almost made it

Well, I almost made it to Africa today.

After getting up at 6:30am (Eastern Standard Time), we headed for Dulles International Airport in Northern Virginia, by way of Arlington, VA.  Reason: to eat at Noodles and Company with the one and only Mary Elaine Jenkins).  Eventually, we made it to the airport, got through check-in and security.  I boarded my flight and it left the gate at precisely 6:02pm.  Awake time to date: 11.5 hours.

My flight was actually pretty enjoyable.  I was seated in United's Economy Plus section, which afforded me a few extra inches of much-needed leg room.  I had an aisle seat with no one to my left so I was able to spread out.  The meal I had was a surprisingly tasty chicken dish with a tomato-based vegetable ragout and tender roasted potatoes.  Not at all bad for mass-produced airline food.

The flight continued on without any issues, aside from me not sleeping much.  We landed safely in Brussels, Belgium at 7:25am local time.  Awake time to date: ~19 hours.

Once in Belgium, I wandered around the terminal a bit and eventually found Stacia.  Stacia and I share a mutual friend (Marissa Kennedy) but have never actually met until this morning.  We had breakfast together and sat around the airport cafe for a while since our flight was not leaving until 2pm.  Once it got closer to 2, we headed for the gate, got checked in and waited some more.  Finally, we took a bus to a different terminal where we met up with a bunch of other Mercy Shippers.  After chatting for a bit, we boarded our flight.  I was happy with my seat because there was no one sitting immediately around me--the flight was not very full. After waiting and waiting and waiting (about an hour in all), we found out the flight was CANCELLED--with no explanation as to why.  We all disembarked the plane to the tarmac, where we caught buses back to the main terminal.  Awake time to date: ~26.5 hours.

Next we all rallied at the Brussels Airlines sales and ticketing counter waiting to find out what would happen next.  Eventually, we found out that the whole flight would be booked in the local Holiday Inn, we'd get free dinner and breakfast, and (supposedly) 600 euros when we check back in on Saturday morning.  So...we all boarded another bus which dropped us off at the hotel.  Surprisingly, it is a very nice Holiday Inn--very modern and IKEA-esque.  I lounged for a little bit and then got a drink with my roommate for the night: another Mercy Shipper, a dentist from Newcastle, England.  Then we had a 7 o'clock dinner with everyone else.  Awake time to date: ~30.5 hours.

Eventually, we turned out the lights at about 10:30pm...total awake time approximately ~35 hours.   Right now we are getting ready to go to breakfast and then back to the airport where we will supposedly leave this afternoon.  It was actually quite nice getting to spend the night here in Brussels because A) we had a chance to get to know one another and B) it was great getting caught up with the time difference.  God works in mysterious ways, no?