Amsterdam, Manchester, Capes

First off…just wanted everyone to know, I have Internet access only during certain times of the day. Hence, the late blog post. So bear with me as far as blogging and emailing. But I would still love to hear from you and get back to you as soon as I can.

We landed in Amsterdam after a tasty breakfast egg sandwich. Tasty meaning it tasted like sour milk and rancid pepper. The flight came in around 8:20 am their time (which was 1:20 am South Dakota time).  I had gotten a total of 25 minutes of sleep and was starting to feel it. I was wicked hungry due to the lack of quality I had just consumed. I was looking real forward to a Starbucks coffee. Then I realized…I’m in Amsterdam.

I was freaking out only a little thinking I would have trouble finding my gate, but it was quite easy. Almost everything was in English and it wasn’t too busy due to the early morning time. I found my gate, had to wait in line, and then go through a mini security check before entering my gate. The plane was already there so we didn’t have to wait long before boarding. Sadly, my stomach was growling so load I tried my best to sit as far from someone as I could so they wouldn’t hear it. It was making those embarrassing noises that could easily be mistaken for gas…am I the only one that has those?

Finally we started boarding. I was one of the last people to board so I was looking for my seat. Seat 21B. By row 3 I realized…seat B is right in the middle of two people. Come ON! And what do you know…back of the plane. I got to my seat and the poor girl in the aisle seat was sneezing her brains out, her eyes were all bloodshot, and she was blowing her nose so much her nostrils were raw. Oh perfect, just what I need, an hour flight with the woman who will give me a cold so I will be sick the first week of school. Looking to my right, I see who will be occupying my left. There sat a big, straight faced, no eye-contact, black man. Oh GREAT! The biggest of the three of us is next to the window scrunched and I’m next to him! I sat down and instantly knew there was not even an option of me using the armrest. He was just too big to even put his arms at his sides. Unless I wanted to be touching arms with this gentleman, I had to lean far to my right encroaching on sick-girl’s space. I just couldn’t believe I was between two people, again! I was so tired by this point I thought my body would just pass out without my permission. It felt like if I’d let them, my eyes would go cross-eyed and stay that way, with my mouth hanging open…that’s a funny picture. The only reason I was forcing myself to be awake was because they were going to serve breakfast as soon as we had leveled out in the air. I needed food. It wasn’t too hard to stay awake though, because the large man to my left could fall asleep in five seconds and he snored. Loud. Come ON! So the instant we hit the air he closed our window shade. I really wanted to see England from the plane, but he did not care one bit. We finally got our breakfast and what do you know, it was nasty. The coffee tasted burnt and the sandwich was just plain gross.

We landed in Manchester around 8:40 am (another time change). I was so excited I could hardly stand it. The instant I got off the plane I just couldn’t stop smiling. I probably looked like a creepy girl walking around with a smile plastered on my face. So next up was customs. Now, I had heard some pretty scary things about customs, but my experience was a breeze. I had all the papers ready I needed to show and the lady didn’t even look at one. She took my passport, asked where I was headed, I said, “Capernwray Bible School”, she stamped it and I was on my way. Some students have told me they were asked loads of questions and stood there for up to two hours. I was thankful that wasn’t me. I made it to baggage claim, got my bags, and headed to the Train Station.

I bought my train ticket then made my first UK coffee purchase. It was a cappuccino, but what I didn’t know is that they don’t put any flavor in a straight up cappuccino. So it needed sugar, but otherwise real good. My train wasn’t scheduled to arrive for another two hours so I started journaling. I journaled specifically about what it’s going to look like lifting my two bags by myself, that together weigh 94 pounds. The train step was a good two feet off the ground! About an hour after people watching, listening to accents, and letting the fact that I was in the U.K. sink in, a very large group of young adults walked past me. I immediately knew they were from Capernwray. They all had two to three suitcases and I recognized some faces from the Capernwray Facebook group. I went over, introduced myself, and took the train with them.

I somehow happened at the front of the line to board the train. Oh great, now 20 kids can watch me try and lift these Bessies and fail miserably. I took one in each hand and heaved them puppies up. First time I failed. I about fell over backward from the weight of my backpack, and a suitcase fell over on the ground. Fail. How embarrassing! Not to mention, I started sweating profusely and realized, great, I’m going to smell like B.O. before I ever get to Capes. I gave it another shot and, praise the Lord, they ended up on the train somehow. About 10 of us had hopped on by the time a conductor (or train worker?) came by and said, “There’s no room you have to go to the front car.” Great, cause we were in the very back car. So here we go filing off and I had to do the bag thing all over again! I did not think I had the strength to even pull them, much less toss them again. Well, somehow I got them up and about eight of us ended up having to stand. We were right at the first class door but would have had to pay an extra six pounds in order to be upgraded. We said forget it and stood. The train ride was so fun, but it was about 1.5 hours, standing. The scenery, buildings, and houses were so pretty though and real fun to see. Everything, and I mean everything, is built out of brick. I love it so much! It all looks straight out of a movie. It was a really nice time to get to know a lot of Cape kids on the ride from Manchester to Carnforth. I couldn’t help but repeat the British announcer when she would announce the next stop. The towns had such quaint names and were just fun to say.

We finally arrived in Carnforth. Carnforth station is so cute I just want to hug it. There are cute little shops and houses, it’s great. All the cars are so tiny and foreign and I could just sit and listen to these people talk for the rest of my life. From here, a van was supposed to come pick us up and drive us out to our new home. The bus showed up early and we started piling in. The cute vans said Capernwray Bible School and all the pedestrians looked at us like aliens. We were quite the mob.

The drive to Capernwray only took about six minutes. The shops, houses, little farms, and roads are so quaint and cute. Everyone drives on the wrong side of the road (and the car) and speed around corners like there won’t be a car oncoming. Whenever we would pass another car, it seemed like the rearview mirrors were going to smack each other and break off. They never did but I’m sure we were just inches away. We arrived at the front gate of Capes and were really excited. It’s like, this is something I’ve seen in pictures for months and months and months, so it doesn’t even seem like it’d be a real thing. We pulled in through the gate, down a little road, and there it was. The castle. It’s real. It is beautiful, huge, and everything I’d thought it’d be. We started piling out of the cars, got our room assignments, grabbed our luggage, and headed into our new home for nine months. Finally…here.

For those who are interested…my new address is…

Amanda Maurer

Capernwray Bible School

Carnforth

Lancashire

LA6 1AG

England

Running on 25 minutes of sleep.

I’m here…England. This is officially real. It’s 3:03 p.m. my time. Where do I begin thus far? Here is the beginning of my travel experience.

I began the morning with a special wake up from Mom and Dad. During that night the Lord decided it was time to take my Grandpa Johnny to be with Him in Heaven. Johnny was one of my biggest supporters for this journey I’m on. So it was tough to know I wasn’t going to be able to call him that morning as I’d planned to say goodbye. The Lord’s timing is something I don’t think I’ll ever understand and it’s okay; I don’t believe it’s something our human little minds even CAN understand. All that I know is the Lord is in control and knows what He’s doing and knows the plan. We just need to trust Him, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.

My sweet parents took me out to eat for breakfast (my favorite meal) where I got the whole shebang and a French Vanilla coffee. Then it was straight to the airport. You may be as pleased to know as I (and my parents) was, that my bags were within the weight limit of 50 lbs. The big suitcase teetered between 49 and 50. Perfect! Gave my Mother a mini heart attack, but all is good. I got a quick Skype chat in with my sister and nephew and then I was off. First song on my iPod I rocked to (on repeat) was “Good To Be Alive” by, my friend, Jason Gray. What an awesome way to begin this God-given journey.

Flight left Sioux Falls Airport at 12:52ish and arrived in Minneapolis at 1:58ish. Let’s just say I forgot how big the Minneapolis Airport really is. I had to shimmy my way to the completely opposite side of the airport to reach my gate. I was so excited to get on the next flight I think I really did shimmy in public unconscientiously. I love airports, do you? It’s basically a mall with really fast transport (to a different state or country) attached.

Now Mom and Dad, don’t freak out about this next part, it has a happy ending. So…I’m going to be completely honest. I almost missed my flight. I was at my gate on time, but I called my parents by pay phone, sat down, took out the Mac, tried getting on Internet, and started people watching. All this while, flight DL258 was boarding. Didn’t think that was my flight at all due to the fact my boarding pass said flight KL6058 and everyone was boarding through Gate G2! I was Gate G3! I soon thought, gee, this gate is pretty empty. Everyone sure cleared out, wonder when my plane is gonna get here. It was after the final boarding call, with only four people left in line that I realized, oh no! I packed up everything as fast as I could and ran over there to say, “Is this my flight?” It was. DL258 and KL6058 were the same flight. DL=Delta and KL=KLM...same flight, same airline. Whoops. That sure got my pulse pumping. But, praise the Lord I got on! This flight took off at roughly 3:20ish, destination Amsterdam, Netherlands. That means I was headed to an airport whose native language is Dutch. Yikes.

Minneapolis to Amsterdam flight was 8 hours and 10 minutes. Big plane…8 seater, with TVs, and a meal. All I have to say is the Lord has a funny sense of humor. I tried to request a seat assignment online before I got there. When they did assign me a seat, it was nowhere near where I requested. I was hoping for a window seat so I could rest against it to sleep. The LAST place I wanted to be was in the 4-seater middle rows, smack dab between two people. Well, take a guess where seat 33F was? In the 4-seater middle row, smack dab between two people…two men specifically.

I think I giggled out loud when I found my seat. One gentleman was real nice, helped me put my bag in the overhead compartment and was really friendly and real talkative. The other gentleman was a younger guy; he looked like a real nice guy. He was reading a novel in a different language…definitely not English or Spanish. Anyway…it sure didn’t take long and I got my first whiff of it...B.O. That’s right folks, B.O. boy to my left and talker guy to my right. This is where “the Lord has a sense of humor” is repeated. This is an EIGHT-HOUR FLIGHT, and He sticks me next to B.O. boy! HA! You know that subtle B.O. that you smell every once in a while and wonder, “Oh no, do I smell? Is it me?” Well, this was not that subtle B.O. This was the burn your throat, singe your nose hairs, take your breath away, make you want to cough in his face, B.O. That bad. They must not shower in his country, but gee, we flew from the U.S. I felt real compelled to mention, “Boy, in the U.S. of A, we shower…daily.“ But I decided not to be like my Father and cross the line in public, and held my tongue.

I started journaling right away to document this tragic comedy when I felt something touching my hair. I was leaning over my journal so no one could see my face, so I instantly froze and looked around back and forth with my eyes to see if I could see what the heck was IN MY HAIR. With no luck I tried to sit back in my seat and realized, oh my goodness, it’s B.O. boy’s pillow. His pillow! Boy who never showers was clueless that his greasy hair touched pillow was invading my space and touching me! I had to make a quick decision, do I say something, just sit here frozen, see if he notices, or move a little to see if he feels the movement and realize the situation he’s put me in? I decided to keep journaling and wait. After a few minutes, thank the Lord he had to get into his pocket to get a Kleenex. So after the whole pillow slid onto my head and neck, he grabbed it and stuffed it back behind his head. This event happened a good three more times before it stopped. For the rest of the flight I watched a couple movies, tried to sleep, and pretended that what I was smelling wasn’t B.O. at all, it was actually freshly baked monkey-bread. Now, I want you to know, I truly do love B.O. boy like Jesus does, but I sure got a good laugh, memory, and story out of the whole thing.

Next up…details about Amsterdam, Manchester, British train ride, and then first day at Capernwray!

Today Is The Day

Here I go! Ah, Ah, AH! (That was me screaming) I can't believe it...I Can. Not. Believe it. To be talking about something for so long, and now it becomes reality, this is really happening. I am so excited I just can't wait to get there! In a few hours I will be saying goodbye, hugging, and kissing my parents until my lips are chapped. This is going to be an awesome journey that the Lord has in store for me and everyone else at school. I want to invite you to tag along, here, on my blog. I have every intention of keeping "Ever, AJ" updated. Internet is a bit spotty at Capes* so bear with me.
Thank you, Lord for this awesome opportunity! Let's do this!

Capernwray, here I come

*Capernwray Bible School

It's Departure Week.

T-minus two days! Friday, September 23, 2011, at 12:52 p.m., I begin my journey to the U.K. I've already had to say goodbye to my brother-in-law, brand-new nephew, and hardest of all, my sister. I am going to miss my family so much words cannot describe. But I will return and time will fly by faster than we think!

Atticus


Praise the Lord for new life! I have a nephew!

One week from today, I leave the USA. One week! Time has really started to move fast. I made quite a few attempts at packing so far this week. I've had to restart numerous times due to way to many clothes, not enough room, and weighing over 50 lbs. Overall, I'm ready!

Fossil

I can't believe it. I have finally found it. I've been looking online for months, trying to find that perfect "messenger bag" for my computer, camera, and books to travel with. Well, today I found it...and guess what? It's Fossil. What?! I can't afford Fossil. OH, but wait...at T.J.Maxx I can. This was cheaper than any bag I had been looking at. It's perfect. These photos sure don't do it justice...

I Feel It

It's starting. That itch to start packing! I will probably start with a list of must-haves and then start shifting through my closet. For those who don't know, I am an over-packer. Period. I will be living out of a suitcase for nine months. I can only take what I can carry by myself. Feel free to pray I can fit it all...I'm only joking a little.

Currently this week:
1. I started crocheting my niece or nephew a blanket. It's brown, wicked soft, and I should finish up today. It's amazing how addicting crocheting is once you start. Its only taken me four days.
2. Exactly one week from today is my sister's due date. Hopefully we don't have to wait that long!
3. I fly out in two weeks and one day. Whoo.
4. I had a Brit tell me, "There are pinboards on the wall for piccys." I will never again call pictures, pics...they are now piccys.
5. I'm a new member of Pinterest.
6. Getting excited to use my new notebooks at Capes. I haven't been in school for 2.5 years so it'll be fun to experience that again. The first time I write on fresh, never-before-used paper. Is it weird that I like that so much?
6. I've really gotten into tennis. I've been watching it everyday this week. How have I never loved it until this year?

Two Things