As always, the results are mixed!

The good news- I am here with seven teammates. The bad news- ten are MIA! The part of the team that came from Charlotte made it but the part from Raleigh is stuck, maybe in Newark! They will get here soon, we hope!

Well, my week of getting ready was not very successful. First, I got food poisoning and my stomach is still unhappy. Then my computer hard drive crashed and, except for an amazing husband and the lucky day I married himm, I would have lost all my data that I had not backed up (ok, so it was six weeks since I backed up anything!). But I got packed for this trip and the immediately (within 12 hours of my plane landing) following 2 week trip.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early (since I hardly slept anyway, that was easy enough to do). I left the house at 5:15 in order to pick up Laura at my first stop. Then we picked up Nadeen at 6:20. The three of us went to Sharon's house and her wonderful, sweet husband drove us to Charlotte. We quickly found the other four who were leaving out of Charlotte and made our trip to Newark. Since we had a lengthy layover we did not worry when Bernard found that the other ten people who were supposed to meet us, were running late. As the weather outside deteriorated into a drizzle, the news inside was much darker. They could not make it from Raleigh in time to join us on the overseas flight to Copenhagen. We would need to move forward without them.

Disappointed for our friends, we boarded the plane for our 7+ flight. God was with me on that. I had requested, and been given assignments for bulkhead seats in order to avoid the likelihood of blood clots but the airline had given those away to other people. When the final over bookings were straightened out and our plane door shut, an empty seat remained in my row so I had three seats to share with one other person. During the flight I became acquainted with Anders Svensson and he invited me to visit the private school that his oldest (out of three girls) daughter attends. He explained to me that it is a school sponsored by the government and required to teach the mandated curriculum but he pays $200 a month in order to have her in a better situation that is very close to his home and offers her a smaller class size (20 to the public school's 28 per class). We are now working out plans for doing this.

Once we arrived at our hotel and stowed our luggage we went on a quick tour around to discover the familiar locations we will need for the next few days and then went on a canal tour on a boat. It lasted on hour and I found that the longer days also seems to mean that the sun is strong. Even though I had sunscreen and it was only 10AM, I still got too much sun. After that we went to the buffet lunch that offered treats and delicious food more than I can even describe. I have, howerer, not found my stomach to be very anxious to eat any food, let alone tasty food.

Now we are moved into our luxurious hotel rooms. As long as a person does not have a roommate yet, there is plenty of room. I shall see how that works out once Ann arrives tomorrow! Right now, I have the entire cell and "touch all four walls in one turn" bathroom all to myself. I have worked on my JHU school work, checked out the lives of my buds on facebook and need to do a bit of walking before I call it a day in a few more hours. Right now it is 6 PM, which is 12 noon at home. I have been up for 36 hours and will probably get to sleep before I hit the 40 hour mark. That is not bad at all for a trip across to Europe.

Tomorrow's agenda includes breakfast at the hotel, Danish University of Education, the arrival of our missing half (yes, have faith) and a school visit. Then we are free and I may go over to Malmo, Sweden. Whatever I do, an adventure awaits in Denmark. The church bells are tolling 6 PM and I am out to explore in the last 4 or 5 remaining hours of sunshine. It is still bright and shiny right now!