More photos...

I know I already posted some albums today, but I've had more time sitting here in a small internet cafe, and have got the rest of my photos caught up as well. So here you are, and enjoy!

Estonia:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49804&l=96727&id=658227216

Denmark:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49806&l=0626c&id=658227216
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49808&l=56119&id=658227216

Amsterdam:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49809&l=b749a&id=658227216

Ireland:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49811&l=bb8b0&id=658227216
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49815&l=bf24e&id=658227216
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49817&l=8c872&id=658227216

Shipboard Life...

It’s come to my attention that I’ve been telling you all about my adventures, but not much about the actual vessel in which I am traveling. I’ve described ports, and all the tours and excursions I’ve gone on throughout, but I haven’t taken the opportunity to describe my life here, onboard the Century. The little things, things I see, the things I do, the food I eat, and the people I’ve met. I want to devote this post to those things, and let you in on what it’s like to live aboard a ship.

I’ll start with the ship itself. Twelve floors and 2,000 guests, it’s like living in a city block that moves. Everything is elegant and laid out with care. Everything, of course, except for the crew area where I happen to be living. The crew cabin Andrea and I are staying in is very small, I’d say that it’s less than half the size of my dorm room last year. Luckily, the first 2 cruises here, Andrea hasn’t had a roommate, so we’ve had the room to ourselves. Nice and cozy. Now, however, Andrea has a roommate, a nice Russian lady whom I can practice my Russian with, to my hearts content. Because of this, we’re a little tighter packed, and sleeping in the same bed for now – one facing one direction and the other facing opposite. So far it’s been working really well though, and we haven’t ended up with feet in our face yet. I actually am sleeping pretty well. I guess now I can really call myself a stow-away.

As for food, I’ve normally just been eating upstairs at the buffet with Andrea in between shows, as we didn’t know if I would be able to get a dinner seating or not. If you are eating later like we usually are, there are limited options, namely pizza or pasta. The pasta bar itself is really great, you have your choice of pasta and (meat and veggies) that you pick out and they’ll fry it all up for you. Then you choose one of four sauces and vwala! Instant pasta! The same thing with the stir fry, which I didn’t discover until much later. Stir fry and sandwiches (lunch) are our favorite. This cruise has actually been a little different in this regard as well, as we were able to get a dinner seating for me, with an extra spot for when Andrea can join us. So far, she’s been there every night, sometimes just having to eat quickly and run most of the time. Our waiter has been really great and goes out of his way to make sure Andrea gets her food earlier so she has the time to eat and run.

It’s nice, having the dinner seating, the food is really great, and pretty – (I’ve been taking pictures to improve my garde-manger skills) and I’m getting to know more of the guests this way. We’re at a table with an American couple (originally from Columbia) and two girls from Brazil. There was a couple from Germany too, but they haven’t come very often after that first night. They’ve been on a few of my tours this cruise and I am really enjoying their company. I even tried escargot one night and they were all cheering me on – one, two, three! lol. Eh, it was ok, but I doubt I’ll ever get it again. Oh, and something else of note, one of the Brazillian ladies always passes up on dessert, saying she doesn’t want anything, and our waiter keeps trying to get her to ea dessert. Finally, last night, when she ordered nothing again, the waiter brought her a plate with the word ‘nothing’ written in chocolate sauce. It was awesome, I love our waiter. I got a picture, too.

I’ve started going to the gym onboard too, and George and Sean have been really great. I explained my situation to them, and George gave me a free evaluation and put together a program for me that I can actually do. Things that won’t put pressure on my hip, but will work to build up the resistance around it. I’ve been trying to go every day with Andrea, and I think I’ve come a long way, considering the fact that last year, I was using my scooter-chair most of the time. I even got too do one of the spa demonstrations last embarkation day – ionothermy, which was really cool, and I can feel the difference.

In other news, I’ve been meeting quite a few of Andrea’s friends onboard, and getting to know them better. A few of the dancers I’ve seen around, and gone on the same tours as, and gotten to have some good conversations with. Tim Cruise, the piano player in Michael’s Club, is the friend of Andrea’s who requested these last two weeks of me staying onboard, and I’ll see him around a lot too. A few days ago I heard him playing in Michael’s Club, and sat down inside to watch him for a while. He noticed me right away, and a few songs in dedicated a song to me… “because I want to see her blush”, he said, and proceeded to sing “you are so beautiful, to me…” lol. Well, all I can say is, it worked. I was definitely blushing by the end of that song.

Metro, the vocal group onboard, are my favorite. Whenever I see them in the dining room, I’ll go over and join them, as they’re fun to hang around with and very personable. We sat eating ice-cream and sour-patch kids one day, joking, and just talking about random stuff. All I can really say is, they are amazing, and I’ve been going to almost all their shows just because.

Besides that, there is, of course, the Celebrity Orchestra itself, with Andrea and her good friend Marie, who is happy to lend me any clothing or earrings I may need or want. She’s been really great, and we’ll often spend time with her and her boyfriend. The new drummer, Stefan, from south Africa (who Marie was trying to hook Andrea up with until she gave up on it…) He had a tough start, but is doing much better now. Andrea and I would often see him rushing off somewhere and feel sorry for him, hoping that he’d make it through. It took a while, but now he’s getting the hang of things. The piano player, Marina, also Andrea’s new roommate, is really sweet, but hates our small room, and it has nothing to do with us. We have had some good conversations though, and she has complimented me on my Russian. ☺ It’s nice to have someone to practice with. And that’s basically my life onboard the Century.

Well, I think that’s about it for now, so, until next time!

Oh yes, I've also got some more photo albums completed, so here are some more photos of Sweden, Finland, and Russia

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48182&l=c9896&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48183&l=93ae3&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48186&l=3bbcc&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49792&l=e118b&id=658227216

The Wonderful Land of Ireland...

I went on an all day excursion in Cork, leaving at 7:30 and getting back around 5:00, 15 minutes before the ship left port. We traveled by bus all the way out to Waterford – the Viking Capital, and toured a Waterford Crystal factory there. Both Andrea and I had signed up to go to Blarney castle and kiss the Blarney stone, but film and photo get first priority on excursions and got that tour before us. So, when shore excursions called for this Viking Capital tour, I thought that sounded interesting, although we really didn’t do very much or see anything related to Vikings. Basically we were driving all day and only stopped for a quick photo stop, bathroom stops, Lunch, and the Waterford Crystal factory.

The Crystal factory itself was actually a lot more interesting than I had thought, as we got to see the workers actually melting and blowing the crystal into pitchers, glasses, and bowls. We saw them wedge-cutting out the patterns onto the glass, and flat-cutting tops, as well as more artistic engraving of pictures into the Crystal. We saw past trophies they’ve made, and also, what I deemed the most impressive – the original millennium ball, with it’s 400 and something panels… 72 of which are replaced every year.

So yeah, I guess it was interesting, but I’m a little bummed that I didn’t get to see the Blarney Castle as well. Andrea actually did get to go there last minute, so I’m glad that at least one of us had the opportunity to do so.

In the port of Dublin, I got to visit my first and only castle here in Ireland, the Malahide Castle. This castle is famous for it’s fairytale-like appearance, with its many turrets and tall windows… so of course, I had to visit it – and I wasn’t disappointed. The castle was smaller than I would think a castle would be, but was beautifully preserved and fully furnished. Unfortunately, photography of any kind was prohibited, so I didn’t get to take any pictures of the inside. The many rooms, filled with portraits of the family that used to live there, the curving stairwell, and the bedrooms, all furnished and preserved in the ways you would imagine them to look – the same ways they are described in all my fantasy novels.

The castle itself was a small landlords tower to begin with, one that has been added to throughout the years, until it became the castle that it is today. One aspect that I found interesting of the place was the myth of the castle’s ghost. On the right-hand side of the dining room, there is a turret that belongs to the Malahide ghost. It has a small door at the bottom of the dining room and at the top of the balcony, four feet high, where the ghost lives, and can come and go as he pleases. Supposedly, he only comes out when something is going on inside the castle that he doesn’t like, and the last sighting was in the 90’s, when the caretakers tried to auction off the castle’s contents.

After the castle, as part of our tour, we stepped into an Irish pub for some Irish coffee. I sat with two guests from the ship, a man and his daughter who were sitting next to me on our bus, and they took a picture of me taking a sip of my Irish coffee. I didn’t have very much of it, one, because I hate coffee to begin with, and two, because I don’t think alcohol would make it taste any better since I hate that too. But hey, I’ll only be in Ireland once, and I should at least say that I tried the Irish coffee while I was there, right? So there you go, I tried Irish coffee, and some Guinness as well; where as Chuck, the guy from our tour I was sitting by, enjoyed drinking his Irish coffee, his daughter’s Irish coffee, and most of my Irish coffee as well. Not to mention the Guinness he got. Needless to say, he was pretty drunk the entire way back, and was rather hilarious to watch as well. His daughter and I kept exchanging looks every once in a while, trying not to laugh.

Finally, in Belfast, I saw the Ireland I came to see. Rolling hills and countryside, everywhere you looked. It was wonderful, and I was glad to know there was still some of the Ireland I’ve heard so much about left. The only draw back of this trip was all the rain. Of course, that’s why Ireland is so green, it rains most of the time… But it had been so beautiful the day before that I had neglected to bring my jacket. Temperature wise, I probably would have been fine, but when you added in the rain, I decided I shouldn’t stay out too long if I didn’t want to get sick, and spent the first hour inside our bus, talking with our tour guide and bus drivers as we watched the rain pouring down.

Once the rain began to let up a bit, I decided I’d try going out again, even if just to the shops, and ended up running into Andrea. Yay! We walked down to the Giant’s Causeway together, and had a great day. The rain stopped, we got lots of good pictures, and made a wish in the wishing chair. We bought some chocolate covered honeycomb – which I must say is very addictive. I even tried some red, chewy, dried seaweed, which wasn’t nearly as good. :/

Since Last Time...

(Just a side note to prepare you for what is to come… uh… yeah… Most of these posts I’ve written to let you know what’s going on with me right now, and most have been rushed and written quickly, cramming all I could into a post while sitting in and Internet café. This post is not like that… instead, I’m writing it here, aboard ship, where I have more time, and am in a writing mood. So don’t be alarmed if this sounds more like a story than a post. Here I packed in more description, thought, and feelings than I originally intended, and I guess am just bringing out the inner author in me.)

Last post I left you off at the Hermitage, but what I failed to mention was where I was at the time of that post. I wrote that last post in Tallinn, Estonia, which was probably my favorite port so far (besides the Hermitage, or… maybe right along side it…). Estonia is an older town build in medieval style, with cobblestone streets and old-style houses. The Old Town, especially, with it’s old rock walls and fortress surrounding, had the same feel as if you were at the seen of a medieval movie. It was like walking out of normal life and into one of the many fantasy stories I’m so fond of reading. Andrea and I had planned to eat out at a medieval-style restaurant for lunch, but spend too much time just wandering and sitting in the Internet café, that we had to leave before we could go. So, rushed and out of time, we ran back towards the bus stop, pausing quickly to buy 9 bags of sweet, warm almonds with all the money we had exchanged (for the restaurant) before making one of the last shuttles back to the ship. We’ll be eating them for month, probably… but man, they were good.

After Estonia, we (the ship) were booking it back to Amsterdam, pausing in Copenhagen, Denmark, before moving on. The ship was moving very fast those sea days, and you could see waves swiftly passing us by. Andrea and I didn’t sign up to escort tours here, but instead took the shuttle into town, wandering our own way back to the ship. We saw numerous cathedrals, their spires beaconing us on from beyond the towering rooftops. We walked past the botanical gardens, and saw the Royal Palace through bars of the gate surrounding it. We toured an old winter castle, seeing rooms full of paintings, murals, and gilded walls. Old palace chairs, worn thin with age, beautiful carvings and sculpted artifacts. I stood there and imagined how it must have looked hundreds of years ago, when kings strode through the chambers, not giving any notice to all the beauty that surrounded them. We saw the throne room; guarded by life sized golden lions, rooms full of statues, glass wear, and china, all unique and beautiful. A mirror room, where all the walls and ceiling were mirrored, and you saw the room a thousand times over above and below you. The floor reflected in the ceiling, and a round mirror on the floor gave the appearance of looking down into the same room below. We saw where they slept, we saw were they ate; we saw their Royal treasury on display underneath the castle. Jewel encrusted swords and crowns, carved Ivory, a decorative pistol set that was a gift to the king from Abraham Lincoln.

From there, we wandered back along the shore, taking pictures every few feet and just enjoying our day of exploration. We walked through an Island shaped like a star, former home of an older fortress, walked by what looked like another palace, and on to the little mermaid. We actually saw two mermaids that day, but it was the smaller one that was the famous little mermaid of Copenhagen. I don’t know the story behind the little mermaid, but it is a bronze statue sitting on a rock in the ocean, waves crashing around her. Lots of tourists. :P By the time we got back we were both exhausted, or perhaps that was just me, I’m not sure… but we decided to call home while we could before leaving. (Seeing as it would be Andrea’s birthday the next day while we were at sea.)

So yes, Andrea’s birthday has come and gone, and I think it was a very good birthday for her this year. I smuggled some snacks and pastries down to our room and inserted a ‘makeshift’ candle, then singing happy birthday when she returned from the gym. We both enjoyed going through the presents sent from home, along with the list of reasons to be happy today, that went along with them. Although, Mom, I do think that sending that little music box that sang the ‘happy birthday’ song was a bad idea. I must have heard her playing it 50 times throughout the day with a silly grin on her face the entire time. She showed it to all her friends onboard too. I got a video. But yeah, the day was good; we spent time playing a new game called bananagrams with one of Andrea’s friends onboard, a game similar to scrabble. We were going to go to the Marano (the really nice restaurant aboard) but Marie wanted to spend time with Andrea, so we didn’t. It turned out she had a few tricks of her own up her sleeve, and all the band as well as the singers and dancers were waiting in the RendezVous Lounge to surprise her. I was asleep by that time, because I thought they were just going out for drinks, and am kind of sad I missed it, but happy that they were able to make her day esxtra-speacial.

Yesterday in Amsterdam we didn’t go into the terminal again to use Internet – but instead took the opportunity to wander our way throughout the city, our destination being the Anne Frank House. It was very different than I expected, but really neat just the same. We walked through a museum in a side building, and into the warehouse on the bottom floor of her father’s business. Walking up to the second floor, we saw where all the offices used to be, then climbing up the steep staircases to the Secret Annex. Each room held a quotation or two from Anne’s diary – the descriptions she gave us alongside the actual room. The actual bookcase that concealed the stairs was still there, open on its hinges to allow us passage through. It was like walking into the story – although all other furniture had been removed, shadows still remain of what once was. Magazine pictures still pasted onto the wall of Anne’s room, the stove base and kitchen sink still in their places, the bathroom and attic where Anne and Peter spent much of their time. A model of the house and video show us how it looked fully furnished. It was amazing and moving at the same time.

From there, we wandered our way back along the canals, past house boats and parked bicycles, stopping to buy some berries from a local vender on the way back. Those were probably the best berries we’ve ever had, and now I wish we had gotten more. The blackberries were HUGE, bursting with sweet flavor, and the raspberries too. I don’t think I found a single raspberry that was sour, and only one berry of each batch (blackberry & raspberry) was bad. I also had wanted to go to the Van Gough while we were out, but it was way on the other side of town, and we just didn’t have enough time. Ah well… maybe some day.

Getting Around

Since I was last on, I've traveled through to Sweden, Finland, and Russia - stopping in Stockholm, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg.

I really don't remember too much of Sweden - we went on a tour to the main square, took a ferry across the water to the place we ate, and went on with our tour. We were on the bus almost the entire time, and so didn't have much opportunity to get out and explore. We did go to a nice porcelain museum that had the gold-plated royal china on display, and the city was pretty, but nothing that really made a lasting impression. Although there were a lot of really cute flower pots shaped like mini boats. Those were really neat. :D

Andrea and I both got off the ship together in Finland, where we wandered around the town for a bit before finding an Internet cafe close to the shuttle stop. We walked through and open market and bought some souvenirs, as well as a bag of blueberries that we continually snacked on throughout the day. We found some old cathedrals and buildings, and Andrea succeeded in capturing someone else's jumping photo - from nearly a block away. I LOVE her zoom! There's only so much I can do with my camera, I'm kinda jealous... :P I might be buying a new one when I get home... if I can afford it.

St. Petersberg- wow! So much to see in so little time. The first day I went to the Hermitage, and 2 hours wasn't NEARLY enough time to see even the highlights. We had to walk by so quickly that I didn't have the time I wanted to actually examine each painting or sculpture as we walked by. We only had a few minutes in front of each of the famous paintings, and that with a large crowd. It was so overwhelming - almost too much to take in. The tour guide pointing out paintings like they were nothing, saying, "oh, here's the Da Vinchi's on your right", or "all the Van Gough's are on your left"and there I was, almost dying because I actually was seeing the original paintings right before my very eyes. I couldn't believe it, and I wish I could have spent all day there, pouring over each individual painting. Not many art students I know have had the opportunity to come here and see all these original paintings, and yet we saw art students who were sketching the sculptures or painting a copy of an original Da Vinchi, right there in the museum. Like I said, overwhelming, and I wasn't even able to get good pictures of any of the paintings... I would mention other things we did in Russia, but this by far outshines them all, so I have no need. The city was beautiful - but the Hermitage was my inspiration.

-------

I've got a little more caught up on my pictures today as well - so here's 3 more albums - Norway and Berlin...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47055&l=7b85e&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48176&l=e5ddc&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48181&l=37809&id=658227216

Enjoy!

Berlin - Germany

It’s our first port of call (on cruise 2) with Celebrity Century, and Andrea made certain that I sign up for one of the Berlin tours straight away. That’s how, around 9:30am, I found myself boarding a 3 hour train to Berlin and escorting bus #2 on a historical tour around the city. I got to see the famous Berlin Wall (or at least what’s left of it), the entire length covered in graffiti art ☺. The wall itself was much thinner than I expected, only 1 cement block thick – but then again, I guess it would have to be, seeing as it was built overnight. (Well, actually, it consisted of two thin walls with a death zone in-between, but yeah, it was still pretty surprising for me.) We visited many landmarks, memorials, and museums, including the open square where the Nazi book burning took place.

Our tour guide this trip was easily the best of all the guides I’ve been able to help assist thus far. He actually let me assist him (unlike some guides) and I felt very useful. It felt more like we were a team. Although, this wasn’t what made him the best tour guide so far, it was his mannerism as well. He was definitely a people person, and knew how to command an audience. He was knowledgeable, friendly, and funny – a good combination to have. He talked the entire time and was able to keep it interesting – adding little funny comments in there every now and then to change things up a bit. He also sang us a few German songs, after which the entire bus burst out in applause.

Lunch was absolutely amazing – a traditional German meal that included herb sausage on a bed of sauerkraut (which I have to admit is the BEST I’ve ever tasted), potatoes, veggies, and pork. Everything was very fancy - and delicious. They had me sit at the staff table along with the tour guides and bus drivers, and I ended up between two escorts from different buses. Both are dancers aboard the ship, one of whom Andrea worked with on an earlier contract, and the other whom I had met a few days prior. After a full day of touring, I took the train back and was more than happy to crash when I arrived back at the ship at nearly 10pm.

What a day… oh! and I got another stamp in my passport too!

Also... I'm starting to get a little caught up on photos again, so here are the last photo sets from Ukraine - enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43132&l=1dba4&id=658227216

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47049&l=73ecb&id=658227216

Norway

First off, I don’t remember all the different ports that we visited this first cruise in Norway, but, since they are all in Norway, they all start to look the same after a while. Our excursion contact for all these ports was wonderful, and even let me go out on excursions as a tour guide. They are grateful for the help, and I am grateful for the opportunity to go on all these wonderful tours for free. (ok, I lied, I do remember the ports now, because I asked Andrea what their names were…)

In Alta, there really wasn’t very much to see, so you really had to go on a tour in order to learn or see anything. There we visited a slate query that produced slate tiles for roofs, floors, etc. There, they demonstrated the process mining and forming the slate, and in every single port since, we’ve begun to see slate EVERYWHERE. We’ll point out the roofs with slate, or the sidewalks with slate tiling, and say ‘hey look, it’s slate!’ to each other wherever we are. :P

The next port was Honningsvad where the North cape was, but we ended up not going off because I wasn’t feeling well. Turns out I was just dehydrated and have been much better about drinking enough water ever since.

In Tromso, we didn’t tour at all, but instead went out hunting down an internet café on our own where we ended up spending most of our day. While in Molde, we drove down the Atlantic Ocean Road that connects the large array of fishing islands there, then going to a fortress built and used by the Germans during World War II. It was all underground and invisible from the ground surface, consisting of many old tunnels and concrete rooms. I loved our tour guide here, an elderly gentleman who couldn’t stop talking. He pointed out all the native wildlife, told us reindeer stories from his neighbors, and even pointed out a stray cat he saw while driving past. ☺

Olden wasn’t too interesting, as we had a tour guide who didn’t talk about the town very much at all. It was still beautiful there, and I did get a few good pictures, but the whole day felt a little too rushed. I did get to have a nice conversation with the elderly woman sitting next to me who was asking me many questions about my life and then telling me stories about hers, and I enjoyed talking with her.

Our last port, Bergen, was really nice, I hear we’ll be there again, so Andrea and I can explore a lot of the places we drove by in greater depth. Here, we actually got to tour together instead of on separate buses, which was really great, and I made a game out of trying to get good pictures through the window on Andrea’s camera. It was quite fun. And that was the quick rundown of our trip so far… more later…

The Century...

Just a heads up – I wrote (or posted, at least) 3 separate posts today, so be sure to read the two that come directly before this one first…

Here are just a few highlights of our trip so far – as I’m sure you’ve all been waiting long enough for these posts, and I’m writing as much as I can in as little time as possible.

I’ll start with my first day…
When I first came aboard the Century, and went down to Andrea’s cabin, it was to discover that her roommate had moved all her things out and over to the room next door, where there was an empty bed – leaving the cabin to ourselves. I couldn’t believe it, now we each have our own bed, at least for this cruise, and I’m loving it. Andrea took me up to deck 7 to watch the sail-away, and it was beautiful. In the very front of the ship, all to ourselves, I would be jealous if I was a regular passenger…

We ate dinner together in the dining hall sailing out, and there, I witnessed something I had never seen before… Windmills. Yes, windmills. I have seen windmills before, but these ones were sticking up from the water in the middle of the ocean! I couldn’t believe it… ocean on all sides, then, uh, random windmills in the middle of nowhere, the mist curling in and out between them. It was amazingly cool, and that’s all I have to say about that.

The next day we ported in Alesund (pronounced Allison-ed… just thought you’d want to know that, Tyler…) Where Andrea and I went off exploring on our own. She took me to places that she went before, and brought me down a ‘secret’ pathway leading down to the sea. The local folklore of the city is based off the misty mountains surrounding it and the forests all around, and centers around trolls. Many of the main tourist spots are named thus – such as the path of the trolls, and also the troll cliffs. There were also trolls in all the gift-shops…

More Travel...

The day before we left Kiev, we went back to the train station where we met back up with Alan, his wife, and Emily, who is like a daughter to them. Alan lives in Kiev, and so became our tour guide as we went to sightsee as much as we could before heading home. We saw beautiful churches and monasteries, the deepest metro in the world, a street full of souvenir shops, and the golden gate, which is left standing from hundreds of years ago. The gate itself is called the golden gate for the gold that the merchants would pay at the gate to pass through into the city beyond. It was a fun day, and we didn’t get back until about 9:30pm.

We originally had arranged to have a short meeting that night so I could sleep before an early flight out, but, go figure, it turned out to be the longest meeting of the entire trip. We decided to do the ‘circle of encouragement’ where you go around the circle and each say words of encouragement and things you appreaciate about them. We didn’t finish until about two in the morning – and I had to get up at 4 in order to be there 2 hours before my 6:00 flight. Needless to say I got little sleep that night, but I’m very glad we got to have that meeting anyway. (Because of this, I also didn’t have the chance to fill out all my evaluation forms for OWM, so Adam, if your reading this, hopefully I will be emailing you within the next few days with my completed evaluation forms.) Okay, back to post…

Alexandra accompanied me to the airport and took me as far as she could, and from there, it was fairly easy to find where I was supposed to go. Actually, I had noticed a few people speaking English and started talking to them, and before I knew it, I was right in front of my terminal – with about an hour left to wait until boarding. I didn’t talk much on the plane, mostly slept, but when the flight attendent came by with drinks, the Ukrainian next to me must have heard me speaking in English, and HE started talking to me as well. He spoke really good English too. We chatted for quite some time, walking through the airport together until I went down to baggage claim, and he went on to catch his connecting flight.

My bag was the first one I saw on the wheel right as I was walking up, and Andrea was the first person I saw as I exited baggage claim. I think I might have scared her though when I yelled Andrea!, and started running towards her. (she had been looking in the opposite direction)… From there, we made our way to the Century by train, and got aboard surprisingly smoothly. We got there at the perfect time, and they brought us up and sorted out all the computer confirmation and such right away (since I’m not on the actual guest list, but am in the computer). Anyway, they got me through and aboard before any of the other 2,000 or so passengers that were waiting at the gate. I got to meet my ‘cousin’ and so many others – it will take quite a while to remember everyone’s name…

But yes, Mom, I am safely aboard, so you don’t have to worry… I apologize for the lack of internet communications thus far, the connection has been very bad onboard…

Debriefing...

(Yes, this post is long, consider it 3 posts in one - that should have been posted nearly a week ago...)

Our trip in Ukraine has officially come to an end, and we are all sad to leave. After all our goodbyes (some of which felt rather rushed), Artyom accompanied us to the train station, (as he lives close by it). There a new trail awaited us…
We got on the actual train without a problem, but when the ticket collector came to collect our tickets, we discovered that half our tickets were not valid. It seemed as if when we had first bought the tickets, the train was most likely already full. The ticket master must have seen us standing there with money and issued us false tickets anyway. Apparently quite a few other passengers had been experiencing the same thing recently. Anyway, because our tickets were not valid, the woman in charge of our car was trying to kick us off, literally starting to push Amy out of a moving train. She would have fallen and could have gotten seriously injured if not for Alexandra. She grabbed Amy and pulled her back in, proceeding to chew out the lady trying to kick us off. After much yelling on both parties (something you have to do to get anything done in situations like this in Ukraine) we each had to pay 200 griven each to stay on the train and all squeeze into the one cabin that we had valid tickets for.

I actually ended up staying in the cabin next door with another team from DCU going back the same day as us. The same thing had happened to them as well. We were all quite cozy sleeping 2 to a small train bench bed on that 12-hour night train to Kiev. Definitely not the best night of sleep I’ve had this trip. I often found myself wondering how my team was and what they were talking about, and was kind of wishing I was with them in their cabin. However, I think it turned out for the better, and I hope that my outlook on the situation and our conditions helped to lighten their spirits somewhat. Even if it didn’t though, I got the chance to share my testimony with them, and I hope it was an encouragement to them as well.

We took a marshutka to the hotel in Kiev, only to discover that there were no rooms available. It was about 8 in the morning, so we decided to wait around and see if any rooms would open up, as people would be checking out. After all the things we had been experiencing thus far, first the train and then this, we all felt the same. We had all had an amazing time at DCU, and had really felt at home there. All the missionaries loved us and opened their homes to us, all expressing the desire that our team come back next year. We all felt the desire to come back, and on the voyage home, felt like Satan was trying to get to us, telling us through our trials that this is how bad it can be. We all got together and prayed, then proceeding to eat the rest of the bread and apples we had left and sleeping on the lobby couches until rooms opened up – and open up they did.

That night we held a ‘debriefing’ session, where we shared both our high and low moments of the trip. Some of the other girls had some amazing stories to tell, and, after hearing some of them, I was feeling kind of down and didn’t think I had made much of an impact on our students. I didn’t form any special bonds with my students or have any of the amazing conversations that some of the other girls did. I didn’t have any opportunities to share my faith, and, although I felt like I was a pretty good teacher, I really don’t know how much affect I had on my students.

When I told the other girls this, they shot right back at me how wrong I was, helping me to see the purpose I served. While not necessarily making an impact (that I could see) on any individual student, I did serve to encourage both the missionaries there, and the short-term teams that assisted us. I can’t remember the verse right now, but it basically said that we are not only called to serve, but also especially sent to encourage fellow Christians, which is what I helped to do. Even the fact that I was able to go in the first place is a miracle. I mean, seriously, I had major surgery just a few months before I left! It showed that if I can do missions, then anyone can - through the grace of God. And even though I have a disease, and my own set of problems, I was able to overcome them. Crohn’s Disease may be a big part of my life, and a big part of who I am today, yet it doesn’t define who I am. And I am just starting to realize this, and so much more…