Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Adventures In Odessey... Or Kandern?

I have officially been back in the states for the last two days and I still am fighting major jetlag, but it is all well worth it. My trip started off last Monday afternoon. My mom and I ended up leaving way too early for the airport putting me there 3 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave. Seeing that it was a Monday and I had no baggage to check (that's right, I did all carry-ons which made traveling a thousand times less stressful), I made it through check-in and security in less than ten minutes. I spent most of my time reading and people watching and the time went by really fast! This trip was very unique in that it was my first time traveling completely by myself which was super exciting! It was also the first time I have been on an airplane that was only half full! On my first flight out to Frankfurt I had the window seat and the aisle seat all to myself making it really easy to lounge and sleep most of the flight. An hour after arriving in Frankfurt I found out that my 5pm flight to Basel was canceled and that I had been put on the 10pm flight instead. I bought myself a sandwich and some water for dinner along with a Sudoku (it was all in German, but that why I like numbers... it's universal!). The 5 hours went by really fast and my flight to Basel was really short. I was greeted by Délice and her brother Rémy who were in crazy wigs and sunglasses with a sign "Hollywood Ambassadors: Michaela Andrews."

To avoid a novel of an entry, let me see if I can give you the highlights of my week. Wednesday afternoon (Délice and I slept in pretty late every morning which was amazing since I never get the opportunity to sleep in) we went into Basel for the last of the Fasnacht Parades. We spent most of the time walking around Basel and running away from people trying to attack us with confetti! It was so funny to see grown men and women in crazy masks and costumes! It really was a fun day. Valentines Day we were treated to a beautiful breakfast of cupcakes made my Délice's dad. We walked over to BFA and I got to see a lot of the GEMKs from conference and I also got to meet a lot of other really cool MKs. Later that night we went to an all girls Valentines Day dinner party which was a ton of fun. It was really cool meeting some new people and hanging out with all of them on Valentines Day.

Friday night we went to Délice's friend Heidi's house for a sleepover. Délice is performing in a Trio for a Candle Light Dinner later this week so we went over so the girls could practice their song and practice getting all dressed up and stuff! Saturday we went over to BFA for the Candle Light Dinner dress rehearsal and ended up hanging out there most of the day. It was fun watching all of the kid's acts and hanging out with the MKs in between different performances. Later that night we watched the movie Once with some MKs. I definitely recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't mind a ton of F*Bombs. It was a remarkable film, but it is rated R for language (nothing else though, it's very clean and truly a beautiful film!). Sunday we went to BFCF (BFA's church service) for church which was really cool! I really miss going to church and am sort of inspired to find a way to start going to a church again.

Monday was a crazy day! I went with Délice to her work and got to meet all of the amazing kids she always tells me about. Around noon she drove me to the airport to head home again. Sitting in the airport was really strange because there was NO ONE there! Our flight to Frankfurt was about 30 mins late, but my layover was pretty long so it wasn't a big deal (the highlight of this flight was probably one of the flight attendants: she had the WORST fake tan I have EVER seen! She was almost purple it was so bad!!!). The second flight of the day was from Frankfurt to San Fransisco (about 10 hours). I somehow got put in Economy Plus so the seats were wider and there was way more leg room (plus the seat next to me was empty again!). To avoid loosing my mind I slept the majority of the flight which really screwed me up as far as jet-lag avoidance.We got into San Fransisco an Hour early and again I did a ton of people watching. It's really fascinating the dynamics you see between people when you stop to pay attention. Anyway, my flight to LA was an hour late which put me into LA at about 1am Tuesday morning. Thinking that it was still 10am (9 hour time difference), I was wide awake the rest of the morning.

I am doing better now, but yesterday was really bad. I was actually inspired to start painting my room but once 2pm came around I couldn't function any longer. I was able to hang on until 7pm before completely crashing (I got to the point of being so tired I just wanted to cry!). I went to school today which was pretty relaxed, but I am definitely needing to get back on a normal schedule.

Overall, the trip really was a Blast! I think my favorite memory was sitting with Délice and Rémy in her room, listening to Adventures in Odyssey (good memories!). It was so nice to hang out with Délice and her family and it was really cool to see and even hang out with some of the MKs from conference! Thanks again Délice for opening up your home and sharing your life with me for a week!

PS: I was too lazy to put pictures on this entry so you will have follow this link and look at them there!

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