The Journey Begins

5/11

Couldn't have been a more beautiful sight taking off from the Newport News airport and watching the sunset over the water out of the airplane window. A perfect start to a great adventure. Flights so far have been easy.

I am now sitting in the Amsterdam airport waiting for my flight to Glasgow.I love international airports. It is amazing to sit in a terminal and watch such a diverse slice of humanity pass by. In my first 10 minutes on the ground, I spoke with a Czech girl who now lives in the States and is headed home to Prague to visit her family for the first time in 3 years! Also in those first 10 minutes, while talking with the Czech woman, we helped a family figure out how to find their gate for a flight to Tehran. It's so neat to walk around and hear all different languages and accents, to see different clothes and hairstyles, and to know that behind those accents and clothes are thousands of stories so different than my own. It really is so humbling to be reminded that your story is one of billions and your culture is one of millions.

Well, I am sitting on my last plane of the day and am anxious to land down in Glasgow. and to get some COFFEE!!!! Thank goodness every culture speaks the language of coffee.

P.S.- The last time I was in an international flight, when I landed I had to speak German. So, as we landed in Amsterdam my silly brain flipped into German mode (plus Dutch is pretty much a mutant amalgamation of German and English with extra vowels). I started wondering what it would be like not to hear German and instead have everything in English. And then, since God clearly has a fantastic sense of humor, I sat next to two German-speaking women on my flight to Glasgow. Made me smile!