Almost every time we go
through an airport I've had problems with security. For some reason, I always
get patted down.
When we first took off
from Newark to Belgium…
I didn't put my laptop in a
separate bin so they yelled at me. Then I walked through the sensor and set of
the alarm. The lady patted me down, I think because I was still wearing the
money belt and I had put coins in it. My parents had given me American cash to
exchange once I got to Belgium. They were so worried it would be stolen that
they made me wear my money belt before I got into the Airport. The lady was
really thorough and I'm surprised she didn't feel the money
belt because she let me go. Needless to say, embarrassing. One girl from my group saw me and started
taking pictures of the ordeal. Apparently
that’s a big no no. They called her over and I thought they were going to take
her camera, which she minutes earlier told me she had just bought. Thankfully, they
just made her delete the pictures she took. Afterwards we booked it out of
there before they stopped us again.
On the way to Germany…
They patted me down again
but eventually let me go. Afterwards, the passport control barely glanced
at my passport. So I was cross examined again at security but I could have been
a fugitive with a stolen identity boarding the plane....
On the way to Dublin…
I set off the sensors again.
Another lady patted me down and felt my money belt, made me take it off, and
put it back through the security thing to be checked. This was embarrassing enough
because I think I was the only one in my group who used a money belt. My
parents had made me paranoid. Then she used the sensor stick on me and it turns
out I had buckles on my boots which I forgot about, so I had to take my boots
off, put them back through security on the conveyor belt, and walk through security again. I was embarrassed again because this
keeps happening and I had to basically get dressed again in front of the long security
line. Some Irish people were staring at me as I put on my money belt and I
felt like an idiot. But a SAFE idiot:) No thieves will be stealing my passport
while I'm traveling. However, this trip to Dublin was the last time I used the money belt.
On the way back from Dublin…
I got checked at security
again. I had taken off my shoes and my money belt but I realized after that I
had forgotten to take off my watch. A security lady called me over and started
patting me down. This had become second nature to me, I wasn’t even phased
anymore. I smiled sheepishly at the lady as if my life was one big joke, and
she seemed to give me a half hearted shrug back. I felt like we had some camaraderie going and I was exhausted from the weekend. So when she spoke to me,
I was half listening and thought she said, "Just checking to be
safe".
So I responded, "Yeah", and continued smiling
and acting like her friend. In my tiny, sleep deprived mind I was suddenly her
buddy and we were both amused by the act of having to go through security when
we both knew I wasn’t a fugitive. But then the lady raised her eyebrows and
looked at me strangely. This was not a look of an amused friend, she seemed serious.
At
that moment, I realized that she hadn't said, "Just checking to be
safe". She had said, "Are you carrying any knives?" I don't know
how I confused that in my mind. As if in slow motion, I dramatically shook my head back and forth while muttering "No" in a panicked voice. She eyed me and then got the sensor stick
from behind her and started checking me with that. Luckily, she realized that I
wasn't packing heat and she let me go.
But then…
Another lady asked me if the
red backpack was mine. I said "yes" and walked over to her. At this
point I'm scared I'm not going to be let on the plane. Or I somehow picked up
something illegal and they're going to take me to a little room and question
me. But she says she saw liquids in there and just has to check it. I didn't
realize that you had to put all of you liquids in a plastic bag and take them
out of your backpack and put them in the bin as well to be x-rayed. Although,
as my friends later told me, there are signs all over the security line. Now I
see them everywhere…how could I not have seen them before?
My liquids were in a
plastic bag but still inside my backpack. However, this is the only place I got
called out on it. It probably has to do with the fact that I gave a shady
response when the other security guard asked if I was carrying knives. So this
tiny Irish security lady, who was much nicer than the one who man-handled me,
starts going through every one of my pockets.
Now, mind you, the air service we were using was called
Ryanair. They have really cheap flights...but charge you for practically everything else.
You can only take a small carry-on and anything bigger you have
to pay something like 45 euro to check it. And I had bought a few souvenirs
from my Irish adventure so my backpack could barely be zipped shut. And I had
packed everything just right so that it would seem smaller than the bulging bag it
actually was. Also, it didn't help that my backpack has 8 pockets. I knew that
my bag of liquids was in the biggest pocket, but I was too nervous to tell the
lady that. I thought she might get suspicious and think that I was trying to
prevent her from looking in one of the smaller pockets. So she unzips and
looks in every pocket, taking some stuff out as she goes. One pocket had my underwear
and socks. Another had tissues. Another had my iPod. Another had granola bars. Etc.
"Wow you have a lot of pockets miss", the lady
said in her Irish accent.
"Yeah", I said, hoping that I heard her
correctly and that she hadn't asked me if I was on the hit list or something.
Some of the girls from my trip were watching me, but I at that point I was past
the point of embarrassment. Everyone was used to it by now and luckily we had
some time before we boarded. The lady finally looked through everything and let
me go, and I had to repack my bag quickly so now it looked like a huge monster. I
would later have to sneak past the boarding people when getting on the plane so
they wouldn't spot me and make me pay to check my bag.
So that's my story...
Thankfully, I’ve become much better at going through security and haven’t been
stopped since Dublin. But I told my parents that if in July I don’t come off
the plane, don't panic. Just call the Brussels Airport because I'll probably
still be there going through security.
