Halfway to the other side of the world

Well, the first blog entry I am writing from here in Belgrade.  But the adventure started while I was still back in good old Maine.  Dad drove me down on Thursday - he was much more emotional than I was.  I just don't cry at those sorts of things.  I do cry, at movies and sad songs, but never at goodbyes.  And certainly not at the start of adventures. :]
We visited Auntie Hope before heading to the jetport - that was good because I got up at 5:30 and ate breakfast then, so by 11:00 I was pretty hungry.  Got to the airport with plenty of time to spare - Daddy wanted to sit with me until my plane left and I had to explain to him that when the sign said "Ticketed passengers only beyond this point" it meant that I could go but he couldn't.  So sentimental - I wish I had more of that sometimes.  In the hour before my plane left I tried to pace a bit because I knew that I would be sitting for quite a long time.  Met a group of culinary students heading to Austria who were sharing my flight from PWM to IAD - they (as everyone else whom I told) were surprised and curious to hear that I was traveling to Belgrade.  The near-unanimous reaction I got with that news was actually pretty humorous. 
I had almost a 2-hour layover in IAD, so I wandered a bit and got supper from Wendy's - my last meal on American soil for the summer.  A Baconater, small fry and chocolate Frosty - it doesn't get too much more American than fast food. 
The plane to Zurich was a gigantic 767 jet - definitely the biggest plane I've ever been on and perhaps the biggest I've ever seen.  7 seats across, and each had a personal video screen for the in-flight movies, even in Economy class.  I was seated in the middle seat of the middle section of the plane - it figures, only because I wanted to look out the window so badly. :P  If I craned my neck just right and the people on either side of me were in the right position, I could kind of see out of both windows, and at one point I could see the full moon over the Atlantic on one side and a gorgeous colorful sunset on the other.  That was pretty cool.  Watched Invictus for the first part of the flight, but my time might have been better spent trying to sleep - I wasn't very impressed with it.  Superb acting can only improve a mediocre storyline by so much, and the thick South African accents didn't make watching it in a noisy plane any easier.  :P  We had dinner around 8pm, EST - that's 2am in Belgrade.  Chicken & spaghetti sauce, half-cooked instant rice, a few pieces of warm lettuce and a mushy brownie - that's airplane food for you.  I've heard it still beats hospital food, but I don't plan on testing that theory anytime soon :P 
One of the coolest features of the personal video screen was the "map" option which allowed me to see the plane's location and progress as well as its altitude, speed, and temperature outside in Imperial and SI units - I halfheartedly tried to get a feel for the conversions, especially between Celcius and Farenheit and kolometers to miles.  I'm going to need them :P
At 3am (Belgrade time - I switched for good once the plane took off so I would have a better idea of how much I needed to sleep ;])  I got up to use the lavatory and caught a glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean out the window - so vast and dark and beautiful.  It was pretty breathtaking.  I tried to sleep after that, but just in case you're wondering, airplane seats are NOT comfortable and the men on either side of me meant that I tried very hard to stay within my own seat space, which further reduced the comfort level.  Considering the conditions, I'm proud of myself for getting 2-3 hours of sleep.
At 6:50am we began flying over France and I couldn't take it anymore.  I moved across the aisle to where a middle-aged woman was sitting next to the window with an empty seat beside her.  I asked, rather sheepishly, "Are you - um - looking out the window?"  When she shook her head, I continued, "Could I - I mean, would you mind if - if I did?"  She smiled a somewhat condescending smile and moved over so that I could occupy the coveted seat.  I immediately threw up the blind which she had closed and spent the remaining hour of the flight with my nose glued to the window, eagerly taking in the scenery below.  Northern France is entirely composed of cultivated land - a patchwork quilt of greens and browns, divided by highways and lanes.  Here and there I saw small forests - I thought of Robin Hood (although that's set in England - oh well).  I also imagined Medieval times and wondered how many of the lands I was seeing were once farmed by serfs and ruled by lords.  Then it got cloudy and broke my reverie.  The woman next to me, observing my behavior, inquired, "Is this your first time in Europe?"  When I replied in the affirmative, she asked, "Have you ever flown before?"  I laughed a little and told her that I had, although admittedly not much.  I continued straining to see what I could of the ground, then when we were crossing into Switzerland it occured to me that the Alps might be higher than the clouds; sure enough, when I looked across the expanse of white I could see the peaks of several mountains breaking the flatness, as white as the clouds themselves. 
Once we landed in Switzerland, I deplaned (what a stupid word.  Do I ever decar or debus?  Why deplane?  Am I not already on de plane? :D) and began to wander.  Most of the signs were still in English although there was quite a bit of German mixed in now.  It almost made me wish I had studied German instead of Russian this year, but then of course I would not have been taking this trip.  I can say that Serbia is on the way to Russia - there is no way that I can claim that Serbia is on the way to Germany from the USA. :]  The Zurich airport was strangely empty, although this was probably because it was 8am on a Friday.  More passengers did begin arriving after a while. 
So, more about the Zurich airport later - and it was quite an experience.  But now, I go to a Belgrade club.  For my cultural enrichment only, I promise.  I'll be good, Mommy.  ;]

Almost There

So, it's my last full day in the United States for more than two months and I've planned my time so well that I really have nothing to do.  I finally finished unpacking, reorganizing, and cleaning my room - or at least tired of it.  I packed last night, said goodbye to my closest Brewer friends and went in to school today to get one last run in on the zipline and tell my teachers about my amazing freshman year at Princeton.

So now I sit alone in my (fortunately) cool empty house, trying to take in the things that are so familiar to me but that I won't be seeing again for a while.  I wonder - should I try to pack today with things American?  How different is it really going to be over there?  What does jetlag feel like and is it really going to take me six days to adjust? (I hope not - I'm only in Serbia for seven :P).  What am I going to miss most about my country?  And other such questions that I will be sure to note the answers to in this blog.  I wonder about my host family, and whether all of my connections will be made on time both between flights and at the other end of the journey.  I think (and try not to worry) about what will happen if my luggage gets lost - and whether I should try to have it sent to Nikola's house or my host family's in Russia.  Lots of things, all so new and different.  But when I start to get too nervous I remind myself that college was completely new and different, too, and I ended up liking that a great deal.  Maybe my greatest challenge to going over to Russia is my stuff - I'm so used to being the person that has everything that it's hard to adjust to only having one suitcase and one carry-on bag.  Which I managed to fit everything into - I'm pretty impressed with myself, I must admit.  I'm even bringing a few more clothes than I think I'll need, just because I can. :]

That's another thing - clothes.  Russians dress so differently from Americans, from everything I've heard.  We were told that shorts, sandals, hoodies and backpacks will mark us as distinctly American - something I'd like to avoid.  Unfortunately, that pretty much describes my wardrobe.  But I told myself that if girls had to wear dresses for hundreds of years, then I could learn how to, too, and went out and bought some sundresses for the trip.  I'm packing two pairs of jeans, three nice T-shirts, and no shorts or sandals.  Hopefully I'll survive :]

So now before I get too distracted doing other things, as is my wont, I'll sign off for today, for the last time on American soil.  For those of you reading this who care to, please pray for the safety of my travel tomorrow and Friday, and then again next Friday as I fly from Belgrade to St. Petersburg.  Also pray that all connections and meetings work smoothly and that I won't worry about what I have no control over.  I shouldn't get nervous - I've seen the LORD work everything out up to this point, from providing the money for the program to ensuring that my visa and passport get to me in time (they came this morning, if you're curious :]).  I know I'm in His hands, no matter what country I'm in, and that nothing can happen that's outside of His plan.  Somewhat on that note, if any of you have any prayer requests that you would like me to pray about while I'm in Russia, please feel free to email me at my GMail account (if you don't know the address, check FB - it's on my wall along with a link I posted to here - or ask my mom.  If you're not my FB friend and can't contact any of my friends who would know my email, then I probably don't want you emailing me anyway - sorry! :P (I really hope that doesn't end up leaving anyone out :]))


Have a great summer, everyone!  I love you!

Preparations

It seems that I've lived the last few weeks in a perpetual state of unbelief.  First I couldn't believe that I had been at Princeton for nearly an entire year.  Then I couldn't believe that it was already time to come home for the summer.  Now I can't believe that in less than 96 hours I'll be in a plane crossing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in my life, on my way to grand adventures in parts unknown.  I also can't believe the amount of STUFF that I brought back from Princeton!!  I must have acquired a lot during the year because I don't remember the van being as full as it was coming up when Mom brought me down in the fall.  That was also interesting, having about 2.5 rooms of stuff in my room at home.  Somehow I managed to make it so that I could still get to my bed and sleep, but just barely.  So obviously my first priority was to unpack, but in typical me style, unpacking also involved cleaning and reorganizing my entire room.  Thus, three days and a great deal of work later, I am almost unpacked and ready to re=pack for my adventures in Serbia and Russia.  Also typical me, I have 35 things to do today and trying to do them all at once is helping me get none of them done quickly.  For instance, I began writing this blog entry at least an hour ago with the idea that since it was my first, it would also be grand and inspiring.  But I quickly got distracted by all of the other things I need to do to get ready for Russia, so that idea has gone out the window.  So much for that.  So now I will go for a bike ride with my mother, probably the last that I will enjoy until August, and leave the rest of my musings for another time.