Yes you read the title right. Here in Florida it is very wet, it is probably down pouring outside as I type this. It has been raining on and off since I arrived on Saturday, with the sun attempting to come out for a few minutes before being over taken by the dark clouds. [the sun just broke through again]
So this whole trip started on Friday morning bright and early at 3am (atlantic time, 2am EST) waking up to head to the airport with my Dad. My flight left at 5:30, and part way during the flight I started to worry......I could not find my iPod. It had been in my pocket before but it wasn't there. I checked my bag but it was not there.....I would plan to check my other carry on that had been side checked (small plane, big bookbag, so i put it underneath). I was getting worried and thought that I would need to make a trip to Walmart once in Buffalo as I could not find it. As I was getting out of my seat to leave the plane i notice the Tim Hortons tea bag wrapper (which had been in the same pocket as the ipod) stuck between two seats, and sure enough there was my ipod that hadn't fallen through thankfully. Mind you if I had not looked down at the seat as i left, I would have actually lost it and had to get a new one. Once I got my bags I met my brother and he drove me to the Bus Station in downtown toronto.....my first time in T.O. So it was pretty cool.
The bus ride to Niagara went well......the bus had free wifi that worked!!!!!!!! (thanks Greyhound for the bus makeovers you done so far) so that made the trip better. Once in Niagara, I met up with my roommate from BBC, Meredith, and her sister and we went to see the falls and then headed back to their house in Buffalo, NY. I will say that I love the McLaughlin family, Thank you so much for having me at your house, I'll have to come back and visiting longer.
So the next morning I headed to the airport with Meredith and her mom, checked in and headed to my plane to fly to Atlanta. So this was when I first noticed that my foot was bothering me when walking. When I would go to step off my left foot, the back of my ankle would be in pain..(it is now Tuesday, still hurting, and i still don't fully know what happened.) My first flight was good, my flight attendant was really peppy, you could tell she really enjoys her job. Once in Atlanta, I had to change terminals (which included a subway ride), and waited about an hour for my connecting flight. That next flight to Miami was good......I slept for over half of it...infact I was gone before the plane even took off. This has never happened before. I even missed when the flight attendant was serving drinks. I landed in Miami and when wlaking through the terminal, my foot was really bothering me. But I was happy because I had found starbucks. What was even better was that when I came out of security I saw Bethany Giglio, I had not seen her in 3 years so that was pretty exciting.
We arrived at the hotel and I had to wait for my room for a couple hours. Eventually I did get one (one of the last three) and then some Leaders and LIT's all went to Gators for supper...it was yummy. I then went the the grocery store and bought a ankle brace for my foot...not really that it ended up helping at all. At 7:30 we started Leaders training and I got a chance to ice my foot.
The next morning we got up for breakfast and we had a time of worship in the hotel, and then continued on with leaders training. After lunch, we had the after to chill before the students arrived the next day. So a bunch us decided to head to the beach, which was nearby.....I got to go swimming in Florida....but shortly after it started to rain, and i wanted to make sure my camera stayed dry. (a BIG thank you to the kind people who let us put our things under their canopy until the rain stopped.) After it stopped raining we wnet back in the water for a while and then it rained again but this time with thunder....so we got out again and decided to come back as it was downpouring, but by the time we got back to the hotel it stopped so we went to the pool. It was a nice time to just chill. We continued our last round of training and got some rest.
Yesterday, the kids began to arrive all throughout the day. And last night we had our first FUAGNEM. (Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute), Thanks Jaime for the worship time. Following the service we began drama casting for Spellbound.... These teens were really good. I'm looking forward to watch them perform the drama. Afterwards we all headed to bed after a long day.
This morning we had breakfast, ahd some team time, and now the students are beginning their drama training and it is almost lunch time!!!!!!!
Thank to everyone who has been praying for me and this trip......please keep praying for my foot and that I can figure out what is wrong with it, and also pray for safety as we travel on Thursday....I'll check in in a couple days.
