on rescheduled flights, having a traveling buddy, and coming home after 6 months.

home.
i'm home.
it feel quite weird to say.
i arrived back on the East coast on Saturday at 4:40pm. (i landed in Pennsylvania and got back to Maryland around 6pm.)

i had quite the experience with American Airlines and their delayed/cancelled flights (and them screwing up my schedule twice in two days). i was quite frustrated/exhausted, but so happy to get home, even if it was a day later than i had originally planned.

here's what happened:

my flight from Kona to LA was delayed for 3 hours on Thursday night (take-off was midnight instead of 9pm) and i was going to miss my other two flights.
when i found this out, i was exhausted, emotional, missing my friends who already left, dealing with a headache and stuffy nose...and hungry. a bad combination, for sure. i was a mess.
when i found out the new flight time, i immediately texted David (we were scheduled to be on the same flight from Kona to LA), and told him our flight was delayed. (our flight schedules after the flight to LA were completely different, but we live only 2 hours away from each other and my parents knew that i was emotional and exhausted. they said they could pick me up from Harrisburg airport instead of Baltimore if David was able to get me on the same flights as him. they wanted me to travel home with someone.)

i thought i should get something to eat because my empty stomach was making me even more emotional (i missed breakfast to say goodbye to friends), so i went down to the lunch line and ran into David. i don't even remember what i said about the delayed flight, but i probably sounded ridiculous.
 David, being the amazing man he is, looked at me, told me to calm down, prayed with me, and told me he was going to miss his other flights too. he said he would call the airline right away and get it figured out.

true to his word, he went to a table, set down his lunch, and called American Airlines.
he was on the phone for close to 30 minutes.

goodness, i don't know what i would've done without him.

after 30 minutes of trying to get the schedule straightened out, David got us on the same flights home, but we wouldn't be flying out until Friday evening (instead of Thursday), and we'd get home late Saturday afternoon (instead of Friday). at that point, i didn't even care. i'd get home eventually. i just wanted to be home before church on Sunday. :)

i texted my mom and let her know that i'd be flying the whole way home with David and we'd be flying to Harrisburg airport, but we wouldn't be leaving Hawaii until the next day.

cue the start of one of the longest days ever. i was ready to leave on Thursday, but couldn't until Friday. it meant another day of tearful goodbyes, hot Hawaii weather, sun (i left my sunscreen in Athens...oops), and being bored out of my mind. (it probably wasn't as bad as i'm making it sound, but whatever.)

then suddenly it was Friday evening, and Christine, Molly, David and i were on our way to Kona airport, and we were finally on our way home!

i said this so many times, but i don't know what i would've done without David! he was such a blessing...and my mom was very grateful that he "rescued the damsel in distress". haha. :) i was just happy to go home and have someone to travel with.

so i arrived in Harrisburg with David on Saturday afternoon, and i was super excited to finally be back in the same time zone as my family. :) they picked me up at the airport, got my luggage, and took me to Chick-Fil-A (per my request...it had been over 6 months since i've had delicious Chick-Fil-A chicken strips and sweet tea. i was craving CFA something fierce). then we came home!

driving back the farm lane towards our house was such a weird feeling. suddenly, it hit me. i was home. i wasn't with my PhotogenX family anymore. i was with my blood family. a wave of sadness hit me as i realized that i may never see some of my PhotogenX family members again, but it was quickly overtaken with the excitement of my siblings and parents at my being home after six months. YWAM didn't prepare me for all the thoughts and feelings racing through my head and heart. re-adjusting to home is going to be hard, but i'm not alone. the Lord will give me strength. His joy will be my strength.

back in kona.

hey y'all! it's been quite a few weeks since i've posted. so sorry about that. my life has been terribly crazy the past month and a half.

after two months of life in Thessaloniki, i left my Thessaloniki home to go to Athens for 10 days. i felt like i was leaving my heart in Thessaloniki. and i did. those people mean more to me than i could describe. i love that place so much and will definitely be going back someday.

after a 6 hour train ride to get there, we spent 10 days (at a hotel with Air Conditioning!) in Athens. it was quite a different environment from Thessaloniki. we rode the metro/train everywhere. made friends. and watched God work everything out.

i stood on Mars Hill, where Paul preached the sermon to the Athenians.

i went to Corinth one day. it was beautiful.

(this is me at Corinth.)

the trip back to hawaii was quite the ordeal. it all started when someone checked our itinerary, and found that our flight left on September 12th, NOT the 11th (we had spent the last 2 months thinking we were leaving on the 11th). SO, our hotel was only booked until the 11th. and we gave all our money away on the 10th, because we weren't going to need it anymore. and we had already packed. i was so ready to head back to Kona.

so we found out that our flight was on the 12th...we had no money for food, and no hotel (Jesus provided for the hotel, we were able to keep one of the rooms for an extra 40-ish euro when it should've been about 500 euro). we moved all our stuff into the one room, and had about 24 hours before we were going to the airport. i spent the day listening to music and watching movies. it was the longest day ever.

we had to check out of the hotel at midnight, so a bus picked us up and took us to the airport to wait for our 6am flight. around 3:30am, we went to check in. we got in line and a lady came up to us and told us our flight from Athens to Frankfurt had been delayed for 6 hours. take-off wasn't until noon (that meant we would miss our other two connecting flights, from Frankfurt to LA and from LA to Kona). Campbell and Jillian went over to the service desk, came and told us that we were having to spend the night in Frankfurt, Germany. then fly from Frankfurt to LA.

we spent 12 hours in Athens airport (thank goodness they had wi-fi), and finally got to Frankfurt. before we landed, an announcement came over the loudspeaker. all passengers going to Kona, Hawaii had been rebooked. instead of spending the night in Frankfurt, we would be immediately flying to Washington DC, from DC to San Francisco, then to Kona. i was so happy we weren't spending the night in Frankfurt.

our other flights went smoothly, and we got through customs in DC. when we got to San Fran, we wanted to surprise teams Egypt and Uganda because we were going to be on the same flight as them. :) we went up the escalator, heard someone scream "GREECEEEEE", and a mob of them rushed over to us. it was the best surprise ever. so much hugging and happy squeals.

the 9 hour layover in San Francisco flew by and we arrived back in Hawaii on thursday (the 13th) at 11:30am. after a horrible time with checking and rechecking our luggage, we were so happy to find that it arrived with us. :)

it feels so good to be back on campus. i need to blog photos from Corinth and Athens, but my body got sick so i would rest. graduation is on wednesday. i fly home this thursday and arrive on friday. i'm pretty sure i'll have more time to blog when i get home. :)