Thoughts breaking my dreams/like a million shattered shards of hope

One year ago today I woke up at 7:00 at my second cousin's house in Portland, and got ready to go to the church for check-in, and eventually to leave on a trip half-way around the world.

I remember it perfectly. Whenever people would ask me if I was excited or nervous, I would say "yes." I think that day was more nervous. I'd never even been out of the country except Canada (which I guess doesn't count), and here I was going to India! My cousins offered us stuff for breakfast; I don't even remember what, but I couldn't eat anything. After a while it was time to leave for the church, so we got my 49-pound suitcase and my all-purpose carry-on bag, and left.

We arrived at the church in just a few minutes. I began to feel a little more excited, if not less nervous. I got my bag checked, and it was exactly one pound below the maximum weight! What a God thing! (ok, so it was one pound over on the way back, but it wasn't a problem, ha-ha.) We all lined our bags up and were assigned numbers to keep track of them. I was #1. Well, #1 ended up getting misplaced in Singapore, which is the reason my carry-on bag was all-purpose! I had everything I needed for the three days I was suitcaseless, until they got it back to me (thank God!). It was really funny too – in Mumbai David (team member) walked up to me and was like "did I ever tell you how nice that outfit looks on you K_? You know, I think you should just wear it for a few more days maybe. It's not looking good K_." We went clothes shopping later that day, but my outfits had to be altered to fit me, and that wasn't done until the day my suitcase came, so it didn't help much. I had everything else I needed though.

We hopped on a bus. It was sprinkling, I remember that. Funny, we didn't have to complain about rain for the next three weeks! (And of course when we flew in it was fifteen degrees in Portland!) We drove to PDX, checked our bags, Nancy and I almost missed the flight, and then we were on our way! Apparently I was the random person they pick every now and then to not get a particular stamp on the boarding pass, and then you have to go through the major security check like a terrorist or something until your travel agent comes and rescues you. I guess our whole team of 25+ people were threatening to stand up, because the plane can't take off with anyone standing. That sure made us feel special! (and stupid but that's beside the point.)

PDX to LAX, no problem. 3 hour layover, get really bad California airport food, walk around shopping with no money (really smart, in fact, almost brilliant), go to Starbucks and get something with the money we don't have to wash down the really bad food we didn’t want to eat, then wander around til you find the gate where the rest of your team is. Then lay on the super-hard ground because you have no idea what the next flight will be like, but you're half excited and half terrified.

LAX to Singapore was 18 hours there, and 15 on the return flight. Excitement comes only from the girlish fantasy that there are individual TV screens on the back of each seat, and that you can pick your own movie to start at any time without paying. This does not take into account that next to no sleep is involved. And that while they take care of you, sleeping at a 120˚ angle for two hours off and on is not exactly a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Anyway, enough complaining, I do plenty of that. Singapore airport is probably the best place in the world as far as airport shopping goes (BTW, that's where the India 2007 team is right now, they'll probably go from Singapore to Mumbai [Bombay] in about two hours). But as far as airport food is concerned, they're not much better than LA. I think we stopped at this little Italian deli and I got strawberries and crème and a muffin for lunch. Because I was feeling like someone tipped my stomach upside-down and shook it, and that was the only thing that looked even mildly palatable. (It was actually better on the return trip, because I'd only been in the air 5 hours, not 18, and we ate at a Subway that was actually pretty good). Then we checked into our hotel (out of the two that are in the airport) and got about 2 more hours of sleep and a bath before starting the shopping. I didn't buy anything, because I couldn't find a spoon for my collection, and everything else was either too expensive or not worth buying. And it's incredibly hard to get them to give you American change for Singapore dollars. I did get some coins for my collection though.

We just walked around for awhile, and kept bumping into other members of the team also walking around, and finally we all met for a tour of the city, which was absolutely AMAZING!!! If Singapore wasn't so humid, and if their laws weren't so strict, I could live there. It's really beautiful.

We got back to the airport and then bummed around until our flight to Mumbai, which I'll tell more about tomorrow.

'Night all. Hope you enjoy my memoirs from a year ago!