The World is a book

After waiting for our first flight out of DIA at 1:30 and not making it on the flight we spent alomst 12 hours at DIA for our next oppurtunity to board a flight. At 12:20 a.m we attempted again to make it on the next flight and again it was full...so we spent the next in DIA. We managed to catch the next flight the next morning at 7:00 despite the daunting odds with the overbooking and far down the standby list. We made it into Philly at around noon and took our time to tour the city. We saw the Liberty Bell, the Deleware crossing, and walked around the city all in 95 degree weather with about 100% humidity. We took our time getting back to the Philly airport and we caught a flight out to London Heathrow at about 10:00 p.m. We arrived in London at around 10:00 a.m extremely tired as we hadn't slept more than 4 hours for two days. We took the Underground into Waterloo station and got unbelievably lost! We were lost for hours and ended up spending WAY to many pounds throughout London and finally caught a train to Bristol to meet up with my new friend Esther. We lost much of our money through bits and bobs of catastrophes, but as soon as we arrived in Bristol through Bath Spa ... my new friend Esther picked us up at the train station. We then went to her house and ate Dinner with her family and the rest of the people living in her community house. We met the 20 people who lived in the house and hung out with the family. They were very welcoming and incredibly hospitable. We then spent the next day in Bristol after catching up on some much needed sleep. We played volleyball and hung out in the garden all afternoon, followed up by the visiting the local church which was pastored by Esther's father. We ate biscuits(which is their version of cookies...lol) before church and enjoyed the local English church.

I haven't traveled much outside of the U.S at this point in my life, yet I feel more cultured and less of an ignorant American than most people I have been around. I have been to Canada once and Mexico a few times ...vacation and missions... but those weren't the things that have brought me to my understanding of different cultures. I know that I am not blind to the many tragedies and issues of the world, as my family has been a part of the relief aid to the hurricane disaster in Louisiana, a friend and a witness to the orphans of Zambia, and have also lived among the people of Brazil; however I know that I may not have experienced what some might call culture shock in the essence of its reality. My International experiences will be broadened as I travel to Europe across 15 countries and experience more different aspects of culture (although it is western culture) in 3 weeks than I have experienced in my entire life. I will be traveling from England to Ireland and onto Northern Ireland and to Scotland and my journey only begins there...as I will travel back through London to get to Paris, France. After France I move on to Stuttgart, Germany and continue on to Zurich, Switzerland. I then will travel to Rome, Sicily, and Venice in Italy. By train I will then continue on to Salzburg, Austria and proceed into Prague, Czech Republic. I will take my journey to Berlin, Germany and onto Copenhagen, Denmark. I will take a train through Sweden onto Oslo, Norway. I will head far North into Mo I Rana, Norway and then turn back around and backtrack to Copenhagen and onto Amsterdam, Netherlands. My final stops will be in Bruges and Brusells in Belgium and back onto London and Home! Through this trip I know my eyes will be opened to art, history, culture, and many other things!