Home!

I'm officially back in Bellingham! I got back yesterday just minutes before auditing. I had just enough time to swing by the house, drop some stuff off, and head to campus to turn in my paper. Awesome. It's good to be back, although Bellingham is much colder, and much darker than Tampa.

My time in Florida was awesome. I got the chance to meet a lot of really great people who are all very interested in providing advocacy and leadership to students within presbyterian campus ministires, colleges, and university settings. I'm walking into this all at a time where a lot is changing, so we seem to have a fresh slate to work with. I'm sure being a part of this group will cause me to learn a ton(I already have!) about the Presbyterian church as a whole, other students in this country, and how our generation can remain connected to a larger church body.

I went to Florida equipped with some great articles about our generation. It seems that more often than not, my generation is either not going to church at all, or not joining in with larger denominations(Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc.). I'm still trying to figure out what exactly this means, but I am confident that being part these larger denominations has value to offer in terms of history, tradition, and connection with other christians around the world.

I just found this on the internet:

Awesome. Sums it up nicely.

Arizona!

I'm in Arizona now, about to get on a flight to Seattle, I THINK! Awesome. On my last one, I got surprised with a stop in Atlanta. Woo hoo! That makes this my fourth plane ride in 24 hours. Oh man, that's crazy!

Delayed! Again, for some clouds and mist. Ghetto.

US Airways and other non-flying Adventures

I was going to try to tell what unfortunate chain of events has made my trip an extra day long, but, I figured a map would do it justice... here it is:


When it rains lightly in N.C., they delay things. If we did that in Seattle every time it rained, you would have to plan to be at the airport for weeks on end. It'd be crazy. I'm probably underexagerating the weather situation too. Someone used their judgement and decided it was too rainy to fly out safely, and for that I am thankful!

I met some awesome guys on the trip back. I think they'll be talked about more in the other post. They just came back from seeing some miracles be done in Florida. I'll research it more and figure out what's up.

I am posting this first, before talking about the trip on purpose. Re-pondering the trip to write it here will allow me to enjoy again the excitement about what is coming up. I don't quite have the energy tonight to do such a grand story justice. Until then, the picture of the beach a few posts below will have to work. It was a very nice beach!

Airline Check In

I think airline check in is way more complicated than it needs to be. Over the last few weeks, I've been looking at this itinerary with no identifying numbers and starting to wonder to myself if it was actually enough to get myself on a plane. I eventually got a username and password to a travel website, that showed me pretty close to the same itinerary with a few different numbers. Weird.

I figured it would be much safer if (before I traveled two hours south, got a ride to the airport, and was stranded with no way to get extra information about my flight) I called Delta to see if there was anything else I would be needing. Unfortunately, my conversation ended up with me checking in to the airport(I think), and no additional information about what I would actually need there. The website wasn't very helpful either. I found a list of things to get through security, but I've gotten pretty good at that.

All this made me realize that this is actually the first time I've flown anywhere by myself with no help. All my other flights have been group mission trip flights or family trips, and on both I have never had to worry about anything except getting on a plane at the right time with the right people. Easy!

Oh well, 22 hours of nothing now until the parade of homework begins on the plane. Woo hoo!