Yesterday, the 29th, we woke up at a marvelously late 9:30 AM and began our voyage to Hungary take two. It begin with a late breakfast at our Ramada Inn, where we got a good taste of the midwestern lifestyle; most important aspects being meeting with waiters with awesome accents and a morning with an unusual lack of humidity, both of which rocked. We got to the airport and our plane for New York was on time and ready for us to go. Things went smoothly throughout the first flight, especially smoothly for Janice and Troy who were bumped up to first class. No worries, the rest of us were not at risk of being spoiled and were sitting in the only slightly less glamourous coach. Besides the occasional turbulence and minor stomach drops, the flight was fine and uneventful. We landed in JFK airport around 5p.m. and proceeded to our gate to wait for our plane to HUNGARY.
We got a good taste of the Empire State of Mind when we witnessed a husband and wife have a slight (but loud and very, very public) breakdown about flights being canceled. I think it then hit us that we were not in the south any more and such issues could not be resolved in with a couple of "I'm so sorry y'all"s and a glass of iced tea. We did get some quality gelato and spent our time at the gate playing with our new pillow pets (5/12 now possess them. I have a dolphin and his name is Shark), eating hummus and yogurt covered pretzels, charging ipods for our looming expedition, and helping an elderly Hungarian lady around the gate, but it turned out she spoke English after all so our help was no longer needed. Not to mention identifying every"hipster" within a 20 foot radius.
We boarded our plane and after much seat musical chairs with the other passengers, everyone was sitting by someone from our group and not the random casual traveler. *sigh of relief*. We then proceeded to successfully annoy every surrounding fellow passengers with our antics such as playing Catch Phrase, standing on the occasional chair while the seat belt sign was on (Anne Galloway), and knocking against strangers chairs (Anne Galloway, Mary Leslie Prater, Dixon Bledsoe). We launched into movies like Hot Rod, Just Go With It, Life As We Know It, and the always popular, Jane Eyre. Our meal was actually delicious; pasta, salad, and blondie brownies. And for those of us who were first time over seas flyers (myself...Allison), it was relatively smooth after I got over the initial terror of being surrounded by open ocean, so about until 3 1/2 hours into the flight. After a while, people began to slowly drop like flies to sleep, until it was only Tim and myself up. We both managed to maintain consciousness for THE ENTIRE EIGHT HOUR FLIGHT.
Our flight was extremely smooth and we landing in Budapest, Hungary at around 10:40 A.M. The smooth sailing stopped at the baggage claim location when we waited a solid 45 minutes for our bags. And guess what? Anne's bag is MIA. So if anyone has information regarding the whereabouts of a red rolling suit case, please notify the Hungarian Delta/Air France authorities. We met Szanyez at the entrance where he proceeded to enlighten us on the reasons regarding our canceled flight the previous day. Not bad weather, not terrorist threats, not mechanical issues, but a bale of turtles blocking the runway at JFK. Only us.
We load into a van and a half (Tim, Janice, Anne, and I being the half who waited outside the airport like the troopers we are for the next car) and then headed to the Paulus House. Sidenote: Tim and I, the two people who didn't sleep on the plane ride over, have fallen asleep twice: in the car on the way to Paulus and on the (empty and not moving) luggage conveyer belt. When we arrived at the house, the Hungarians welcomed us SO warmly and there were many heart felt reunions for people returning to Hungary for the 2nd or even 3rd time. Oh and don't forget our first official Don Pepe's meal, where we each ate 1+ slices of pizza, which, I kid you not, were bigger than my face. The rest of our day was spent planning for the retreat this weekend and the camp the next week. So even though we are jet lagged, slightly disoriented time wise, and half of us are sporting our SKYTEAM shirts that Delta gave us complimentary when our flight was canceled, we are unbelievably excited about what the next two weeks will hold and the things that God is doing in this place.
Thanks for your prayers and support!
Your Hungarian mission team
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