Sunday, March 11, 2012

Stories from the journey over...


It was the longest trip that I’ve ever embarked on, but it was definitely interesting.  Getting from Montreal from Charlottetown was the easy part, but the rest of the journey was definitely an adventure.  The Montreal airport certainly was bustling for 6:30 in the morning, and Leila and I made our way through the airport with no major hiccups.  Two stories of interest there – two young guys asked us to take their picture in the MTL airport, and I asked if they were visiting Canada, seeing as taking a photo in an airport is a very touristy thing to do.  However, they just wanted the picture to put on Facebook, and they were indeed from Canada (whoops!).  Montreal was also pretty funny – Leila and I went up to the customs agent there together, not really thinking about it, and he assumed we were “together” because we went up to the window together…he had a pretty good chuckle about that!

Oddly enough, I think we heard 5 different alarms go off while we were sitting on the plane in both Montreal and Newark…unnerving to say the least!

Newark airport was interesting too.  I don’t think I’ve ever been in an airport that big, and it was a lot of fun to roam around in.  We also ran into Mary-Elizabeth and Matt on their way to Togo, so that was a pleasant surprise! We had a great meal in one of the diners there (see pics from previous post) and realized that everything really is BIGGER in the US J We did a lot of people watching there, too, and at one point we saw a little baby waving at Leila, which was super cute, and then watched the baby’s father almost fall off of the moving sidewalk, which solicited some giggles from the two of us.  The only annoying thing about the Newark Airport was that we had to pay for the wireless…but we couldn’t as a result of not having an American service provider L

The trip to Stockholm was alright for my first flight across the Atlantic.  I was sitting with two Swedish girls, who told me about Sweden and that I would really enjoy my time in Jokkmokk (although they were surprised that I was going so far North).  They also gave me tips for being jet-lag, but I’m unfortunately still struggling with it.  Maneuvering Stockholm Arlanda airport was not very difficult, but was a little frustrating because Leila was having a bit of trouble with the automated check-in and had to wait in a line, where an incredibly rude man cut right in front of her.  Fortunately, there were some lovely Swedish ladies in the line that noticed this and informed the man of his rudeness.

Despite being tired we managed to make our way to the Lulea bus station when we landed, and found the bus to Jokkmokk with ease.  It’s been an exciting few days, and that was just getting here!  I’m sure that I’ll have lots more to write about once I get the first week of teaching at the Bokenskolan under my belt.

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