May 22nd - Day 1

Lift off! it's 3:15 PM on May 22nd, and we're flying out of Omaha! I'm sitting next to Karen [our group leader] to Minneapolis. After a three-hour layover, we'll be out of the country to Amsterdam. So far, so smooth! We're above the clouds now! This is my favorite part! :) We have 11 people on this flight who are part of our group. Only three of them are adults, the rest of us are college kids or younger, which I'm pretty excited about! Our current flight doesn't have any "entertainment", but our big eight-and-a-half hour flight will have movies and such. A couple of us are pretty excited about that! ;)

5:05 PM - Well, this is the hard part, I think. I've called Mom, Dad, and my boyfriend, probably for the last time until I come back to the States. It's very comforting for me to know that the same God will be present in my life, as well as the lives of the ones I love. We have about an hour and a half until we board, and the other kids went to go eat while I called my family. I don't think I could eat right now any way, not after our fairly bumpy landing.

7:15 PM - My, how time flies! (Hehe... See what I did there?) We're boarded on our HUGE plane, on the way to Amsterdam, and they're giving us the "welcome speech". We get little TV's of our own! Oh, how easily entertained I am! Whoop, "the door is closed!"

8:10 PM - Alright, we are up! 7 hours and fifteen minutes away from Amsterdam! We are so high up, it looks like we're over ocean, but we have to fly over Canada before we go over water. I'm siting next to Karen again, and we have decided we're GREAT flying buddies! We have these handy little screens that allow us to listen to music (I've got the "Tangled" soundtrack going right now,) watch movies, shows, just about anything we want. Great mix of classic and modern choices, too. Our current flight information: 559 mph, 62 mph tailwind, -67 degrees F outside (no swimming at 34,802 feet...) 3,866 miles to Amsterdam, and already 301 miles from Minneapolis! I love this thing. :) A note of thanks: We had a random person on our flight donate a crisp, brand-new $100 bill to a group member, with the intent of helping our group on our trip. The generosity of the people around me continues to amaze me. All the glory to God! Well, I'm going to watch "The Shawshank Redemption" for a few hours. :) More later!

8:50 PM - The sun is going down, and the dinner is being served! We're so high above the clouds that they look like an ocean! The sun is beautiful, red, gold, and purple behind the indigo clouds. A nice reminder of how in-charge our all-powerful God is. Dinner doesn't smell too terrible. Doesn't smell like steak, but it's not prison food. Seat belt sign just got turned on, probably for turbulence.

10:30 PM - Dinner was great! The movie was good! Well, about as good as a prison-break movie can be. :) We're about to fly "out" of Canada and over the Atlantic Ocean! Five hours out of Amsterdam, 620 mph, 85 mph tailwind, -76 degrees F at 36,803 feet in the air. Now, for a short nap...