May 1, 2007

I was starting to get frantic. It was midnight and my stuff was still all scattered around the house. I was supposed to leave at 2:30 am to make it up to Pleasant Grove where I was going to meet up with Lauren Bangerter (my future roommate) and her mom was going to drive us all up to the airport to make it by 4. I told Brett my plans, which he found ridiculous. Why leave an hour and a half before I needed to be there when I have a friend willing to take me straight there? Bless his soul, for reals. 45 minutes extra was perfect. I got everything packed, the living room cleaned up, and a random smattering of miscellaneous things done. I didn't get everything I wanted to get done by any means, but it was good enough. Now I just need to email my roommates and ask the very nicely to do some last minute stuff for me. (You love me, roomies!)

Brett came through, and after a very limited amount of sleep, drove Ashley Anne and I up to the airport. I just hope he made it home awake and safe. (Side note - Mom and my car both made it home safe and in one piece.) Check in was a breeze. My luggage weighed in at 45.5 lbs. Brilliant. 4.5 lbs. under. I'm a fan of this. My belt set off the metal detector, and I got to walk through barefoot, even after we were told at orientation that barefoot was not allowed. :) Then was the three-hour wait for our flight. We were on a rather small plane from SLC to Houston—small enough that they ran out of room for carry-ons and my bag ended up being checked from SLC to Tel Aviv. It's really a pity to not have my glasses, games, and all other random things that I tactfully put in my carry-on for easy access. Luckily, I was able to keep my laptop and a few random things out of my carry-on. So I've been carrying around my iPod (or rather... my friend's iPod. Thank you Randy! However, for sake of easy and clarity, it will be hereafter be known as my iPod), camera (which has proved for some great pictures), and a bag of goldfish, along with my laptop. Great fun, really. Though, I have to admit, it is kind of nice only having one small bag to carry while everyone else is trucking along with a much larger bag. I particularly feel bad for those with duffle bags and no wheels. Oh well. I survived.

The excitement of the flight was due to Val (a friend of Shana's, actually). We were sitting next to each other on the plane. Halfway through breakfast, her rather full cup of orange juice fell all over her plate, her jeans, the floor, and my sandal. (Though, she didn't tell me it fell on my sandal. She wiped it up, then hoped I wouldn't notice. Tragically, come the end of the flight, I felt obligated to put my foot back in my sandal. Wooo.... stiiiickyyyy. :) We laughed about it, though. Really, what good are long flights and layovers if you don't at least get good stories out of them?

Next was the layover in Houston. Not much excitement came there. They changed our gate, but half of us didn't realize it until we got to the gate, no one was there, and it claimed to be heading to Denver. Val and I went on a search and found our group and our gate, then returned to tell the rest. However, Paul had left his bags there while he went in search of a movie, so we couldn't just leave. Could you imagine coming back to your gate to find your group and your luggage missing? But at the same time, none of us had any idea where he went. (We found out later he was movie hunting.) So we sat. And sat. And sat. But he turned up, and we headed back to our real gate.

This flight was also rather uneventful. Bonus, I got a window seat. Tragedy, I sat by two Asians that I'm not sure spoke any English. So, I was basically alone for the whole flight. Val sat in front of me, so we talked a bit at the beginning and end, but that was it. So, instead, I entertained myself with watching out the window, taking pictures of the amazing views (I can't believe how high above the clouds we were!), and sleeping. I must admit, sleeping got the greatest amount of my time.

Then was the Newark, New Jersey airport. We had an almost five hour layover. Luckily, our terminal was on the far side of the airport, so we wasted a bunch of time just getting there. Then I went and got some chicken and broccoli pizza. I figured I needed to eat something un-kosher while I still had a chance. Paul then had a brilliant idea—let's get a group together and read Genesis 1-20 (our homework) together. It'll pass the time, and we'll get our homework done. The next hour was spent reading about the creation, Noah, and Lot. But don't forget all of the risque stories in there. Oooh, nonono. hehe. I forgot how desensitized I've become to such things by studying them all the time. (And writing exegetical papers on risque topics.) While everyone else was squirming in their seats, I was calmly reading about Lot's daughter's sleeping with him. Part of me was sad that we didn't go on to chapter 38. ;) haha! I'm sure the time will come.

Next was the picture scavenger hunt. We got two groups and ran around the airport taking pictures of everything from Defibrillator signs to apples to a man in big glasses. The trick? All of us had to be in every picture. Luckily, I had accidentally figured out my timer earlier this week when I was trying to take pictures with it. The scariest thing I did? We needed a picture of us on a moving sidewalk, so I balanced my camera on the moving railing and put it on a timer. So it sat there, by itself, for at least 10 full seconds. Wow. That's a long time in such a situation. But it survived and we got some cool pictures.

The time came to board. An hour or so prior to boarding time, they made us go through extra security. I suppose that's what's happens when you fly to a high security area. Then we finally boarded the plane. This was a 10.5 hour flight, mostly all at night. Luckily, there was no one in the seat next to me and I had a window seat. Needless to say, my head propped against the window and my legs on the next seat made for a rather comfortable sleeping position. Well, for a plane, anyway. I'm not sure when midnight hits at this point, since we were constantly changing time zones. And now it's late, so I'll wrap this up here.