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| Cannoli and Cappuccino |
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| Yummy! |
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| The Asian Tour group |
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| Our last Italian meal |
We lingered a bit too long in the Roman ambience, and had to
rush to get to the airport. Once we
arrived, only an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, there was a
long wait at the ticket counter. Time
was definitely ticking down and we were all starting to get nervous. Next came security. Oh my goodness. That line took forever! Once through, we rounded the corner to find
yet another line at passport control/immigration. At this point, we had 20 minutes before our
flight should be leaving. I was super,
super nervous. All of the sudden I hear
this voice yelling over the crowd saying “Our flight leaves in 20 minutes, we
need to get through quickly. Can we go
in front of anyone?”…and I knew the voice…it was my teammate! Some sweet older people let us get in front
of them and we were stamped out of Rome in record time.
I was the last through and I just told Julie and Carissa to
run. I started running and was quite
impressed with myself. I almost caught
up with the other two girls when my 25 pound rolly carry-on began to really
slow me down. That and the sign that
said our terminal was 5 minutes away. Oh
man, all the pasta and pizza from this past week were really taking a negative
effect on me. (Jillian Michaels, I’m
coming for you later.) I knew I couldn’t
keep this pace for 5 minutes! There was
a point I saw Julie running up ahead and I said to myself, “She’ll stop the
plane for me.” So, I slowed my pace a
bit to keep myself from collapsing on the airport floor. I finally made it to the gate, ran onto the
bus,…and waited…and waited…and waited for all the other people who had been in
security and passport control to come get on the bus before we finally road a
few feet to the airplane and boarded it.
My heart had finally stopped racing and we were beginning to
taxi to the runway when I thought I should check to see where my passport
is. You know the thing that is very
important and you need it to get in and out of countries around the world. I couldn’t find it. I looked through my purse, Julie looked
through my purse, Carissa looked through my purse. Nothing.
We looked in the bin above.
Nothing. I told the flight
attendants. One of them hit the floor
and looked on the carpet. Nothing. We ripped up our seat, the thing that can turn
into a floatation device. Nothing. At this point I am about to lose it. I’m thinking through my options. No matter which way I looked at it, it was
bad, bad news. I thought I had it when I
got on the plane, but I wasn’t sure.
Maybe it was on the bus. Maybe I
dropped it as I climbed the stairs up to the plane. Maybe it is stuck in the airplane door
flopping in the wind as we flew.
Trust. Pr@y. Trust.
Pr@y.
My eyes closed for a moment in exhaustion and then I felt a
tap on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to
see a US passport with my picture on it in front of my face. It was my passport! A lady several rows back found it at her
feet. I’m not sure how it got there, but
it was there. Suddenly I was hugging
this woman and the female flight attendant.
“Praise the Lsrd. Praise the Lsrd!” The flight attendant took my passport and stuff,
stuff, stuffed it down into the bottom of my bag. I was not going to lose it again on her
watch!
The plane landed and I entered a new country. This country is full of history and spans not
one, but two continents. The city, a
city of 17 million, also spans both continents.
I am so excited to be here and visit with some friends. I will only be here about 36 hours, but there
is so much to see and so many good things to eat!
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| A view out the bus window in this new city. It reminds me of home with all the trees! |
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