THE JOURNEY HAS BEGUN

Hello everyone!

Its only been a couple days but so much has happened.  I have not been able to post because I was flying to Poland and taking part of JV’s AMAZING Race.

But first my travels.  After a splendid send off by my parents and my last American Meal (Portillos!!!)  I got onto my Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Frankfurt Germany.   It was a great flight (WITH MY OWN TV!!).  I tried to sleep but the baby sitting next to me decided that I shouldn’t so I watch two films (We Bought a Zoo, and the Muppet Movie) and a Adele concert.   Overall a good 7and half hour flight.

Once landing in Germany I made the long and seemingly endless journey from the C Terminal to the A.   Somehow I ended up outside the airport and after asking some security guards I found my way.  Also, I met a man wearing OU attire….. really in Frankfurt??  Upon getting to my terminal I met a small of fellow interns.  I knew they were interns because who else would a group of 20-somethings speaking English being doing in Frankfurt.  Introductions were made and we began to discuss our lives and the summer.  We were all ready to board our last flight from Frankfurt to Krakow, Poland.  The plane ride was short but it was fun hearing all the interns talking to the locals and other Europeans wondering who exactly where this young adults taking up half the plane.

After getting our luggage and passport checked, the interns were greeted by a super enthusiastic JV staff.  Again introductions were made and I finally got to meet my team in person.  First there was Bethany, a 18 year old girl from Iowa who is joined the intern program after 4 years of helping teach English for a couple of weeks during the summer.  Next was Jitka, our Czech local, who had helped with English camps within the Czech Republic.  Then Josh (Hawaii), one of the co-leaders, who is currently in his first run as a long term missionary in the Czech Republic.  Last is Rachel, an co-leader from Ireland, who has helped with many camps in Czech but this is her first summer internship with Josiah.  Altogether we make up the team Hawaiireland.

After waiting about 4 hours in the Krakow airport for all the interns to arrive, we started the AMAZING RACE!  With only a backpack (or a duffel bag as I so “geniously” (sarcasm) decided to use) we would be running around Poland and Czech Republic for 3 days eventually ending up at the Training Facility in Malenovice, Czech Republic.  We began by riding into the heart and center of the bustling Krakow.  Here’s a list of some of the road block activities we were faced with

•         Having a retro/borderline cross dressing model session on a “catwalk” in the middle of a busy square – of course I was a legend
•   Running around a mall trying to find 3 moving people
•      Running around a mall and most of Krakow with a watermelon in my bag
• Listening to Chopin for a hour trying to guess the music to sheet music
•  Playing bingo – using characteristics of strangers
• Creating a scale model of the solar system using food (including my favorite watermelon)
•   RUNNING AROUND!

After a day of adventures in the beautiful Krakow we used staying in pretty awesome hostel., my first.  Staying up for 30 hours straight and all of our challenges, I passed out in the hostel and destroyed any jet lag I had.  A good first day of racing.
I hope I will have pictures to show soon I was unavailable to take my camera because I didn't want to break it.