– My adventrue began in West Palm Beach, Florida on Tuesday night, packing and getting practically no sleep before leaving the next morning. – At 6:00 am I was at the PBI airport ready to fly out to NY where I would meet the rest of my squad.
– At 9:30 am I arrived at JFK airport, got my luggage then got lost on the shuttle trains and road them for about an hour : ) before I got to terminal 4 where the rest of my squad would meet up throughout the day.
– Waited with my squad for about 6 hours before we could check our bags and go through security. Then we waited about another hour and a half before we could get on the Air France plane to Paris, where we would have a layover.
– Once we were on board the gigantic plane we thought we would be heading out quickly, however we ended up having to wait 2 hours on the plane before it so much as moved an inch. However, we made the best out of this time by making funny spoof videos. : )
– The plane finally took off and for the next 6 and a half hours we had an awesome time watching movies, playing video games, eating pretty good plane food, and attempting to nap.
– We finally arrived at the fancy, modern decorated airport in Paris where a four hour layover awaited us. Ashley and I spent about an hour of that time roaming the airport trying to find something French to eat, but everything was to expensive so we settled for juice and a fanta instead.
– After the four ours had passed and we were tired of wandering around the fru-fru airport, we got on our last plane to Ukraine. This flight took about 2 and a Half hours, but I shouldn’t really know that cause I was passed out for most of it! By this point my body is pretty exhausted and I can’t wait to arrive.
– When we arrived at the Kiev airport in Ukraine we thought finally, we are almost there! Little did we know that a 1 hour bus ride and a 10 hour train ride awaited us!
– As we were getting on the bus there was some confusion with the luggage and one of my carry-ons, which contained all of my shoes, jeans, towels, pillow, and head lamps, was left behind. When we arrived at the train station and I realized that it was missing I freaked out a little bit. Dan (my team leader) called all the other teams to see if they had it. Unfortunately no one did. Losing my things brought my spirits down pretty quickly and for some reason made me really homesick. I tried to get over it and not let it affect me, but deep inside it was still festering. Thank God for my awesome teamates who later prayed with me about it and helped me really get over it!
– We waited at the train station for about 2 hours before we were able to board the train. Finding the train and where we should board was a small adventure in itself since no one around us could understand a word we were saying and we couldn’t speak or understand a word of Russian/Ukranian! Once on the train we played a weird game of find your cabin and switch with the older Ukrainian man so your not alone in a room with him. After sttleing into our tiny quarters and as soon as the train began to move, I passed out for the next 8 hours. The train ride was pretty relaxing. I actually enjoyed it very much.
– Ten hours had now passed and it was 6:30am (Ukranian time), time to get off the train, part ways with our fellow squad members, and meet our awesome contacts. After the brief hellos and introductions we hoped on a bus for another half an hour ride.
-And so, after about 2 full days of non-stop travel, we had finally arrived at our new home (for the next 23 days that is) in Odesa, Ukraine. 😉
