We're going on an adventure!!

Well, friends, here we are.  I’m somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, far away from home!  Today has gone quite smoothly thus far; after saying goodbye to our families, Josiah, Mattea and I all boarded a leeeeeetle airplane that took us from Elmira to Philadelphia.  They should have named that flight something fun, because it was more of a roller coaster than a flight!  Bumpity-bumpity-bumpity most of the way there, which I found quite enjoyable.  Ttea and I sat next to each other and after a few minutes of staring in wide-eyed wonder at the runway, we decided the joy was just too much to hold in and so we prayed for a few minutes.  Josiah was opposite from us, but we prayed for him anyway ;).  Still finding it hard to believe that we were ACTUALLY on our way to Italy, I do believe that my smile, (matched with Ttea’s), lit up the entire airplane all of the way to Philly.  (If they didn’t, our colorful drawings certainly did!  We might be nineteen, but we still enjoy filling in black lines with bright crayons)

(Do not tell me that my colors aren't quite right on my Dalek; I was limited to 64 crayons)

After safely (bump), landing in Philly, the three of us embarked on our first adventure, which was full of decisions!  Decision number one: do we eat first, or do we find our gate?  The answer was…neither.  First you text your mommies:  THEN you listen to your parent’s advice and find your gate.  We waddled to the shuttle bus, (we had to waddle because our backpacks and carry-ons were rather cumbersome), and hopped on board.  Well, there wasn’t much hopping, but there were a few spontaneous dances of joy and excitement!!  I recall one such incident after finding out that there really was such a thing as an “express promenade.”  For all of you pathetic peasants (like me) who have no idea what that is, allow  me to educate you.  An express promenade is a fancy way of saying that the thingamajig you walk on, moves.  Like an escalator, but without the stairs!  We spotted said express walkything and all we did was look at one another and talk about how we thought it only existed in movies.  To prove that it doesn’t, I have included a lovely snapshot of Mattea and Josiah, freaking out about this thing that could have been a goldmine, from the look in their eyes.

After the excitement of standing on moving floors and finding where we needed to be, we found this little store with some super French name that we couldn’t pronounce, nor can I remember it at the moment.  All we knew was that it had the word, “pain”, in it.  We thought it didn’t sound like a super comfy place to eat, but it looked like it had the best food, so we ignored our pain receptors and walked in.  Surprisingly, the only time it hurt was when they had to pry the money out of my tight fists!  The nice thing was that they had fresh salads, grapes, and orange juice, (all of which I am a big fan), so I was quite contented to purchase and then munch on the contents of the plastic shopping bag.

The wonderful thing about traveling with special people in your life is that fantastically funny things happen to said special people.  Like when Josiah was sitting at the table, eating his lunch and resembling some type of ape that I once saw on Animal Planet, and then he went to take a drink of his apple juice.  Unfortunately for him, there was a short between his brain, mouth, and whatever else it takes to hold a glass bottle up to your lips.  Completely unexpectedly, Josiah choked/coughed/spazzed out, and managed to spray the contents of his apple juice bottle ALL over his shirt, pants, chin, and hand.  Although it was quite a sticky mess, I felt the need to document any and all such memorable experiences for everyone to giggle at, so observe the pictures below.

As I type this, we are currently flying by Iceland; normally, I would be more excited about it, except for the fact that the little screen that tells me where we are is rather zoomed out so that it looks like we’re a lot closer than in actuality.  The plane didn’t have a full booking, so quite a number of seats are empty tonight and it’s rather nice to have the extra breathing room.  Josiah, Mattea and I are all next to each other in the middle seats and although there was an older Asian gentleman next to me originally, I do believe he got annoyed with the fact that I tend to make sarcastic comments and then laugh to myself maniacally.  Or, it’s quite possible he thought he’d been assigned a seat with a five year old, because Josiah quite enjoyed playing with all of the available buttons.  First it was the lights, then the vents, then the TVs (which are installed in the back of each seat), and then back to the lights.  Whatever the reason for leaving, the quiet Asian man ended up switching to some empty seat behind me, which is a luxury because it leaves me room to curl up like a tired puppy dog and pretend I’m sleeping.

We were served dinner, which was actually palatable!  I had chicken and it came with some kind of Asian rice, (I’m sure the man behind me super duper appreciated it), and then there was fresh salad and a roll and a brownie.  It took about five minutes for the three of us to scarf down what was in front of us and then wonder if the aisle next to us was going to eat theirs or not.  It also made us wonder if normal human beings really exist on such meager amounts of sustenance and if so, we’re rather glad we’re not quite normal human beings.    Speaking of which, I’m getting rather hungry again.  Thank God for sweet mothers who buy you granola bars!!  (Love you, mom!)

With the insanely cool TVs, you get to pick a movie and watch it.  (It’s genius, I know.)  And guess where the headphone jack is?!  In the arm rest!!  What a thought!  What an imagination this architect must have had!  *insert late night sarcastic applause here*  Ooookay, I just looked and although it feels like eleven at night, apparently it’s only eight forty-five in New York.  In Frankfurt, it’s two forty-five in the morning though, so I guess I’ve pretty much adjusted to the time change ;).  Back to the TVs; Josiah is watching “Looper” next to me and it’s reminding me of when I stayed up super late watching it with Christina and we wondered if the director was stoned or if we were just tripping.  Looking at it now, I’d say the director might have been less stoned and more on LSD.  (Although I will admit, I quite enjoyed the movie with its plot and fantastic Joseph Gordon-Levitt as lead actor.)

For lack of anything better to do, I shall continue writing.  Not that I have much to say, but I’m making myself laugh at how incredibly clever I am at humor.  I should be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon sometime!  But only after sleep deprivation and lots of plane rides.  Anyway, we’re halfway to Germany right now, so it looks like we should be getting there around one in the morning, New York time.  It’ll be around seven in the morning here in Germany.  Hehe this is rather neat!  You’ve probably figured it out, but we’ll be six hours ahead of all y’all back home.  Right, well I’ve digressed, so I shall sign off and maybe try and make myself a little more comfy.  Stay tuned!