World Traveler.

First day, where one Earth do I began? Oh, I know where it began…

Yesterday was travel day. It was probably one of the most hectic travel days of my whole life. I stayed up the night before until about 2:15 am, packing and what not, and had to wake up at 3:30. My surprise upon being awoken was that the airline called two hours previously to inform us that my flight was delayed, and I would miss my flight in JFK. However, this was not bad in and of itself.  Because it meant I would not have to take a shuttle from New Jersey into New York.

So, my mother and I went along our merry way, and I tried to silently deal with the fact that, for some reason, my mother does not believe in listening to Karen (my GPS). After listening to many musical jams, my mother and I arrived at the Little Rock air port.

When we went up to the desk to get my boarding pass, we were met by a dramatically sad woman. She stressfully explained that my flight was delayed, and I would not make my connecting flight in JFK. You can imagine how upset we were, especially after waking up at 3:30ish.

To fix this problem, I was going to fly into a different airport in New York, and somehow find my way to JFK, alone, in a completely new city. Oh, did I mention I would be pushed for time? Oh. Yea. There was that too.

After sitting with my mom for a long time at the airport Starbucks, I made my way to my gate. Getting on the plane was quite an ordeal, because it was about the size of a tube of Pringles. Luckily, I was blessed with an aisle seat, and found myself adjacent to a soldier in full camo-gear. Turns out, his name is John Morgan, and he lives not far from my house in Arkansas.

Get this, he is a preacher, going back to Afghanistan to finish up his tour. We talked for so long about Jesus, the modern day church and how parts of it are SO not biblical, and we exchanged titles of books that were influential to us. Jesus, You really blessed me on that flight. Talking to that man was so encouraging, and I felt so honored to be even that close to someone who is truly after Your heart.

Say a prayer for him if you could, please.

When the flight ended, I got onto this awesome train that went around the outside of the whole airport. IT amazes me how huge airports are, and how everything is.

On my plane ride to New York, I sat next to this cutie grandmother named Sheila. She told me about her whole life, growing up on Coney Island, getting married at 20, moving to L.A., and raising children in Dallas. She helped me, after getting off the plane, to know where to go and get my luggage.

Oh! Mom! When we were walking down to baggage claim, there was this woman who was going on break from some job. As she made eye contact with me, climbing over a rope, she said, in a HUGE New York accent, “How ya doin, how ya doin?”

It’s real! New York accents are real and awesome! I bet people thought I was so weird as I cracked up like no other after seeing this woman.

Now, I don’t know if you have ever gotten a taxi in New York before, but it is definitely an experience. As  climbed into the back of my SUV taxi and proclaimed JFK, I was excited for this new adventure.

No. No. No. How wrong, how utterly wrong, I was.

My taxi driver, Sadeef Hussain, drove like a maniac. Not only that, but the air conditioning in the car was only up front. It was hot. It was sticky. It smelled weird. There were constant stops, starts. Speeding up, slamming on the breaks, yells of outrage, and boisterous honking. I thought I was going to throw up. I was so car sick it was not even funny.

Finally, reaching the beautiful ground of JFK, I stumbled, bleary-eyed, exhausted, and cranky into the airport. Checking my bags was probably one of the most confusing parts of the trip. I was on the phone with my mom the whole time, basically crying due to my sleep deprivation and frustration.

When Kate and I made eye contact, I felt so much better. I no longer was alone, it was not an adventure. If something went wrong, at least we would be together when it happened.

Soooo great to finally be together.

This was after take off, saying goodbye to New York.

Waiting for take-off, Kate and I encountered a scene neither of us had witnessed before. There was this man, this Italian man, who had dreadlocks, a big hat, and a bigggg attitude. He yelled at the flight attendant, called her crazy, and yelled, “I kill you!” I exchanged a furtive glance with Kate, and we naturally began filming the ordeal. A Hungarian man attempted to soothe the f-bombing Italian man, but was immediately yelled at as well.

The disgruntled Italian began screaming about how he hated America, the government is corrupt, and also threatened to kill the Hungarian man.

Jesus, coming through once again, made the Air Marshals come on the plane, and take him off. He began balling and saying he just wanted to go back to Italy. The captain was hearing nothing of it, and made sure he was removed from the aircraft.

What a blessing. We were terrified, but Jesus soothed our fears.

These are the two videos of what happened. We were really scared the Air Marshals were going to take away our camera. Notice how, and I am not sure which one it is in, he makes direct eye contact with the camera.

You see the scary man get up in this video, and you can see his face. Scary, scary.

 The ride over was uneventful, other than the lack of sleep, crazy old man who would duck every time we got something out of the overhead, and the Hungarian man who would not stop looking at us. He was the same man who stood up to the crazy Italian man, so we did not want to mean to him. You see him in the videos, he is the bald guy who looks back at us.

 First sight of Italy.

This is our landing in Italy. Heck to the yes. We made it. In one piece. Thank you thank you Jesus!!!

Alas, we arrived in Italy to find Sarah and Anna dressed in their red, white, and blue best, wearing a cowboy hat and a moose hat, and holding a sign that said, “Happy 5^th of July Kate and Mandrea!”

Us in our Italian bedroom. Everything is so beautiful in this country. We are pretty much in love.