed, we all tried to avoid bumping into people as we make our way to our stop. I hurried past my mom, past my brother, holding my luggage to try to catch up to Sebastien and Sandie, who are leading us. We finally finally made it to a really long lineup, rows of people in between stanchions. While I wait for the line to clear up, I glanced behind myself. Tina caught up and is beside me with her stuff. Next is my brother and his wife, Tuan and Bao with their daughter Elizabeth being carried in her arms. Patrick and Emily are in line behind them. Next is Sandie's friend Anne-Marie, her husband and her kids. 

   Short story, Anne-Marie lives is Caledon with her family, which is 47 minutes away from Toronto. She went to Kellogg School of Management with Sandie and Sebastien. Anne-Marie has 3 kids - James, Emily and Christopher. I met her and her family when me, Sandie and Sebastien went to a cottage in Muskoka last year in 2015 where we hung out with the rest of their friends from school. For some unknown reason, James, the oldest kid, decided not to come to the wedding and stayed back in Ontario. So it's just Emily and Christopher. And as for my parents if you're probably wondering, are way behind. I could see my mom in line standing next to Christopher and Emily. My dad is behind my mom; although, it is a little bit hard to see my dad in line, because I only see his right arm and his head facing somewhere else. Finally, my mom saw us, decided to get out of line and head over to Tina with her bags to tell her something. Then, the queue started moving. I pulled my luggage as I moved one step forward. My mom and Tina did the same thing.

    Everyone is waiting several minutes while standing in line, when Sandie called me from her spot on the other side of the stanchion. 

"Anthony, where is dad?" Sandie asked, speaking up over the loud noises. 

I pointed down the line to where my dad is. "He's all the way down there," I told her. Sandie looked to see where I'm pointing. At last, she saw my dad. "Okay, thanks," she said, returning to her conversation with Sebastien. Then Sandie turned her head, as if she saw and heard somebody. She whispered something to Sebastien, went past Bao's sister Minh and her fiance who were both behind them, ducked under the ropes, ran out of line and disappeared into the busy crowd. I noticed Sandie left her luggage with Sebastien to look after. Curious and wanting to know where Sandie ran off to, I had to yell over the noise. 

"Hey Sebastien!" I hollered. I got his attention and he looked at me. "Where did Sandie go?"

"Sandie said she saw a friend arrive and went to go get her. She'll be back." Sebastien explained. A friend? I wonder who could it be. The lineup began moving again and everyone took one step forward. Moments later, Sandie returned. A girl followed her with a suitcase. The girl is probably about Sandie's age, wears glasses, curly, brown hair in a ponytail.

"Hey Sebastien, Anthony!" Sandie called, as she reached us. I had to get out of line to get to Sandie, but I stayed behind the stanchion. 

The girl shook Sebastien's hand as Sandie introduced them. Next Sandie introduced me to the girl. "Anthony, this is Cynthia. I met her in Calgary." Sandie told me. Calgary? Wow. That's far from us. Then Sandie introduced Cynthia to me next, "Cynthia, this is my brother Anthony."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you, Cynthia!" I greeted her happily, as I shook her hand. "It's nice meeting you too!" Cynthia said. " Are you excited about the wedding?" 

I nodded. "Yep. I'm really excited!"

After getting our passports checked, going through security, the rest of the guest part different ways, telling us they would meet us all at our resort soon. A man gave us 2 piece of papers to fill out what resort we are going to, how many people in a room, etc. Tina filled them out while asking everyone where they're staying. Tuan, Bao and Elizabeth will be with Tina and my mom in one suite with two bedrooms and one floor. I picked staying with Tina, my mom also. Sandie and Sebastien will be in a different room, and Minh and Anthony will be having a room of their own as well. As for my dad...I actually don't know where his room his. I will have to find out later.

   A minute later, my family and I all walked outside, about to get a lift to our resort. My brother and Bao including Elizabeth got a ride on a bus along with some of the wedding guests. Oh and I completely forgot to tell you guys. Before everyone all came to St. Lucia, Sandie and Sebastien hired two photographers to come with us and take our pictures. A man with black hair in a bun name John-Sebastien, I think that's how his name is spelled, or he is simply nicknamed "J-S" and a lady with dark, curly name Manuela. They were also with all of us when we boarded the airplane back in Toronto, I should add that. The photographers climbed aboard on the bus with everyone else, except for Sandie, Tina, Sebastien, my parents and myself. I am wondering either the bus got really full or we are taking a different vehicle instead.