If it weren't for aeroplanes and their ports...

I left PDX at about 7:30 am Friday morning, after forcing myself to stay awake all night and saying my goodbyes. I expected to land in New Jersey sometime around 3:40pm and catch a flight to Copenhagen at 5:25pm. Well, if any of you know the stakes of traveling you know things can go wrong. Well things went wrong, terribly wrong. My flight to New Jersey ended up having to circle around above Ohio for an hour or so in hopes of avoiding a storm over Jersey. We ended up circling for so long we had to land in Philadelphia to refuel. Every few minutes the captain would say something like "we will be receiving an update in about 45 minutes" over the intercom. Forty-five minutes eventually became about 5 hours. Yes, almost 200 people sat on a hot, stuffy and STATIONARY airplane for 5 hours. However, I was impressed by how patient everyone was with the crew. Eventually we took off again and braved the lightning and turbulence, which there was a lot of. When we landed in Newark I discovered my flight had left a long time before...without me on it. Well, most of the airport was chaotic due to all the delays and since I've never really traveled alone before I was pretty worked up myself. A very nice lady from Camas, WA helped me re-orient myself and find the long line I had to stand in to figure out the next step to take. I ended up standing in that line for about 3 hours and I was near the beginning. It turned out the next flight to Copenhagen didn't leave until 5:25pm the next day. So, they put me up in a fairly nice hotel room and I spent the night in New Jersey. My flight to Copenhagen ended up being delayed a couple of hours, but after everything else that wait seemed like nothing. After 8 or so hours on the plane I took a 4 and a half hour train ride to Aalborg. Considering it's Sunday, I can't check in with the school until tomorrow. So, I used good old couchsurfing.com and found a couple of people to take me in for one night. One of them actually picked me up from the station and is now fussing over me (cleaning his house and feeding me and what not). It was quite a ridiculous journey, but if it weren't for aeroplanes and their ports, I wouldn't be here! Aalborg is a very cool city; quaint might be a better word.

Anyway, I made it!

Missing and loving you all