I'm HERE!!!

12:30pm 12/26/08

Departures: I took Emily to Nicole’s house around 10:30 this morning. She got a little teary eyed but was excited that Nicole might cut her hair for her tonight! Trish, Daniel, and Hannah brought me to the airport and now I am just sitting around killing time until my 2:30 flight.

5:00pm EST 12/26/08

Oh my gosh! Kiss the ground! Flying in to Washington DC on a little puddle jumper is NOT going to be happening again! I read my book on the flight.. held my nose a lot (someone sitting in front of me had HORRIBLE gas… it smelled like the Canton Paper Factory!)… everything was good. I’m watching out the window as we prepare to land… I see the airport, we start to bank…then he pulls up and circles again. I wasn’t panicking because I thought maybe he couldn’t get clearance to land or something… he wasn’t saying anything… the flight attendant didn’t look panicky…after quite a bit of circling I began to wonder but I was still cool… Daniel says online it only showed us circling twice but I really think we circled more than that! Finally we started to land… as we are racing toward the runway I saw all these fire trucks and ambulances zooming down a parallel runway trying to keep up with us. As soon as we landed they all zoomed over to our plane and started jumping out of the trucks. They sprayed some kind of foam under the plane. Two guys were standing right outside my window with some kind of a gauge… measuring some kind of chemical fumes I guess. FINALLY the pilot came on and told us that the plane lost the hydrolic something-or-other and they were making sure no fluid was on the runway. We sat there for a long time… finally the trucks drove away but the security trucks stayed and we stayed LOL The pilot came on again and told us that he had no steering power and they were sending in a truck to tow us. The lady sitting beside me told me that the flight attendant said we had landed with petrol rather than jet fuel.. but who knows what that means! Whew too much excitement for my first leg of the journey!!

6:00pm EST

Getting ready to board my plane from Washington to Germany. Grabbed a yummy sandwich from a place called potbelly’s or something like that. Everything is good!

3:40am EST 12/27/08

Just arrived at Frankfurt International Airport in Germany. Arrived at 9am local time at Terminal 1, Concourse A… my connecting flight leaves at 10:25am local time from Terminal 1, Concourse B… As the plane was landing I overheard another passenger say that this is one of the largest airports in Europe – I am thinking, “wonderful! And I have an hour to find my way around at 3am in the morning with about an hour of uninterrupted sleep!” I knew this would be an adventure LOL My seatmate was gracious enough to let me out in front of him so I booked it off the airplane and into the terminal. Down a long hallway.. following signs to Concourse B.. then I saw a bathroom sign LOL So I veered off course and had my first experience with a European potty.. smelled similar to the porta-potties in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (remember our field trip there kids?) but it did have a flusher! :-) Toliet paper is apparently a luxury in Germany too because it was about the thinnest, roughest paper I have ever seen in my life! After exiting the bathroom I no longer saw a sign for Concourse B… but I headed in the same directions… MISTAKE LOL.. I ended up having to back track and finally found my way to arrows which pointed toward Concourse B. I had to go through a security checkpoint – off with the coat, sweater, belt, and watch… removed the laptop from the backpack.. I didn’t beep YIPEE! Then I rode the escalator up to a shuttle which would deliver me to Concourse B… it was a short shuttle ride with several other Americans… After I exited the terminal I walked down a short hallway and encountered ANOTHER security check.. not sure what they think I could have picked up between point a and point b since it was about a 1 minute walk but once again off came all the clothing and jewelry, out came the laptop out of the bag (I swear the bag gets heavier with each step I take!)… once again I made it through without beeping! Yipee! Down another walkway passing lots of cool shops but unable to stop because I have no idea how far I have to go to reach my gate B50… down the escalator, down, down to the basement level and guess what I see.. you got it another security checkpoint! Repeat of above except this time… they make me unpack my bag because something in it looks suspicious LOL Hello?! I just went safely through 2 other checkpoints.. turns out it was my contact solution (which I was worried about making it through the Knoxville security checkpoint with because it is 4 ounces instead of the 3 ounces that are allowed BUT it has a HUGE TSA compliant label on it).. once they saw it was contact solution they were fine with it and I passed through. Now I am sitting in a small itty bitty waiting area of 3 gates with NO SHOPS! :-( So sorry Daddy, no gift from Germany.. I was going to buy you something cool to remind you of your days here but I refuse to go through another security checkpoint!! I am off to try a Germany Diet Coke.. Coke Light I believe they call it here… still no internet connection so I will just journal and the bombard you all with tons of messages at once! I love and miss you all!

7:00 am ish EST

As soon as I finished typing the previous post the airline lady announced that my flight was boarding a bus to be transported to the airplane. I didn’t get my Diet Coke! LOL After checking in I boarded the little shuttle bus and right before we left 3 of the cutest Romanian boys/guys stepped on the bus. (I know they were Romanian because one of them had his Romanian passport out.) They looked like a Romanian version of the Jonas Brothers. Emily I wanted to ask them if I could take their picture to show you but believe it or not I was too shy! LOL I didn’t want them to think “I” thought they were cute! The flight from Germany to Bucharest was completely uneventful.. the flight attendants were very nice and served me an itty, bitty can of Diet Coke along with a ham sandwich snack. There was a small hold-up with takeoff but once that was taken care of the time passed quickly. I met Mihelea, the in country project leader, and 3 other volunteers in the coffee shop at the airport. Oh my gosh, you would not believe the smoke.. it felt like EVERYONE was smoking. I think we have gotten so used to smoking indoors being prohibited that it was shocking to me! Made a couple of quick phone calls to let Em know I had landed safely(I hope they didn’t cost $100 each!), waited on 2 more flights to come in, then went to the train station to pick up 2 more volunteers. We are taking a van for the 5 hour trip to Barlad. I am kind of glad… that way we can spread out and sleep. Traffic is horrendous in Bucharest. The town isn’t especially pretty.. it is actually rather run down and decrepit. There are buildings falling down in one spot next door to a Land Rover dealership. I have never seen anyone drive like this… even in busy downtowns! They pay no attention to whether or not a car is in a lane they just pull out in front of it. There goes my idea of renting a car and driving to take in the countryside.. I am too scared to drive! LOL

12:41pm EST

We just got back in the van from our first Romanian dinner at…. MCDONALD’S! LOL Mihelea says it is fast and clean so that is where volunteers always stop on their way in to Barlad. Guess who was on the radio when we got back in the van?!? You guessed it… BON JOVI!!! Well, Jon anyway singing Please Come Home for Christmas… I knew I would love this country!

I ate a Premium Chicken sandwich.. it was good, the bun it was on was most unusual and delicious!

Now we are back on the road heading toward our hotel in Barlad. Another 3 ½ hours… yikes… I am so tired. Which is really weird because it is almost 1 at home and night here so I don’t think I am going to have any trouble with jet lag! I will be crashing as soon as we get checked in at the hotel. Apparently my body is already on Romanian time!

The roads here are just as bad as the traffic! You guys would be cracking up trying to watch me type as I bounce up and down! I am having to re-type every other word! I ewally miss not having a cell phone!! Wish I could call or text you guys now.. No one is sure at this point if the hotel even has wireless internet… Keep your fingers crossed!! Ok enough for now! I love you guys!