See You In Five Months! Hopefully....

Here I am sitting at the airport, getting ready to board my plane in about half an hour. My bags are checked, my electronics are charging, and I'm trying to decide if I should use the restroom before boarding the plane. On typing that, I believe the last one is a good idea.

You might think this is an artsy picture looking out over the runway and my future.
It's actually a sneaky picture of the man sleeping in the corner.

The question on everyone's mind: how are we planning on moving all this stuff??
Spoiler Alert: It worked out, kind of.

It's so strange to think that while many of my peers are walking to and from classes, I am on my way to Kiev, Ukraine. I never thought I would end up going to Ukraine; it's not exactly the ultimate vacation destination, but it feels right to be going. (Side note: not to be annoying, but it is just Ukraine, not THE Ukraine. It's a country just like France or Russia.) We will first fly to Detroit where we will stop to have a technical checkup. After that we'll be headed to Amsterdam where we have an hour layover. From Salt Lake to Amsterdam it's a twelve hour flight. Our last leg of the journey is a three hour flight to Kiev, Ukraine.

Quite cozy in the back seat

As you can see, all of us traveling teachers have tons of baggage!! There wasn't any space in my roommate's little sedan, so I got to share my luxurious back seat with the weight of my packing decisions. But Kristina, you say, why did you bring so much stuff? Surely you don't really need your entire closet? Not to worry, one of each of our three bags is completely filled with teaching supplies.

I'm hoping these kids appreciate me hauling all this stuff

STOP!! Everything you have previously read is a lie. Well, sort of. As I was furiously typing away at the gate, my traveling buddies and I were called up to the desk where the gate agent was. We showed our passports and our boarding passes and then were asked for our visas....which we don't have. After numerous phone calls to ILP and awkward negotiations with an incredibly stubborn gate lady, we were told that we would not be boarding the plane. So that was uncomfortable. We met up with the other three girls in our group (making six of us) and headed back down to the front ticket office to see if we could get things sorted out. More phone calls, more awkward negotiations, but finally we were booked for a flight that leaves today at 5pm. We will be flying into Paris and then hopefully on to Kiev. We are all crossing our fingers that we will be able to get on planes and navigate the dauntingly large Paris airport, but we know that at least one person flying out of another airport made it to Kiev earlier today, so my hopes are high. It's all part of the adventure, right? And maybe I can put a bit of my rudimentary French to use, namely to help us get to where we need to go. We only have an hour to get to our next flight in the Paris airport, so it'll be a squeeze, but with six girls I'm sure we'll figure it our, right? Right.


We are sad and dejected

We are falsely happy, but it's all okay because of the airline person in the corner. 

So now we are on our way once again. We have successfully passed through security and we are waiting at the gate. Our bags are on board, our boarding passes are in our hands, and we have been reassured by a personal visit from one of the directors that we will reach our destination safely and without issue. So here's to the world of travel and the problems that occur, but ultimately to the adventure that makes it all worth it!


Those are not peace signs. Rather they are symbols of our readiness
 for round two of our attempt to board an airplane!