POLAND - DAY 1/2 - LOTS OF FLYING

March 28/29, 2014

We all met at 9am at United Airlines.
I've flown once with a class but other than that, I've not flown with a group of people so it was nice to see so many familiar faces when I was checked in and checking my luggage. There's a total of 12 of us flying together and another that's meeting us in Poland.
Pastor Vince showed up to pray for us and encourage us to bring him back soup.

Maddie's sisters made everyone going on the missisons trips small crosses to carry on us. The crosses are super cute and handy to put on a necklace or attach to something.

I ate like a big girl before we flew.
Auntie Anne's, what!



I'm would like to not drink a lot of water because I'd rather not use the restroom on the plane since I've been forever traumatized from being stuck in one when I was 17. So now when I go, I simply put my hand against the door and if someone tries to come in, I yell. Yes, that happens.
BUT I will be drinking water because when my mom and I landed in Greece back in 2008, I almost passed out when I woke up from sleeping soooo I must stay hydrated.

When we were all going through security, most of us were directed to a different area and when we went up to put our bags, etc. the personnel said, "Do not take anything out of your bags, do not take belts off, do not take shoes off." I squinted my eyes at him and said, "Are you sure? . . . " and he gave me a look. GEEZ. Alright, sir. Apparently it was the pre-screening lanes that we got in which was amazing because we didn't have to take out our electronics or anything.

Taryn is my flight buddy since we sit beside each other on all flights, this entire trip. I asked where she's from and she's from Wisconsin. What a small world. All of us traveling together don't know each other well but we will after this trip! I've been going to Verve since 2012 and I barely knew anyone aside from Jeff and Lisa. So it's nice meeting and getting know a lot more people.

Taryn, Jamie and I were talking about money and what we'll need. I was saying that I already got cash out and plan on changing it in Poland. Then I stated that, "I'm not really a purchaser." I only like to collect/send post cards and shot glasses (because they are small) and MAYBE a t-shirt or sweatshirt. Taryn did admit that she's very much a purchaser.

Jamie was eating scrambled eggs out of a baggy (and did it Nicaraguan style by the way --> which is biting the bottom corner of the bag and eating it from there) and as she did this, we slowly saw scrambled eggs falling onto her clothes. HAHA She's moving to Vietnam in April for some time which is pretty awesome.

Our flight to Denver left at 11am and we got into Denver at 2pm. We have a 4 hour delay in Denver so I'm updating this blog while we are waiting.

Landing into Denver had a bit of turbulence. It was pretty bumpy the entire way down. 

Louis (co worker) sent me a link to an article about the Denver Airport and how it's privately owned (versus owned by the government) and how a lot of the murals signify the ending of the world.
Here it is: -->
http://thechive.com/2012/03/08/something-is-rotten-in-the-denver-airport-25-photos/
A couple of us were going to walk around the airport and look for these murals but apparently you have to go back out of security in order to see them and then come back in. We literally DID have time for that, but . . . we ain't got time for all dat.

We depart from Denver at 6:30pm and arrive to Frankfurt around 11am on Saturday (3/29). And then we depart Frankfurt around 12:15pm and arrive to Warsaw, Poland at 2pm Saturday and we MUST stay awake when we land so that our bodies can adjust to the time difference.
It's an 8 hour time difference from Vegas.

(NAME) made beef jerky. There were even mild and hot kinds and they were both DELICIOUS.

I'm a book lover. Thought this was a cool name for a bookstore.

We got excited when we left Vegas and then we had to calm down and wait for 4 hours....

Haven't been on a big plane like this since 2010!

Full flight to Frankfurt

I completely forgot that we’ll get to watch movies on the plane so as soon as I realized that, reading my book was definitely out of the picture. They had a decent selection of newer movies as well as older movies. I watched, “Homeland” (with Jason Statham…I love that man). It was REALLY good and action packed. My kind of movie. As soon as that finished, I realized that we still had another 5 hours on the flight and I was so restless because I couldn’t get comfortable and every time that I did get comfortable, my butt was numb so I had to move AGAIN. I ended up sleeping at least 4-5 hours so that was decent. I skipped my meal on the plane because I hate plane food. I bought a sub and ate half of it before we got on our flight to Frankfurt and saved the other half for when everyone else ate. I then decided to watch, “Notting Hill” because that’s one of my favorites but I ended up turning it off halfway through because I was so tired.

It was awesome flying with Lufthansa because they speak German the entire time. Made me feel at home. AND it’s just a fancy airline so I’ll be flying with them in the future. I have flown British Airways to Greece before and I’ve decided that I must fly first class at least once because 10 hours of attempting to sleep on a flight is not fun. I will pay extra for a bed.

Once we got to Frankfurt, we went to use the restroom and Jamie was leading us and she decides to go left and all you see is Taryn pull her shirt from the back and redirect her to the right which is the ladies restroom.

I was sharing how I couldn’t eat breakfast in the morning because it makes me nauseous . . . unless it’s like steak. HAHA but seriously.

Lufthansa also provides complimentary coffee and much more, at the gate, so I got a cup and didn’t even drink it because I discovered that I could use wifi but only for a limited time so I was updating Facebook and every other social media before we had to board. It was great because it was like competing with myself (and technology) in getting everything updated in a certain time frame.

Lose alert (and I don’t care).

It’s really quite entertaining to watch people fall asleep with their head back and mouth open. Though I will say that on our flight to Frankfurt, I was envious of Jamie when I saw her passed out because I just couldn’t fall asleep. But on our flight to Warsaw (after I got a good 5 hours of sleep) it was rather amusing and luckily Margaret was a great model for this pose. Many thanks!

I didn't eat the breakfast on our Frankfurt flight so when we flew to Poland and we got these sandwiches (with FETA), I was so happy! It was delicious.

We arrived to Poland at 2pm. Our tour guides picked us up and we headed to sight see in Warsaw. As we’re driving, you hear Margaret yell, “Avon! Oh, they have Avon!” HAHA

Touching up make up

VIVA LA VERVE!

Conrad photo bombed us and I took this pic of Taryn and I but I don't think he even know.

It didn’t feel like I was in Europe until I had to pay to pee. Ah, the joys. We did some walking which was GREAT after so much sitting on flights.

This reminded me of Home Alone 2

Valerie and Conrad were sleepy on our way back to our camp area.

We then drove 2 hours to the town where we’re staying (forgot the name and I certainly don’t know how to spell it SO I’ll get that Sunday and update that). I combined days 1 and 2 because there’s no way that I was going to figure out which day we did what and with all of the time difference. We got to our town around 7pm and ate dinner. Then we were brought to our rooms which are like cabins (or dorms) in the forest. Like camping! Jamie, Taryn and I are roomies and we are having a blast with it.

We came to the main building to use wifi and as we're walking back, I'm behind Jamie and Taryn and they're walking towards the dark (to the right) when there are the cabins and lights on to the left. I didn't say anything at first and then I said, "Shouldn't we be going this way." HAHA

Showering was the BEST. We all fell asleep right away in our bunk beds.

Our traveling to Poland was most definitely a success!

(FYI - the internet is slow so it's takes a LONG time just to upload pictures so I'll most likely be updating my blog with more pictures when I'm back. But the majority of the posts will be finished.)