It's Christmas!!

Today it is Christmas day here, so Merry Christmas! It's not the typical whether for Christmas either. It is very hot at the moment. It actually is the hottest year for Indonesia, according to the news, and I believe it so much!

To update you on the latest news:

I am finally home!! (: I had several interesting experiences while traveling home from Kenya a few weeks ago.

I finally finished my last exam (Monday the 10th of December) and headed to finish my last minute packing at the dorm and to take a quick shower before leaving Maxwell. I went to the café, had a quick bite to eat and jumped in the car after saying goodbye to several people. We were on our way to the airport. About 10 or so minutes into our way to the airport, I wanted to make sure that the business man, who was driving, had my passport. But he said he didn't because the principal said I had it. And I said I did, but a few days ago the principal had asked for it because he needed to do something with it, so I had given it to him. So we turned around and started back to school. I decided we should call the principal so he could have the passport ready and hand it to us when we arrived. We called and he said he thought I had it! And so I had to remind him that I had given it to him, and then he remembered. He said he would start looking for it. I just began praying and kept calm about. We finally arrived back there at school, but no passport had been found! Several people began looking and thinking were it could be. Anyways, to make a long story short, they could not find my passport and didn't know were it could be. Finally after a few minutes, that felt like hours, my dean thought of just calling my geography teacher just to ask if he knew anything about it. And yes, he had it at his house. Don't ask me how it ended up there but I got my passport and we were on our way again. I arrived at the airport and started checking in. I was allowed 40kg for my luggage and guess what my bags weighed up to? 54kg.wow, the scale I had used I guess was a bit off! So here I was in the corner of the airport taking tons of stuff out! I took my jeans, most of my shoes, and some other things out. I went back to check in and the bags were 44 kg. I pleaded with the lady and she let me go. Thank God!! Then I went to the next line.the security line. It took about 30 minutes to get past that point and then I had to climb the dead escalator, to get to another floor were my departing gate was. Since I had taken many things out of my luggage and put it into my carry on my bags (one pull bag along with a big green cloth bag) were very heavy. I was hot and exhausted, as I was trying my best to pull my bags up the stairs. My pink dolphin kept jumping off the bag, maybe it thought it was going to find water somewhere! (: I was about half way up when the lady who was in line at security behind me came and asked if she could help me. I was thankful and she helped me up the not working escalator. I thanked her and we went our separate ways. I went to my gate and started repacking my bags a bit. I called one of my good friends to wish her happy birthday and then called my brother, Gary, to finish up my credit.

As I was in line to bored the aircraft, the same lady who had helped me up the dead escalator, asked if she could help me again. It was very kind of her and we began talking. She said that her husband had just had the same surgery I had had about a year ago and traveled about the same time I did after surgery. She said that he even got bumped up to business class and so she asked if she could ask the stewardess if this was possible for me. I thanked her and she did. The stewardess said she could do that for me but the plain was so full there were no extra seats in business class. I thank them both anyways and found my seat. Then the lady who kept helping me told me that she had asked her seat mate if he didn't mind changing seats with me and I could go sit with her. Again this was very kind of her and so I moved seats. We began talking again, by the way, she really liked to talk! She is a very nervous flyer and I kept assuring her it was ok. As we took off she was extremely scared and at one point she grabbed my hand suddenly! During the course of our flight, she kept talking. She told me she was going to Dubai to have a job interview, see some houses, and especially look for special schools. She has a daughter, six years old, who needs special attention in learning. So they were thinking on moving to Dubai, if they had the special type of school they were looking for. She also had a few too many drinks during the flight! She just kept drinking and drinking and even offered me some. She went to visit with the stewardess a couple of times, and she even organized for a wheal chair to meat me in Dubai and take me to my gate. Well, I could walk, and that was not a problem, but to be nice to her I said ok and thank you. At least this way there would be people to help me with my bags, I thought to myself! (: As we were on our descend into Dubai, my seat mate was really drunk by then. It smelled so bad, and soon she vomited all over her pants! I just looked like she had pied. But it smelled even worse now. I was scared that I would become sick just from the smell. I was helped of the airplane and on to a special room with several other people with wheel chairs. They drove us a long ways and finally ended up in my terminal. I was taken off and we went thought security check. Then I was taken to a special room for disabled people. It was a place with a TV and some food. It was kind of dingy but I was grateful. I stayed there until time to go to my departing gate. The flight to Colombo, Sri Langka was good but when we landed there, they didn't let us get off the airplane. And soon we were on our way to Singapore. The food on the flight was not as good as last time, when I flew with Emirates. They didn't have much that I could eat. Even though I ordered vegetarian, I got corn or potatoes, or mushroom and big green peppers (paprika). And I am allergic to most of that stuff so I was really starting to get hungry. I had a bit of food that I had taken with me, but I had eaten it all already! In Singapore I decided to make a change of clothes and wash my face and brush my teeth. Then I was on the next airplane finally headed to Jakarta. We landed there an hour late and I knew in order to do all the necessary's there, with security and picking up my check in luggage and taking that to another terminal, I needed to hurry. I got off the plane and rushed to security. It took a while there and then I got a porter to help me with my bags and go to the other terminal. As I was standing in line to check in, the person checking in I seemed to recognize. As I walked up to him..sure enough I know him. He, Aeron, lived here but had just been in his first semester in collage in the US. So I said hi and he was sure surprised to see me. I checked in and then bought a phone card so I could SMS mom and Dad. I also was still craving root bear so I went to A & W to buy some. And when I asked, they said "Oh, sudah habis". Meaning we ran out!!! I thought that was crazy.A & W and they ran out of root bear. I was disappointed and went to my departing gate were I met Aeron again and we shared stories. It was good for both of us to talk and he then helped me on to the airplane. We were on a smaller airplane and one of my carry on bags would not fit it the over head place. So I had to take my laptop and books out of the bag, and then it would fit! I was tired of doing this!! I had a seat in the middle of two guys. One from Switzerland (if I remember correctly) who has been working with an organization here in Papua doing medical work. The other man was a local from Biak (where I conducted my last evangelistic meeting). We talked quit a bit and I was thankful because my Indonesian began coming back. I didn't sleep much at all night. We took off from Jakarta about 9pm and I landed at 7am the next morning, after two stops. It was so good to land here at the airport, although these pilots' landings also scare me! I was the last one of because I had to put my bag back together. Mommy was at the foot of the plane to meet me! It was nice to see her again. But the weather was extremely hot. When we got to the luggage area several other people were there to meet me. Heidi and Jason, and my choir teacher, Mr. Kaleb. Jason, has a name for me now."Pita". I have no idea were it comes from but he recognized me as soon as he saw me. He's so cute!! And then some of the boys that live here on campus were there to meet me and help with my bags. And three kids on campus came also, as well as one of my best friends, Saat. Wow, it was so great to see them all!

It was good to get home and have some good food, a shower, and a long nap. That night my best friend, Gally surprised me by coming to my house. We all thought she had left to go to her Grandma's with her family, but since she has tests still that week, she had to stay behind and join them the following week. It was a good surprise and the whole campus could hear my squeal when I saw her! That night I slept well and woke up at 11:30 the next morning!

Last week, Thursday, I came down with Chicken pox. They aren't as bad as some people who have them, but they are bad enough. Now they are begging to dry up but it is still uncomfortable. Thankfully most of my friends have had chicken pokes so I can still be with them.

Anyways, that's the most exciting news from me. I am so glad to be home! I am very blessed to have a loving and caring family and friends. Several of my friends left last week to go home for Christmas break, including my best friend. SO it is a bit lonely here but my other girl friend just came home here and last night my buddy who's parents live here on campus, Lui, just came back along with his brother last night. So I do have friends here, just not the big bunch as last year right now.

Hope you all are enjoying this holiday season. And I hope to hear from you too(:

Merry Christmas!