Stuck in San Francisco

I'm sitting here on the floor in middle of San Francisco International Airport.  I've been traveling for about 36 hours, have gotten approximately 8 hours of sleep in the last 48(not in a row btw...) and I haven't showered or changed my clothes since Tuesday morning, Germany time.  I'm sure I look beautiful and energetic right about now :D.

I was supposed to fly back into Arcata an hour ago.  Obviously I didn't.  You may be wondering why...well here's what happened:

I flew into San Francisco last night.  My flight was delayed and we didn't get in until 9:30 pm.  I jumped on BART and headed off to Pleasanton to stay with a friend for the night.  I got there, we went to In n Out, and after spending a couple of hours talking we fell asleep at around 1 am.  Then we woke up at 4:45.  I got back on BART at 5:15 to head to the airport.  The train arrived at SFO at 6:40 am...my flight was at 6:56....

I got in United's line to talk to them about what I should do.  They told me that all of today's flights were fully booked but they could wait list me.  It would cost $75, and my  debit card wasn't working with their machine so I went to find an ATM.  I got back with my $75 and realized that I had forgotten about the $35 luggage fee.  At first I was going to have to go back to the ATM, but after talking to her boss, the United employee decided that she would just charge me for the luggage and not for the flight change.

So I made my way through security.  It was....secure.  I went to find my gate and found out that the flight I was wait listed for had been canceled!  At this point  I was starving and, knowing that I needed food in order to make logical decisions, I went to eat an expensive but delicious breakfast.  After breakfast I went to talk to the airline people.  They told me that my name had not been moved to the new wait list yet and I would now be #16 on the list...

I went to customer support to see if  I could get a flight to Redding or Crescent City and then my parents could pick me up, but they were all booked until at least tomorrow.  As I was talking to my mom on the phone, figuring out if she wanted to drive to SF or if I should stay another night here, the customer service representative handed me a ticket and said "miraculously, as we were talking two seats opened up on a flight for this afternoon"!  So now I have a flight for this afternoon, at 4:17 pm!  By the time I get home I will have been traveling for close to 48 hours, and probably will not have gained much more sleep...but I will be home!

Oh, and to add to the happiness: since I didn't have to pay for the first flight change, I didn't have to pay for the second either!

Landlady drama

This is just a quick post to update you on the latest drama with my landlady...if you were looking for my updated about Denmark and Sweden, look one post below!

Monday afternoon my landlady tried to kick me out of my apartment.  She didn't say she wanted me out in a week, or even a day...she said I was to be "out tonight".  You're probably wondering what  I did to deserve getting kicked out...I am wondering that too!  Before I tell you the story though, let me make it clear that I did not get kicked out.  I convinced her to let me stay for my last week in Germany. (Although I am not sure that I want to!)

Here are the reasons she said I was to leave:

1. A mistake I made, and corrected four months ago.  When I first moved in, I didn't think about needing to open the bathroom window when I shower because I had never had to do that before in my life.  After two weeks she told me that I need to open the window when I shower, and I did from then on.  But there is some mold/mildew on the shower wall from that.  Apparently this is the first time she has noticed it, and she was very angry about it.

2. She decided to empty my trash can while I was in Denmark.  I had not emptied the whole thing because her trash can was too full.  She told me she spent an hour sorting through my trash in order to correctly recycle things, and she showed me three moldy items she found in my trash can.  She was very angry about this, which I didn't understand because I never asked her to empty my trash, and was planning to sort through it myself.

3.  Apparently every night I am supposed to sleep with my bedroom window open, even in winter.  She never informed me of this, and when I open the window bugs come in.  But she was very angry that I had not been sleeping with it open, and thinks the mold around the window is caused by me sleeping with it closed.

4. She thinks that I water damaged my dresser.  When she first said that, I quickly looked at it and apologized for the water damage.  Later I looked closer at the dresser, and realized that it is not water damaged but that that is just how the dresser looks.

Those are her reasons for wanting me out.  I did not understand her reasoning, especially since she wanted to kick me out without warning.  I apologized for everything she was mad about, and explained why things were not the way she wanted.  And I told her I am only here one week, and asked if I could stay one more week.  She agreed that I could.

I have just one week left here, and don't want to be stressed out this whole week.  I don't usually cry, but after she left the room I started crying.  I also have a feeling I am going to have trouble getting my deposit back...

I have been praying that God will help me to remain calm and humble, and that He will speak through me so that I do not say hurtful words.  I have also been praying that through my witness of not cussing at her, or yelling, or even seeming mad, that she will see Jesus.  Please join me in praying for all of this.  Please also pray for me as this has added a lot of unneeded stress on my life.

Reaching 20 countries!!

Denmark is in green, Sweden in orange

I spent this weekend in Denmark and Sweden.  Denmark was country #19 and Sweden was country #20!!  I have now spent time in twenty countries on four continents!!  Only 174 more to go....

This was one last trip before heading back to the States.  Zeba and I left for Denmark on Wednesday afternoon, and we stayed with my uncles friend in Copenhagen.

Here is our story:

Wednesday:
We left Bremen on Wednesday afternoon.  We were planning to take a train to Hamburg, and catch our bus there.  We heard that the train drivers were striking, so out of concern of getting there on time, we left as early as we could.  Since I had class at 8 am, the earliest we could leave was 11:30.  We got to Hamburg no problem, with about two hours before our bus!

In Copenhagen, Denmark

The bus was great!  We had business class seats(which for some reason cost less then regular seats...) so we had wifi and a free snack!  In order to get to Copenhagen, we had to cross the Baltic Sea.  By ferry.  This was a 45 minute ride on a huge ferry, which had a mall inside.  It was a lot of fun getting to see the Baltic.  We got back on land and continued our journey.

When we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark, our host had a wonderful dinner prepared for us!  We ate pork sausage like things, delicious (not-American) potato salad and tomatoes!  After dinner we went on a walk around Copenhagen, and our host took us to Tivoli Gardens.  Tivoli is a beautiful place, that kind of reminded me of Disneyland, but I think I like it better then Disney!

Thursday:

In the Cannon Museum!

Thursday morning our host left for her parents house.  We had the apartment to our self until late Friday night!  On Thursday we explored Copenhagen, went to two museums and on a boat tour!  We also ate delicious sandwiches and Belgium waffles! (mine had ice cream on it!)

The first museum we went to was the Denmark National Museum.  It had artifacts and information from Denmark and European history.  It was very interesting, and apparently Pokemon is a part of history...
The second museum was a cannon museum.  I liked this museum, it had cannons from all throughout history!

In Christiana.  I was scared because
there were signs everywhere saying not
to take pictures...due to the drugs
being sold in the area

Friday:
On Friday we were going to go to Sweden, but we woke up too late...so we relaxed till mid afternoon and then we decided to walk around the city again.  We went to a part of the city called Christiana.  Christiana used to be a military place, for defending Copenhagen.  But in the 70's hippies took over it and built interesting buildings.  Today it is a place with art, interesting buildings, music, and a flea market.  It also is a place where you can find marijuana....lots and lots of marijuana...

Saturday:

Me, in country #20!!

On Saturday we finally went to Sweden!  Sweden is the 20th country I have spent time in!  We left in the early afternoon, and got on a train to Malmo, Sweden.  We weren't sure what to do there, we didn't even have any of the Swedish Currency.  So the first thing we did was exchange money.  Then we wondered around the city, and found a boat tour.  We went on the tour and learned a bit about Sweden!  Then we sat in a coffee shop and ate delicious cheesecake.  At around 6 pm we headed back to Denmark.

Denmark Storm

Going back to Denmark was quite chaotic.  The storm started in Sweden, but while we were there it was just a lot of thunder and lightning.  By the time we reached Denmark, it was crazy rain.  They say that in those two hours Denmark got as much rain as they usually get in two months.  155 mm, or 6 inches.  The trams were not running on time, so we were stuck at the tram station for a while.  But eventually we made it to our final stop.  Problem was that the stop was about a 15 minute walk from our house.  The water on the roads was about 5 inches deep.  And it was raining very hard.  We were soaked within seconds.  Lightning was going every couple of seconds, and the thunder was very very loud.  Zeba, who is from India, described it as a monsoon.  We eventually made it home, and showed up at our hosts apartment soaked!  But she graciously let us in, and helped us get dried off.  And she had even made us dinner :)

Sunday:

Under the castle!

Sunday morning Zeba and I went to an art museum.  It had really beautiful paintings and statues.  We started realizing the affects of the night before's storm when I received a text from our host, telling us that her basement had flooded and she had to save what she could.  We got home to find everything mostly okay, and then we headed off to a castle.  As we drove to and from the castle, which was north of Copenhagen, we saw more of the storms effects.  People all through town were draining water from their stores and basements, and their ruined items laid on the sidewalk.  The power was out in some places, and many of the highways and roads were flooded.  Getting there and back took about a half an hour longer then it should have.  But the drive was along the Baltic Sea, and was quite beautiful.

The castle was beautiful.  It was near Sweden, and we could see Sweden's coast across the Baltic.  (The castle even had cannons pointed towards Sweden :D)  We explored below the castle, where the soldiers lived.  There were winding, dark halls.  It was really cool, but kind of creepy!  We also explored the ballrooms and royal apartments.

Traveling home:
That night we left for Germany at 11:45 pm.  Somehow, amazingly, on a bus full of people from Africa, India, Europe and other places, I managed to sit next to a guy from California...he was taking his last, and first, trip before heading off to medical school.  We talked for a couple of hours, and got to know each other quite well.  Funny thing is neither of us thought to introduce ourselves till an hour into our conversation!

At the Baltic! Not at 1 am though...
this was the first time we crossed!

At around 2 am our bus had to cross the Baltic Sea, by ferry.  This meant that we had to get off of the bus. Luckily the ferry is huge, and has stores and restaurants.  So I got a bite to eat and sat down with Zeba and two other young traveler's we had met, one who was on our bus and one on the bus in front of us.  It was a lot of fun getting to know other young travelers!

After the ferry, at 3 am, I fell asleep...kind of...I fell as asleep as you can when you are squished in a tiny space on a bus and there is lightning going off every few seconds....we arrived in Hamburg at 5 am, and had an hour to wait for a train to Bremen.  The best part of the story?  I had class at 8...I arrived in Bremen at 7:30 am and went straight to class, I was the first person there!

Prayer requests:
-Pray for my landlady's and I's relationship.  I will post more later about what happened, but to sum it up: She tried to kick me out yesterday.  I have been praying that God will use me to show her Jesus through my attitude and lack of cussing or yelling at her even when she is frustrating me and causing a lot of stress in my life.  Please join me in praying about this.
-Pray for me as I finish up homework and get ready to travel back to America in one week!!
-Pray for me to have patience as I am very excited for Blue Slide Camp and almost cannot stand waiting three more weeks for it!
-Pray for me and the other camp staff as we prepare for camp!  Also pray for the campers, that they will grow in their relationship with God!

Praises:
-Praise God that I was able to reach 20 countries!! There were times in the last 4.5 months that It thought I wouldn't reach my goal, but I would pray about it, and now I have!
-Praise God that the e. coli outbreak is mostly over!