Traveling to Angola or How to spend 12 hours in the Charlotte Airport

I arrived at Charlotte Douglass International Airport at around 11. Here's the short of a long story:

1. I checked in and went to wait at the gate
2. I saw that the plane was delayed due to scheduled maintenance
3. The agent kept telling is to stay near to the gate in case the plane was finished early
4. That never happened and she finally told us (after an hour of waiting) that the fligh was cancelled
5. I booked it over to customer service where I was told I needed to go to the check in counter (where I had arrived hours earlier) but must first grab my bags from baggage claim. They wouldn't reroute me without the bags
6. I got to customer service, but not the international desk. The woman told me I would need to move and I think my tired eyes made her change her mind and she decided to help me where I was. Everyone else on the cancelled fight had to walk down to another check in desk 150m away.
7. I waited about an hour and 15 minutes to get checked into my new flight, mostly because I had been charged for an extra bag as well as for some extra lbs in one bag, but that charge had to be cancelled and recharged using the new airline's regulations. I didn't care how long I had to wait, though. I saved 200 USD! And I talked to the ladies helping me about what exactly this LAD (Luanda) airport was. Not many people had heard of Angola before. Go figure!
8. After a long flight from Charlotte to Frankfurt I went through security with a small bag carrying all of my camera equipment, ipod, speakers, external hard drives, computer, etc. The security lady was annoyed that she had to go through my stuff so in the end she just warned me that my bag might be too heavy and sent me away. I ignored her, packed up my stuff, and headed to the gate for the flight to Lisbon.
9. Gate changed many times for Lisbon and I walked all over that airport trying to find out where exactly it was leaving from.
10. As I walked to find my gate in the friggin huge airport in Frankfurt I asked a helper guy and come to find out he was from Guinea Bissau so he spoke to me in Portuguese. He was a nice old guy. I don't think he had spoken Portuguese in a while
11. I did get to pick up some FREE newspapers in German to be used in my presentations once I got to Luanda
12. Boarded the flight to Lisbon and slept the whole way
13. In Lisbon I had to get my ticket to Luanda and I think I was the nicest person in the long line. Lots of flights had been late or canceled
14. I must have walked for a good 25 minutes to the last gate at the Lisbon airport. I got there just in time to wait 5 hours for the flight.
15. I caught up on Survivor episodes I hadn't seen and munched on Combos and Reese's Peanut Butter cups I bought back in Charlotte
16. Boarded the plane and nearly slept the whole way. I don't even think I got to eat a meal.

Flying through clouds above Angola

Sunset before arriving in Luanda

First glimpse of Luanda