Alive! and Awake!

I am alive!!

I arrive in Romania Ploiesti yesterday (2/21) approximately at 4:30pm. We were allowed time for a short nap and shower before dinner at 6pm. I took the shower, because 1 day 8 hours of traveling can make a person feel dirty and then I took an Amazing 10 minute nap.

Anyway, to give a timeline with pictures of our travel from Phili, PA to Ploiesti, Romania:

This is Erika and Anna, taking a bus from Phili to New York. They are engaged in a very deep conversation. There are authentic East coast trees in the background, notice the have no leaves in February.



(disclaimer) The writer of this blog is still suffering from jet lag, which includes delusional writing, dehydration, and apparently swollen ankles.



Above are signs I took pictures of to show that we went past New Jersey and we were on the Brooklyn Bridge. Eh. After seeing the Golden Gate bridge all my life, the Brooklyn was impressive, but I was indifferent. If you squint really hard (as hard as I had to, even with my 12X zoom) you can see the Statue of Liberty behind and to the top right of the red barge. It's several shades lighter than I thought it would be.



Alight, here is New York. We got into some traffic, so I had more time to enjoy the scenery.
I saw China town of some sorts because there were a bunch of Chinese stores down a few blocks. Then I saw a lot of Getty gas stations, which I've never seen in California. Here's a White Castle restaurant for those you who appreciate it.

These two pictures were taken at the NY airport; the J. F. Kennedy airport to be precise. Notice Joe standing in the line in the picture to the left. Behind him sits Janet (I believe, it's hard to see the image), Besty, and then Sean. On the picture to the right, there is Maggie giving us a beautiful greeting! I think that's Neal looking off into the distance.













Here are some pictures of us on the plane. I've only taken 2 international flights, old enough to remember, but this one was by far the better one. The 7 hour ride flew by, so to speak. In these nifty seats sits: Dave, Betsy, myself and Prudie. We got a blanket, a pillow, and free headphones! to use, not to keep.













Here's me getting ready to dig into that airplane food. We were given real silverware!! I was impressed. The center picture was an impressive dinner, and the right picture is lunch. We had real butter and cheese and everything. International flight also served free alcohol, which I didn't consume but I thought it was cool they offered. We also saw 2 movies, but nothing I really liked.

Here is a sign from the German airport we spent a long long time at. We were sad because there was no carpeting and we were really tired. We couldn't go into our gate area until 1 hour before our flight and the security checking there is very very thorough there (some may say exciting or invigorating).

This is us trying to sleep at the airport (Megan, Betsy, Jenn, Jackie). Some succeeded more than others. I couldn't sleep a wink there. There were too many people watching (I was hoping we didn't stand out too much yet, guess not)

Here's some pictures I took as we were riding the bus from the airport in Bucharest to Ploiesti (Ploy-yes-t). This is not how all Romania looks like, but just from the strip from our ride. See the chickens on the bottom right? I was under the impression that there was only bread and pigs. Yay chicken! Too bad I left my lemon pepper at home =(

Here are some big corporations I
found in Romania. They weren't hard to spot. I've not spotted a Denny's yet, but here's a McD and Coke a Colas.
It's weird cause Poly has no Coke and now I like in a place where I don't think there's Pepsi.


This is where we've been staying since we've landed in Romania. We're share our rooms with a roommate, and while lots of stuff in these rooms are similar to hotels in the US, there were a few surprises.
One surprise involve me flushing the toilet thinking it was the light switch. (I wasn't the only one)

Here is a picture of the currency here. It's called the lei (like the Hawaiian lei you put around your neck) or Ron (like Ron Wesley).

It's exchange rate is 1 Ron per 0.40 USD as of today.

Pictures!! of people during our 1st official Romanian dinner. There's Susie sitting next to Anne, myself sitting next to Mrs. Nils (aka Emily) and Sarah from Montana and David. For people who were really really sleep deprived, and some of us unshowered, I think we looked very impressive.


I saw this picture while eating dinner. It's a Greek scene, the world Artemis is chiseled in the glass too, but it was pretty.

And that my family and friends, was the end of our long trip. It was concluded with a tiramisu like desert and then bed.