I Almost Missed Two Flights in Amsterdam

Last week I had to catch two flights from Amsterdam Schipol and both turned out to be total disasters! And both times I blame my BlackBerry. The minute I leave Ecuador and I don't fear my electronics being stolen I am going to suck it up and buy an iPhone.

1. I had to catch a cheap EasyJet flight to London from Amsterdam. I went out with friends in Utrecht the night before, ate some lasagna and drank some wine, came home, set my alarm, and naturally woke up about two hours after I should have woken up. What happened? Even though my phone was connected to the local wifi, the time zone never updated so the alarm was set for 6 AM Ecuadorian time, not Dutch time. I ran to catch a train to Schipol and arrived ONE MINUTE too late to catch my flight, so I had to pay 70 euros and rebook it for the afternoon flight.
2. My last night in Utrecht I definitely set my alarm for 5:45 AM, thinking that would give me plenty of time to catch my 10 AM flight to Quito. That morning, I slowly rolled over and realized it was light out, and my friend's clock said 7:45 AM. What the hell?! This one I still cannot figure out. By this time, I had adjusted the time zone on my phone and for sure had an alarm set. I even had my friend look at my phone and confirm that the alarm was set.

I panicked and started throwing stuff into my backpack. I could have taken a bus to a train to the airport, but that would have been really risky, so I decided to suck it up and pay for the 55 euro cab ride to the airport. Of course my driver went 10 km under the speed limit and drove in the right lane the entire way there while I was having a panic attack in the back seat. I could not miss this flight! When I got to Schipol I ran at lightning speed to check in, and they let me check my bag and get my boarding pass but told me to run to the gate because I might miss boarding. I run up to the gate and made it just in time!

The funniest part of this experience was that I was so worried about being late for my flight to Quito, and then about 30 more peoplesauntered up behind me while I was waiting to board my plane. And then I remembered Latin American time. I was sweating and panicking that I had missed my flight, and all of these Ecuadorians nonchalantly showed up for the flight a good ten minutes after me!

All of these Ecuadorians showed up even later than me