Ever, AJ

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!