Winter wonderland!!

On Sunday morning at 4am Dad, Mom and I left for the airport for the second time. My first flight on Saturday morning was cancelled, so I was rescheduled for a new flight. The man  at the ticket counter apparently had god-like abilities, because he booked my flight from Atlanta to Brussels as first class! Needless to say, I was one happy camper!

My flight to Atlanta was amazing. I got a window emergency exit seat, which is the next best thing to first class. I slept until we were almost all of the way through Oklahoma, woke up, read a couple of chapters from my book, and then fell asleep again. I was probably only awake for an hour of the flight.

My next flight was nine hours and went directly to Brussels. It left a little late, but other than that there were no problems. First class was AMAZING! The biggest difference was the food, who would have thought airlines would serve filet mignon?? I watched a few movies, and pretty much didn’t sleep at all since I slept basically my whole first flight, but that was okay because it wasn’t like I was sitting uncomfortable in coach.

We were a little late when we landed, and then we had to walk outside in the snow to a bus to be taken to the terminal. It was cold, but because it wasn’t raining or anything, it wasn’t too unbearable. My main concern was slipping on the ice. (ps. So far its, Alison- 4, Ice- 0 :)) Once we made it through customs, I waited for an hour and a half to get my bags. I always thought Oakland was the slowest airport ever, but after that fiasco I will never complain again.

Once I met up with Tim from the CYS I am working at, we went to our Business Flats, dropped off my bags, and then went to work, totally exhausted. I met all of the kids and the staff we will be working with. Everyone seems really friendly and helpful, so that’s always exciting. Apparently we are on the smallest base in the world. It is only as big as one city block. They say its four buildings, but its really two buildings, but don’t tell them! We spent all say Monday going over training, which was not the best idea when I hadn’t slept a whole night in about two days. I was doing everything I could to keep my eyes open. That night I fought with all my might to make it until 8pm, and did. Since there was a snow delay on Tuesday, I was able to sleep 12 hours! It was amazing!

Tuesday was just more training. Tuesday night after work we went to the grocery store. After basically miming our questions for five minutes to one of the employees there, he told us he spoke English, and that everyone that works there has to speak English, dutch and French. Pretty impressive!

Wednesday we took the bus to work, and made it, so that was a win in itself! There wasn’t a snow delay, but we really didn’t have that many kids. We spent the beginning of the morning training, and then we watched a movie, made candy, made Christmas ornaments, played rock band, and one of my teens painted my nails. Talk about a hard day at work! Tonight we are just hanging out in the apartment and watching some football. I am packing for this weekend too. I will be spending Christmas in Stuttgart and we are leaving right after work tomorrow. Im really excited!! In case I cant post before then, I hope everyone has a merry christmas!! I miss you all!

 Love,

Al