Day 2: NYC - Amsterdam - Kilimanjaro
We flew out of JFK around 6:00PM or so "last night" and arrived in Amsterdam around 6:30AM "this morning" 7 hours later....yeah, the math/time changes is messing with my head.
Anyway, the flight sucked. Well, that's not true. The flight itself was alright, but trying to sleep was a pain in the butt. And by "trying to sleep", I mean, "not sleeping at all". Well, that's also not true. I think I slept for a solid 20 minutes and spent the rest of my flight adjusting every 5 minutes, trying to get comfortable, which is hard to do when the Iranian woman next to you really wants your seat (or so I imagine) and keeps pushing into you over your arm rest.
Things were better, however, once we actually got to Amsterdam.
First of all, the Amsterdam airport is huge and filled with a variety of seating options ranging from comfy Starbucks couches to giant teacups that look like some crazy Dutch Disneyland ride. We opted for the Starbucks couches since our layover was about 3.5 hrs long, and none of us had gotten much sleep on the flight.
Second of all, they had Christmas decorations *everywhere*!! City silhouettes lit by Christmas lights on the windows, Christmas trees at almost every pillar, and--of course--Christmas music playing at the Starbucks. It was wonderful. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love Thanksgiving, but I also didn't hate spending some time in a country who knows, as I do, that November is essentially Christmas ;)
I pretty much spent our layover looking around the mall that is Amsterdam Schipol while Doris and Michael hung out at the Starbucks.
Things I gathered about Amsterdam from looking at their souvenirs:
1) They have a lot of clogs.
2) They have a lot of pot.
Seriously. You would be hard-strapped to find any souvenir there that didn't have one of those two Amsterdam-ian emblems blazed into it.
We eventually flew out of Amsterdam at around 10:30AM or so. This flight went *a lot* smoother than the one out of New York. I slept for a couple hours, got a couple of meals, and watched a couple of movies: The Heat (eh) and Pacific Rim, which I actually really enjoyed even though I thought I would hate a movie about giant robots. Go figure!
8 hours later, we landed in Kilimanjaro International Airport at around 9ish PM. Due to the incredibly long visa/immigration line, however, we didn't leave the airport until around 10. -_-
Dr. Rob and Pastor Kleopa picked us up from the airport and drove us to the Lutheran Guest House. I rode with Pastor and a woman from the congregation named Rita. (Rita greeted us at the airport with roses and huge water bottles...I love Rita).
They're both very sweet and very easy to talk to. The language barrier hasn't proven to be too insurmountable of a wall yet, but we'll see how it goes with non-English speakers.
We got into the guest house around 10:30 where a delicious dinner of potato soup and bread (with every "fixin'" imaginable)--prepared by our host "Mama"--awaited us.
We were then shown to our rooms (which are actually not half bad) where I am now residing. I have a giant mosquito net over my bed and my own bathroom, so I can't complain :)
Overall first impressions of Tanzania:
- Humid
- Bugs
- Friendly people
- Nature
- More Bugs
Conclusion: there are bugs everywhere.
Silver lining: In an attempt to not seem a complete wuss, I've suppressed my natural tendencies to scream (or scram...not bad, autocorrect) when a giant June bug or grasshopper flies past my face....perhaps this new found bravery will stick?
Anyway, we have to get up fairly early tomorrow for church, so I should get to bed.
Goodnight, all!!mjl.
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