May 23rd - Day 2

2:10 AM, USA Time: Well, so much for deep sleeping in the air. The three-or-so hours I got were DEFINITELY better than none! Thank God I'm still a young and physically flexible college kid! We're starting our trek over Europe, about to go over Britain. Unfortunately, I can't see any of it due to the total cloud cover we're flying over. We have about one hour and twenty minutes until our landing. We're going 542 mph, 72 mph tailwind. It's -80 degrees F outside and we're 38,802 feet up. I wish I had gotten the statistics when we were straight over the ocean, but no matter. I'm going to attempt to finish my Soduku from supper...

Amsterdam time: 9:55 AM. The adjustment begins! I'm going from nearly 3 AM to nearly 10 AM. After a 2-hour layover here, we have approximately a 3-hour flight, and then we're done with air time for two weeks!

11:24 AM - Waiting for the last flight today in Amsterdam! There are so many different people in this airport. Today's lucky find: a British pound! I'll be adding that to my foreign coin collection. I'm rather amused by the current argument between a lady and airport staff in front of me...

11:50 AM - Got through Amsterdam security, with almost no issue! I set something off and got patted down, but I'm not carrying anything, so I was good to go. Courtney and Carter are definitely an interesting sibling pair to travel with, but also fun. There is, again, a large variety of people traveling with us, and I so badly want to know all their stories, just as I am sure someone is wondering about the story of our group. About 20 minutes until we board our last flight! "I am blown away that my God, who could do this all by Himself, would choose to let me be a little part of it!" - Kisses from Katie


5:37, Saint Petersburg time!! We're here! Well, we're on the ground, any way. Evidently there are problems at Passport Control; so we're just chillin' on our plane. Very anxious to get off! As for the time difference, we've hit nine hours! It's currently 8:38 AM in Nebraska, but I seem to be adjusting fine! Nothing a quick sleep won't help. Saint Petersburg is a HUGE city, Karen estimated about 2 billion people. I tried to get pictures of it while we were flying in. [Side note: I did get pictures of the city, but my camera later deleted my first week of pictures, so I no longer have pictures of the city from the air.]

8:35 - We're settled in! I'm rooming with Michela in a very apartment-like room, and we're super excited to live here for a week! We have a meeting in a few minutes before we go to eat at "Pizza Ollie's", which is evidently pretty good! So much history on the drive to our beautiful hotel! We've only found one downside so far, and that is the water. The best way to describe the smell is "dead goldfish". No drinking tap water here! Today's interesting fact: There are 430 bridges in St. Petersburg!

11:45 PM - We're getting broken in to the culture pretty fast! After eating out, (which was an entertaining experience, trying to order from a Russian menu,) we went on about a five-block walk with Karen. There were so many visual contrasts that I saw or were pointed out to me. First, the buildings. The majority of them look old, but not abandoned. The ones that look the worst, however, are normally sitting within a block of, if not net to, brand new buildings! The second thing I noticed was color. The buildings come in a variety of colors, but the people tend to wear neutrals or black on their clothes. Not everybody, but a great deal. The people here fascinate me. I want to know all their stories! Even though we were walking through a graffiti-covered neighborhood, everyone was dressed nice and fashionably. They didn't fit their environment at all. The graffiti reminded me of the third contrast I saw today, which was the walls standing above fairly new sidewalks. When Pastor Reehl lived here, the walls were paint-free, but the sidewalks were all torn up! Nobody here smiles when we pass, let alone look you in the eye. I feel like there's a great deal of pain in this city, but from what, I'm not sure.
We went to our first Russian market on the way back! Learned a bit about the rubbels system. I ended up buying juice and tea. That was a strange environment inside the supermarket. I felt like we'd taken a trip into the 50s or 60s. Even our cashier had bright blue and gold makeup, and gold teeth! All of them! She was intriguing, for certain.
It's hard to believe it's almost midnight. We're experiencing "white nights", which means the sun never fully goes down. I'm a college kid, so thankfully I can sleep at the drop of a hat. Now that I'm showered, that sleep thing sounds rather appealing! :)