...All liquids, gels and creams must be in 3 oz bottles. All 3 oz. bottles must be placed...

And so the travels have begun! :D (incase i haven't already bombarded my blog with smileys, most likely in an effort not to scare people off in the first few blogs, i'd like to make a disclaimer right now. I have a horrible habit of inserting smiley's at every possible opportunity, sometimes multiple times a sentence [ and when joint with my run-on sentences... that can be a lot of smileys :D :D ] Just thought i'd warn you before hand). Anyways, back to traveling..

Charlotte-ATL-MIA

Yesterday around four my parents and I jumped in my car and drove from our home to Atlanta, which should have taken only four hours, but with my dads love of circling in parking lots, my mom's indecision, and my stubborness over the issue of eating dinner at 7- mid trip instead of at 9- when we should have arrived in Atlanta... we ended up arriving at 11:00. After finding a hotel, making some last minute calls to my airline (hopefully my last for a long while) and rearranging my bags.. i finally made it to bed by 12:30.

At four the wake up call came and two hours later i was saying good-bye to my parents at the security check point. I'm going to miss them a bunch :( :/ (I love you two!). Since then I flew from ATL to MIA, where i am now waiting for my next flight. So far the lay-over is going fast, i've only got five more hours to go then i'm on my way to Bogota, Columbia. By the way, they play the same automated messages over the loud speaker over and over again. i may have them memorized before the day is out.

I'll keep you guys updated :D :D

Ps. I'M GOING TO ARGENTINA :D :D :D !!!

Pps. To all of you who would not believe me when i said that Mendoza is about as far from the equator as Charlotte, Mendoza is -32 degree and Charlotte is 35 degrees.

Bogota, Colombia

After meeting some very friendly people in the MIA-BOG gate my eight hour layover finally ended and I boarded my plane. (I wasn’t exaggerating when I said there would be many run on sentences… I warned you..) We waited at the gate for what seemed like ages, but it was all worth it! As the plane took flight I felt a rush like I’ve never had in an airplane, feeling the finality of my leaving America, in that very moment when we took to the air. (or perhaps the rush was because the plane lifted in quite an intense angle, one I’m really not used. It felt like the tail would bottom out before we got high enough.) But either way it was a wonderful moment and all the waiting I’ve been doing was completely worth it. On the plane I sat in front of a decidedly New Yorker. He not only was wearing a N1-H1?… what ever… mask (to keep from getting those Hispanic diseases, eh? Hahahaha) and his first comment to the guy who sat next to him was ‘Are you and English speaker? Or am I the only one?’ Haha, the man did in fact speak English, Australian to be exact. The lady who sat next to me was Hispanic and spoke no English, but was still a very sweet lady. And she didn’t monopolize the arm rest like the man sitting next to me on my ATL-MIA flight. I was quite thankful for someone who would share.

Ever since entering the BOG (Colombia) gate I’ve felt welcomed, even a sense of family. As tired as I am I’m really enjoying this trip. Plus, my layover in Colombia is only Two and a half hours and the flight is about the same. I’m almost three quarters of the way there :D (seventy percent to be exact.) Soon I’ll be in Argentina. Soon I’ll be at ywam. Soon I’ll be with the people I’m going to spend a good chunk of my life with.

Many times in the past few days I’ve wondered if this was really where the Lord is leading me. I kept doubting myself and the plan He has for me. Well right now I’m going to come in agreement with the Lord, He put this desire in my heart and I can’t see myself following any path besides this one. The Lord is so good and I love going on the adventures He plans for each and everyone of us. This is going to be great!!

Just a side note, my wisdom teeth have been bothering me for the past two years, but nothing serious enough to get them removed just yet. Except for occasional grinding of my teeth while I was sleeping I didn’t even know they were there.. Considering they are all four impacted. Well in the past day of traveling I’ve felt my teeth shift and now my bit is crooked. I’m trying hard to not grind my teeth during the day, but it happens whenever I’m not consciously thinking of it and my mouth is quite sore because of that. I know the Lord has the strength to fix my mouth without me having to go to a dentist by myself in a country where they don’t speak English. I have no intention of going that route and instead intend to pray my mouth back to normal. If you guys could join me in this I would more than grateful! Thank you so much!

Santiago, Chile

Well guys, i haven't run into any problems yet. We had a delay on the last plane but luckily i had a five hour lay-over scheduled. It is certainly a grace to have long lay-overs when your traveling with many connections, in airports you have never been to and where there is a language barrier. As obnoxious as thy can be... i think i'll save myself from some gray hairs because of them.

Well there's not much to report from this airport, its simply six in the morning and in the past two days i've totaled about 6 hours of sleep. Hence, i need something to do with myself so i dont fall asleep at the gate leaving my luggage as fair game to anyone who wants it. Basically what all of that equates to though... is that everything i'm about to write is completely worthless and will probably make no sense. I'll ramble about every which thing that catches my attention and follow every odd brain pattern my easily distracted mind can follow. So really, I'd suggest you to not read any further on this blog, there will be no finality in the end of it, my pronouns will all be switched around, i may use a random large word here or there to make myself feel like i'm actually writing something worth reading. hahaha. You know, now that i look around this gate (which isn't even my gate, mine is blocked off right now) there are many people sleeping all by themselves. Oh well, i still won't participate.

Oh i think the hallway to my gate finally opened, oh good. And yet, i'm too lazy to get up. (nothings changed, right? or as my mom would put it 'What's new?') .....so i'm really not sure how long i'm aloud to make these posts. If they tell me after i've typed it all out that its too long, i'm going to be... well... i guess i wont be mad, so i dont know why i said anything about it at all. Oh, and another random thought for all those Ted Dekker fans... when i was waiting in the atlanta airport there was a trailer for his new book on the tv at the gates. Random, eh?

So another random thought, hiking packs filled with (mostly) clothes, some books, and other random none breakable essentials make great back rests for when your sitting on the floor. Except you still have nothing to cushion under you and that is quite a downfall. I could just wait in the seating area like i was five minutes ago. However, five minutes ago there was a crowd of people waiting by the glass sliding doors the lead to my gate, i had my back to them because i was sitting in the chairs. When i turned around they were all gone so i assumed the doors were opened. Now when i look through the doors ( every few gates are sectioned off by sliding glass doors down this [extremely] long hallway.) Now when i went to try the doors they were locked.. but there is now a crowd of people, not in the section right next to me but the next section down. They werent there when i arrived an hour ago. I'm quite confused. ....hehe, i should be laughing about this but someone is locked in on the other side of the doors.. i really shouldn't be laughing. but considering my extreme lack of sleep and the hour that it is, i'm going to have some grace for myself. Besides, i dont think she's by herself.... Anyways (i use that word a lot) I'm not going to worry about it just yet, I've still got an hour and fifteen minutes till boarding and im just down the hallway.

For your sake i truly hope you're not still reading this. You must really be quite bored to be Still be interested. (sorry to offend, perhaps you're simply a truly kindhearted person who wanted to suffer through my last layover with me. hahaha, thats an exaggeration. i'm not suffering. i'm quite enjoying myself actually. except for the lack of food in this terminal. I'm really quite hungry right now but there is nothing to eat but candy and cookies. And i dont think theres food on this next plane. ugh now i'm not so content, thinking about that prospect. But oh well. i'm on my way to argentina and its not like i'm starving. i'm only hungry. hehe.. it may be interesting to see me carrying my forty lb of carry-on and dragging my two fifty (exactly fifty, i might add) lb suitcases on no sleep and little food. I'll probably trip once or twice. haha, i suppose thats what i get for not packing more food.

ok there must be another way around. i keep seeing random people waling around the hallway, but they're not going through this door. And the attendant guy told me they would open it before the flight. ugh. indecision. perhaps i'll go pester them again.. like a true american. (heh, i hope you heard the sarcasm in that. ) ...hehe, person numero dos to be stuck inside the hallway. oh but i really shouldn't laugh about her.. she genuinely looked worried and went running in the opposite direction. I hope she doesn't miss a connecting flight.