PDX

Well here I am.

Friday night Tim and I left Madison with 2 suitcases, 3 carry-ons, and 2 kitties. After a frustrating 45 minutes waiting for Frontier to figure out what the heck they do with pets traveling in cargo we were on our way through security with 2 hours until departure. After a few pints at the Dane we took off from MSN to arrive about 30 minutes early in Denver. "Perfect" we thought. "Just enough time to grab a bite to eat before our connecting flight." WRONG. Apparently there was some sort of weather in DEN (one flight attendant said "microbursts" but I have no clue what that means) so the airport had closed, TWICE. Inevitably our flight was delayed about 1.5 hours. So we got some chinese and a milkshake and went to chill outside our gate. Once onboard the Airbus there was a minor freakout when the airline neglected to give us the boarding slips for Oliver and Bucky. Luckily a flight attendant was kind enough to call down and double check for us. As we took off we found out that we would be receiving free tv for the flight which was nice. I simply slept. Touching down in Portland, we claimed our bags and our kitties (best moment of the day) and ventured to pick up our ridiculous Kia Rio... power nothing but Sirius equipped... I hated that car. We got ourselves to a 24 hour Walgreens to grab the essentials for the night and trekked over to the apartment. Once their we "settled in" as best we could: no blankets, freezing apt, no pillows, you get the picture. We slept on the floor in the living room with towels and clothes as our pillows and jackets as our blankets. I kinda wish I had taken a picture.

Saturday morning we waited around for the Comcast guy so I could have internet. Then it was off to Target for a $400 shopping spree including an air mattress, sheet, towels, shower curtain, toiletries, a microwave and cleaning supplies. Thankfully we got to have a little fun over the weekend - we met up with Josh and went to check out the North American Organic Brewfest which was pretty sweet. Lots of people, good food, good music, and even better beer. Afterwards it was back to the apt and Winco for some grocery shopping.

Sunday was a rough day. Tim left around 8:30 for his flight back to Madison and I spent most of the day trying not to cry/ watching episodes of Bones. I also made a run over to Petco to get some things for the kitties. They are the proud owners of new collars and ID tags - they look so handsome!

Not sure what the plans will be for the week. Hoping the movers bring our stuff soon, but who knows. Start work on Friday!

Arduous Journey

I kinda guessed this journey might be off to an interesting adventure when our first flight was canceled before we even got to Minnesota. Thankfully American was nice and got us rescheduled on a 0705 flight. So, at 0400 this morning we woke up and had an amazing fresh coffee cake compliments of Jason (Hailey's stepdad). At the airport we were lucky enough to run in Kris Jetzer who got us amazing seats on our first flight. After a nice 1 hour and 49 minute nap - we landed in Dallas and spent the next 3 hours walking around. On the bright side - the bar at Bennigan's was showing the Badger game, so we got to see the game up until half time. The flight from Dallas to Belize City was delayed about 15 minutes because it was being inspected by "security". Once in the air we were excited again to be leaving the country. Touching down in Belize it was a blamy 78 degrees farenheit (I need to work on my ability to convert from celsius...). Once through the ridiculous clulster that was immigration and customs we stood in line for at least 45 minutes waiting at the Tropic Air counter to get our flight to Punta Gorda. There was this one guy working the counter who was extremely nice and helpful. He took our bags, helped us get our flight - really took care of us. After all this waiting, it started down-pouring and our plane decided not to come to the airport... So with some help from the extremely nice staff we ran into another student headed to the clinic too (I'm actually sitting in the hotel talking with him and Hailey). We got a ride to the Global Village Hotel in Belize City where the staff was also extremely helpful and got us into the hotel safely. With the free internet up and running, Hailey and I headed out in search of dinner. Attempting not to get run over (Belize has no sidewalks) and avoiding the hooligans at the local bar, we ducked into a chinese restaurant about a block from the hotel. There was ordered our food and had our first Belikens (Belizean beer). Also got to see our first lizard on the wall there. Walked back to the hotel again trying not to get run over and ran into some people we had met at the Belize International Airport. First thing she said, "Where'd you get the beer?". The entire hotel lobby is full of people we met at the airport who also had their flights canceled. So we ate dinner with them. Now we've been chilling in the hotel talking with the other student. We've got a flight to Punta Gorda in the morning - 1030 and will hopefully not have any further troubles. It's been a very interesting trip so far and we're only on the first day. I can't wait for the rest.