We all got up about 3:30 this morning to get ready to leave our Kosovo home, Hotel Rozafa. We got to take a bus to Pristina on the new highway. The team was pretty quiet and slept most of the way to the airport. Some of the students stayed up all night or decided not to sleep much, so they were wired at 4:30 when we left, but they were gone a few minutes later. Don't worry, the leaders stayed awake and chatted since these would be some of the last moments we would have with Berat. We saw lots of stray dogs, they call them homeless dogs. We even saw a HUGE dog walking around. Berat told us they call them mountain dogs and that they use them as sheep dogs. On the new highway there was even a cut out of a police car to cause people to slow down; we were all tricked.
Check in went fairly easy at the airport. Lena had problems going through the metal detector. She got frustrated because it went off on her so she backed up and tried it again. It went off again. This time the security guy said, "You have to take your book bag off your back." She tried to hand it to him through the metal detector! That's what happens when we get up before we should. A few minutes later, we were all sitting calmly at the gate. The gate was packed. Every seat was full and people were standing and sitting on the floor. Then we saw Jared and Cam kick something across the floor. I looked and it was a huge cockroach. Cam almost squished it but couldn't bring herself to kill it. Instead, she kicked it across the floor and sat back down. Jared then thought it would be fun to kick it at Cam again. If I'm telling a story it must have something memorable about it, so I'm sure you can guess what happened. We all heard a crunch as it slid right under Cam's rump! We all turned and knew the inevitable had happened. The death had finally come to Fredrick, the cockroach, however it had gotten all over the back of Cam's shorts. We all laughed and then saw the sad roach had transferred all his guts to Cam's shorts and we felt bad since it would be a long day of traveling. Emily came to the rescue and used a tide to go pen to get the stain out though.
That flight to Vienna was pretty uneventful other than the view of the Alps.
We had to put on our running shoes when we got to Vienna. First of all, their airport is not laid out in a friendly fashion. We walked up and down winding halls, stairs, and common areas. It turned out to be almost a mile or more to the gate. Secondly, all of us had to get new boarding passes and even make it through a passport and a security check, so walking fast was a necessity. The highlight stories of this stop happened at the security check. Some of the carry-ons were too heavy so the students rearranged the weight. However, when Evan tried to do it they were not okay with him just moving things from one bag to another. It seems like it matters more about the size of the bag than the weight. I would think it would be fine as long as the bag fits in the overhead bin. I do not really think 2 kilos over the weight is going to make the compartment collapse. After much frustration, he had to pay to carry the extra weight. The gate was was extremely small so we were pretty crammed for a little while before we boarded. That 9ish hour long flight to DC was good and we didn't have any crying babies the entire way. Morgan and Evan were in front of us and Sami and Jared were behind us. It was one of those huge planes with three rows again so most everyone else was spread out. I think everyone at least watched one of the movies (The Vow, The Devil Wears Prada, Hugo, The Iron Lady...) We had time to watch about three movies. Some people read, talked and slept too. Our first meal was good but the second one was subpar and I made Jeremy taste everything first to let me know if it was worth my time. Nothing was, so I ate a roll and my peanuts from my own stash of food. I loved my window seat and was able to see some amazing sites during our flight. I think I had a window seat on every plane except for one and it was the one that we had to change because our original flight out of Atlanta was canceled. We passed over many countries in Europe. One time I looked out the window and we were over Ireland. Another time, I saw windmills and another time I saw boats in the English Channel.
DC was the real fun. We got to go through customs, baggage claim, baggage check, security check, and wait for hours before our flight. The line for customs was pretty long but it was enjoyable. We winded around and around while talking to the leaders of another large group. The customs guy asked how Jeremy and I knew each other, which was pretty interesting, but Jeremy said, "We are married, so we know each other pretty intimately!" Only one bag was missing from baggage claim, so that was another successful event. The security check was the most frustrating. We stood in line for almost an hour and only moved a tiny bit every other minute. Jenna said, "Hey puppy!" to the drug dog and he jumped on her. Jared (her twin) had a witty comment back like, "Now you did it." Needless to say both of them had to step out of line. They found out the residue from an orange she had in her bag a few days ago was what the dog was smelling. They finally got back in line and weren't too far behind everyone else since we were moving at a snails pace anyway. Nearing the final destination, a guy pulled me out of line and took a sample of my hand to see if I had any chemicals on it, then back in the line I got. At the scanner, I had to stand on the two feet and put my hands above my head. The lady told me I could sing a song if I wanted. I told her I was good and laughed. She then said, "You are supposed to be serious at a security check." I automatically straightened up and obeyed. Later on, the students said she did the same thing to them, but they sang. Apparently, she was just trying to have fun on the job and I thought I was in trouble! Onward we went to our gate and to make sure we had the right gate we asked this guy. He said, "Oh you are at B gate. There's this really good burger place called Five Guys. You guys need to go there. You will love it." We all laughed and said, "Don't worry, we've had Five Guys on our mind for the past few days." Since we hadn't had the meat we are used to in a while, we all planned on eating lots of the things we missed. After much walking, we made it to the gate and stood in line to get our boarding passes. It took quite a while to get all of us through but we all trickled in at different times due to the security check line. When Jeremy and I got up to the lady, we could tell something was wrong because it was taking the lady 10 times as long to get ours. She finally told us that my ticket was voided. Sigh.... It finally got worked out after she called some people. All of us immediately went to eat. The rest of the day we sat at the gate, slept, played cards, talked, looked at pictures, called people, walked around, ate ice cream/pretzels and drank smoothies/coffee. After our many hour layover, we finally were able to board for our 2 hour flight to Atlanta. This plane was one of the connector ones so it was tiny and probably only held 60 people, so we were the majority. There was at least one of us in every section. Some people sat with others and had some good conversations about our trip, while other people slept. It was 10-12 pm Georgia time, but it was 4-6 am Kosovo time and we were all past the point of exhaustion. Jeremy and I both slept the entire time; we even went to sleep before takeoff. We made it safely and touched down in Atlanta around 12. We were welcomed at baggage claim with cheering and signs. It was such an amazing sight to see all the parents and families embrace their children after three weeks.
Ben's dad took me and Jeremy back to the d-house to get our car. Some of the team planned to go to Steak and Shake once we got back, but we ended up going home because I kept falling asleep. We got home and our mailbox and garage were decorated with streamers and we had a welcome home sign from Beth and the Dillards.
The biggest thing about coming home is all the cleaning and unpacking that we have to do once we are back. I'm a little crazy about our house being clean, so I immediately start unpacking once I'm back from a trip. This time, I was really good about it and didn't start stressing out about a messy house because I knew it would take a long time to wash 3 weeks worth of clothes. Yes, we had to wash everything because it all STUNK!!! I think what made it better was that we got to come home and our house was pretty much like we left it thanks to Gardner!!! He stayed with Maverick while we were gone. Maverick felt like he was on vacation too. He got to go swimming, for car rides, and even got to spend the night in new houses while we were gone! Since we've been back we've done 10+ loads of laundry and still aren't done. In the midst of the laundry and cleaning, I had to go see my family and spent the afternoon swimming with my sweet sisters and nieces/nephews. My mom's retina detached this weekend and hasn't been able to see out of her right eye so going to see my parents was one of the first things I did when I woke up.
I'm definitely thankful for all the things I learned on this trip and for the memories made. I'd go again in a heartbeat (after I get some peanut butter to take with me). Thanks for all those who followed us along for the journey.
Watch this video one of the Kosovars made of the camp.
I'll post more pictures and videos when I have a little more time in a few weeks after SuperWOW.
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