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. :)