Levity, Brevity

So I really need to go to bed. It's been a loooong time since I've slept. Why, you may ask? Because I just made it all the way to Brussels after my flight plans got all rearranged due to inevitable Northwest suckitude and other such misfortunes. I went through Minneapolis (yay!) but I was only there long enough to buy a Big Mac at the conveniently located, completely generic McDonalds that in no way reminded me of the place where I grew up. Sad. Anyway my flight boarded like 20 minutes after I got off the Raleigh-Minneapolis plane, and suddenly I was in the air for 7 and a half hours with a broken seatback video monitor! Words can't really do justice to the despair that gripped me. Even worse, the very moment I was handed my tray of airplane food, we collided with a thousand-foot wall of turbulent air that proceeded to twist the plane into knots (and my stomach as well) for the next hour. I managed to fall asleep and not puke up the 1/3 of a dinner roll I had choked down before the tempest... Things became very fuzzy for a while... Then I awoke to find that my tray had been removed from my tiny fold-down table without my knowledge! Oh air hostess, would that you had glimpsed only a morsel of my rage! Anyway I slept fitfully for the rest of the flight, and then proceeded to buy the wrong ticket at the kiosk upon arriving in Amsterdam. I was extremely surprised that the Thalys train arrived the minute I stepped on the platform, but whatever, now I'm going to Belgium at 200km/h right?
I had to pay an 18 euro fee for essentially hopping a train... Way to go, Official Representative of American Intelligence. At least they didn't kick me off! I met some very interesting young ladies from Ireland who had been in Amsterdam for a crazy hallucinogen-induced rave party festival all weekend. They were really tired. One of them had a nose ring and all kinds of crazy hair stuff going on, but underneath it all she was strikingly beautiful. I kind of wished that I could meet her in an alternate universe where she wasn't crazy and I wasn't jetlagged beyond belief. Anyway, that's a story for another day. We kept getting shuffled around in the seats as normal, law-abiding customers got on and off the train. I saw Antwerp, and it looked really pretty from the station. I spoke to a man from Vancouver who was visiting Paris, presumably alone, and I was inwardly praying that he was either meeting someone there or that someone would come into his life there and surprise him completely. Ever seen Paris Je T'aime?
Everyone here speaks French and it is the kind of French I love. They are just kind of relaxed about it, and they like to joke about Arnold Schwarzenegger and Michael Jordan and all kinds of other gross American stereotypes. I had a really nice conversation with a taxi driver that pretty much followed those lines. He wished me the best.
Anyways, I'm here now, and already I've come in contact with some really cool people. My group is really fun and nice (I'll talk about them in a later post.) In closing, I just want to encourage people with the miraculous nature of God's guiding presence. How on earth did I get here? I feel like I'll wake up in an hour to the grinding hum of airplane engines and realize it was all a dream. So many modes of transportation, so many mistakes to be made... It's truly marvelous. Not to mention I'm one of 2 people here who speak French. The independence is pretty thrilling (traveling such great distances alone) but I need to remember to keep that independence in the context of my dependence on God's guidance. I read some of Job on the plane and it hit me in the face. More on that later.

Love, Ian