The Adventure Begins

So our flight from Winnipeg to Chicago was on a small airplane with only one flight attendant. Mark was not only a flight attendent but also a tour guide and actor. His deminstrations of the seat belt and how the oxygen mask worked was the best I've seen. In Chicago we explored the airport and had lots of fun on the moving sidewalks! We took speed walking to a whole new level. Our flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was long and filled with lots of crying babies with stinky diapers. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens and slept. Luckly our Ipods drowned out most of the noise, but sadly not the smell. We arrived in Frankfurt early and easily found our baggage and hopped on a train to Siegburg, where it wasn't as easy to recognize my cousin who picked us up.

My cousins live in Ruppichteroth, a small village near Köln. We spent most of yesterday half asleep but still enjoyed a walk and some ice cream with Elina, my cousins daughter who is the same age as us, ate some awesome food and went to bed at 8:30.

Today we explored the village by ourselves and didn't even get lost! This afternoon we are going to buy Birkenstocks and then have supper with my Onkel David and Tante Freida.

I'm all packed!!! Documents photocopied, flights confirmed and just working on typing up my itinerary while eating salsa salami. Things were a bit crazy today. Almost broke down and cried a couple times. God is amazing though and each time I cry out to him he's been answering immediately! Back to work though now. Hoping I'll be in bed in about an hour. Pray for a safe flight for Amy and I tomorrow.

Moving

So I'm up early again today because I can't sleep. Its down to 54 hours until I leave! At the moment all my stuff is packed up and ready to move back to Steinbach with my parents. Once I get there all I have to do is unpack, organize my stuff that I'm actually taking to Europe, repack and run a bunch of errands. All this in one day!

Today is a sad day though because I'll be saying goodbye to all my friends for the next 4+ months. I know I will cry! I've made some great friends at Oasis Community Church that I'm going to miss.

My next post will be from Europe! Oh My!

Eurorail Passes

The countdown is on! Less than six weeks to go before Amy and I leave. Today we got up early and bought our Eurorail passes and booked one of our trains.

I have a butt load of stuff I need to buy before I start packing. I also have to figure out what to pack. I'm also trying to decided which backpack to get. Just killed a massive spider, there are way too many spiders in my house! Here are the two bags I need to decide between.

The North Face backtrack 70L for $279.99 from Wilderness Supply

MEC Pangea 75L Travel Pack for $213 from MEC

The beginning!

So this is the start of my blog!  Right now the trip is still being planned but I've bought my tickets and paid for school so it is totally happening!

For those of you who don't know this already, I am going to Europe to do some traveling, visit family and go to Capernwray!  I'm leaving August 18 and will be home Christmas Eve.  I really want to spend Christmas with my family!  I'm traveling with Amy Wiebe, my roommate and friend.  We are going to Germany, France and Italy.  I will be attending the fall Bible School at Tauernhof  in Austria.  I might pop into Switzerland for a weekend during the school term and then after school is over I'm heading back to Germany to meet all my relatives!  I'm excited to meet all my cousins and their kids!  Should be interesting since the majority of them don't speak english!

I'll be using this blog to keep people updated and its so you all know that I'm still alive!  I'll still check my facebook and email but it wont be that regularly.  Luckily most of the hostels I'm staying in and the school has internet.  

I'm so EXCITED!!!  This is just another step that shows I'll be leaving soon.