Rachel RN, BSN: Romania Day 1 and 2

I keep debating back and forth on whether I should try to write out most of what I remember from my trip to Romania.

A lot of details have already slipped my mind.

I probably should have updated this while I was away, but I was already staying up way too late putting pics up on facebook.

We will start with Day 1 (which actually blends into 2 days)

A lot of people try to stay up late the day before departure or get up really early the day we leave.

This is to make sure you are dead tired by the time we takeoff in hopes of sleeping on the plane.

This does not work with someone like me. I am wired on a constant basis. There is just no way I am going to fall asleep at 7:00 PM Central Time. On a plane or wherever.

So anyways

I arrived at the DFW airport at 2 PM to meet with the ServingHim team.

We gathered, checked in, grabbed some refreshments, and then boarded the plane.

Our flight took off at 5:35 PM Central Time.

They constantly feed you on these flights.

For real.

I sat next to Pam (she is in my group) and chatted with her for almost 4 hours. She is wired like me; neither one of us slept.

Most of the cabin was asleep at this point.

I decided to watch Letters to Juliet and cried my eyes out. I covered my face every time the flight attendant walked by. I have a little shame when it comes to crying during movies.

A couple of hours later, the sun had risen and it was a new day.

They served us another meal and then we landed at 8:35 AM GMT.

It was 2:35 AM back home...but I admit, it still wasn't past my bedtime (I had been staying up until 4 AM the past couple of days).

We made our way through the airport and to our terminal.

I headed straight to a cute little place I had a wonderful sandwich at last year.

I split it with Pam and we were joined by Becki for some company.

Before we knew it, it was time to board our 2nd flight.

We took off from London at 11:00 AM GMT.

A 3 hour flight doesn't seem too long after a 9 hour flight.

I sat between Becki and Pam and we all chatted the whole flight. It "flew" by.

We began our descent into Bucharest, Romania and landed around 4:15 PM EET.

We gathered our luggage and walked out individually.

My first year we were stopped by customs and had to end up bribing our way out of the airport. They couldn't understand why we had brought all the dental supplies...it was frustrating because there was a language barrier.

No problems this year.

We were greeted by warm and familiar faces.

The first person I saw and gave a big hug was Sami. He has been my translator and friend for the last 2 years. Next I saw Peter Mike and Gene.

It was great to be back, but we still had a long road ahead of us.

Here is Peter and Mike in the luggage van.

A long road ahead calls for some McDonalds!

the group in McDonalds

After we chowed down for some dinner...we hit the road!

There was a semi new highway that was built. It was the first time I had been on this route. It used to take 4 hours to get from Bucharest to Braila. This year it took around 3 hours and 2o minutes.