New York, New York

The city that never sleeps. We spent just a few days in NYC and Washington D.C. Felt like we acked so much into our short time here, but in reality, we didn’t even begin to explore the many things there are to do in the respective places.

I rolled up at La Guardia airport on Monday morning, 9am, bleary eyed and a bit unsure of myself. In typical fashion, I hadn’t really made any arrangements with my family for how, when and where they would pick me up from, all the information they had was my flight times. Somehow though, we managed to come together, and we embarked upon a full day’s sight-seeing. At this point, I had already been up for something like 36 hours, so I wasn’t really on top of things!

We visited Central Park which was a really nice place to be, beautiful surroundings, amazing scenery, and we decided to take one of the ‘famous’ horse and carriage tours around the park. What promised to be a remember-forever experience turned out not to be, and I won’t remember it for two main reasons.

1) It was pretty lame! We mostly drove up and down roads, and our guide was on the phone to someone, only turning round every once in a while to tell us “Thees ees where you can play chess” in a romanian/czech accent.

2) I fell asleep.

Obviously, by this point, I was approaching 40 hours without sleep and it was beginning to take it’s toll on me! We ate dinner at the slightly more impressive ‘Planet Hollywood’ restaurant in Times Square, and it was good. We continued to do all the tourist-y stuff in NYC for the next few days...the Empire states building was great, Rockerfeller centre, Statueof Liberty boat cruise, Grand Central Station etc...All of it well worth doing if you find yourself in New York.

We spent a day at a shopping outlet about an hour out of New York City and it was just painful. Anyone who’s been shopping with me can attest to the fact that it jsut doesn’t work well with me, so when I found myself in a massive retail outlet, I did a quick calculation: Matt + 200 plus shops + a whole day = a nightmare. Anyway, I survived the experience with nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, and even bought a nice pair of earphones for my ipod to make the whole experience go quicker!

A day spent in Washington probably wasn’t enough, but we saw plenty of things, including btoh Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the monolith, the white house, the capitol building, the aerospace museum amongst others. However my favourite place of the day to visit strangely enough was the union train station, simply because it had the most amazing food court below it!!! As well as the amazing architecture and so on and so forth.

All in all, plenty to do in New York and Washington, probably needs more time than we can give it though...plus it helps if you stay awake!

Oh, and yes, the tattoo was a spray-on, lasted for 7 glorious days and then faded away! I have no intentions of getting a permanent one!!!

Did you miss it?...

So Hawaii is fast becoming a distant memory, and I'm right into the life of a busy New Yorker!

Since I last blogged, we've had numerous break days, and Older Adult Ministries camp, farewells, two flights, and 3 'new york days'.

So, on our last break days together at camp, a few of us went to the local swap meet which is a kind of huge-scale market. I was reluctant to go at first, as the thought of shopping didn't exactly enthrall me. However, in the blazing heat, we trailed around a large stadium, going from stall to stall, and I must say, it was one of the most fun afternoons I've spent in Hawaii other than with the kids! Astonishingly low prices, lots of variety, and good company meant that we had a great time...and age the local economy a boost! And I got a tatoo.

We did a variety of things on the other days, includig our big farewell banquet at a nice uptown restaurant, and a visit to Pearl Harbor. This was a particularly moving experience, with guided tours, movies, examinations of one of the sunken ships, and seeing some of the survivors of the attacks there on the day, it was an emotional few hours.

On our last evening at camp, after going for another big dinner at another restaurant (it's a hard life) some of us decided that we didn't want to spend our last hours in Hawaii asleep...so we pulled an all-nighter. To be honest, I don't remember alot of that night, other than writing in people's books and spending time with people, I'm not entirely sure what else we did! However we did try and see our first Hawaiin sunrise after being assured of it's beauty. The plan was great, we were going to set our alarms for 5.30am just incase we forgot about it, and go and lie on the beach and watch the sun come up. The only problem was we forgot to not sleep, and ended up napping for half an hour...through the alarm! So we got up and went to the beach, but it was already fairly light, and clouds were obscuring our view of the sun anyway so it was a lost task!

Nethertheless, it was a good evening, and we enjoyed spending time with eachother before having to say an emotional farewell the following morning!

Just in case you thought you had misread...yes I did say I now have a tatoo. It's a little manly flower on my foot, picure to go up on facebook soon!

I'll put up a reflection on the whole camp at a later date, but suffice to say, it was an amazing experience, one I shall never ever forget.

Catch-up

I know it's been a while since I've blogged...but it's been a bit busy! In this time I've had CS#3 camp, seen the batman movie, ridden a unicycle, had Teen camp, hiked up a mountain, and had an awesome American barbecue!

Alot of stuff has happened, so the last 2 weeks have kind of merged into eachother, but we had such a great week with Community Servce #3. I was with the youngest cabin (Lanai) again which was fun. We definitely had our challenges throughout our week, but I think that it was my best camp. One of my boys had an episode late at night and ended up running off-site and shutting down. With the help of the camp director and the DYS, Joe and Captain Neil, we managed to get him to respond and get back to the cabin. I ended up just chatting to him for about an hour as he sat in bed after lights out, and some of the stuff he told me about himself and his family just broke my heart, and he finished up asking me for a hug, which moved me!

Batman: The Dark Knight. Such an awesome movie...I wasn't expecting much, but came out of the screen just amazed. I won't give much away, but Heath Ledger gave the performance of a lifetime (somewhat sadly), and the characters of Lucius and Alfred lifted the film even further. Great direction from Christopher Nolan really brought the story alive.

Two things I didn't expect to be doing this summer, unicycling and hiking! One of the guys here on staff is a champion unicycler, so has been entertaining the kids on his uni all summer. I'd managed to stay clear of riding it for 6 weeks, but then one day...I stupidly forgot that I have no sense of balance whatsoever, and hopped on. 3 seconds later, I picked myself up off the floor, mopped up the blood on my heel, and vowed never again to ride anything with les than two wheels.

With the kids at teen camp being older than our other kids, we were able to do a bit more stuff with them. So we took them up a mountain and back down again. Now, it's obvious from looking at me that anything more than walking to the fridge is a bit of an effort for me, so I wasn't really looking forward to it. The problem is, my cabin for the week, the middle cabin (Niihau) was full of energetic, strong 14/15 year olds, and they had other ideas about the hike. So predictably, we were first up, and first down the mountain, but strangely, I enjoyed it! It certainly proved how unfit I was...but I could take it and was up at the front with them as they power-walked upwards! Think I shall leave it a while before going again though! We took them ice-skating in the evening as well which was fun!

The last night that our kids were here, we had a campfire worship service which was pretty awesome, we had a time afterwards for personal reflection and response with them, which gave me the opportunity to have some really good honest conversations with the guys. I spoke to two young men in particular, who told me someting of their backgrounds and family lives, and it just amazed me that -having been with them for a few days- they were so together and 'normal'. It reminded me that although people can seem one way or another, it's not up to us to judge them or make assumptions because we jst don't know what's going on in their lives!

I'm just about to go and lie on the beach, and rest off the MASSIVE bbq we had after today's worship service...mmmmmmm.

Don't want the music

Out with the old and in with the new. We finished SAY camp earlier this week, and by common consent it was probably our best week!

The kids were great, we had 10 in our cabin, and managed to have alot of fun with them. They were only the young ones, but they were so well behaved, and had a good sense of humour, so we had a great week together. The theme of the week was about space, and so we took them to a planetarium one day of the week, where we had an amazing star-projection presentation.

I think we formed a closer emotional bond with these kids than usual, so leaving day was slightly more difficult than it has been, but was still a happy affair!

We spent our break days mainly with eachother which was nice, we went to one of the staff's house for a bbq which was nice, and stopped on the way to go to a grocery store. I thought it was just going to be a nice normal shopping trip, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary except maybe it was a bit cleaner and posher inside than most of the ones we had been to before.

It was only when I was walking down past the fresh produce aisle that I heard something unusual, thunder! It was really loud, and seemed to be coming from the shelves. I pretty much ducked to the floor and upturned the trolley over me to cover me from falling pineapples. When this didn't happen, I got some funny looks from the people I was with who informed me it was to 'warn me it's about to rain'. 'Haha' I said, 'you're not going to make me look silly twice, don't lie'

Well, turns out that it did begin to rain...inside the grocery store! They spray the fresh produce every 5 minutes or so to keep it fresh, which my American friends were amazed at the fact that we don't have that back home!

So anyway, I wrote far more about that than I intended, just wanted to point out another Americanism that I have discovered!

I've been taking the time out here to listen to alot of music, and one piece in particular has stuck by me and struck me over the last week or so. It's called 'Don't want the music' by Phil Laeger, and I'd really recommend checking it out, from the album 'All I held onto'.

I jsut want to leave you these lyrics, which have moved me and challenged me considerably.

I don't want the music without You...I don't care the melody - that is one song I won't sing. I don't wanna do this without You...

Ijela kajin majol.

I have been investing my time wisely whilst here at camp and started learning a local language...marshallese.

The Marshall Islands is a small Micronesian nation that is a part of the Hawaii and South Pacific Territory, and we have a small number of people from there at the camp, so I have decided to learn their language!

I can so far only have a very basic conversation in the tongue, but thought I would share with you what I have learnt.

Me: yokwe
You: yokwe!
Me: ej et am mour?
You: ebwe kommal.
Me: jab keroro!
You: bwe?
Me: ke nga ichba! (Not too sure about the spelling for this one!)

The translation for that conversation follows:

Me: Hello
You: Hello!
Me: How are you?
You: Okay thanks.
Me: Stop talking!
You: Why?
Me: Because I said so!

And that's it! I realise it's not a typical conversation, but it's the best I can do, and at least it makes me feel good!

:) Big Birthday greetings to both Ellie (8) and Dad (4*) in the last 3 days!

Tatty bye byes!

Born on the 4th of July

I realised I haven't blogged for a few days, it's just tough to find the time at the moment...but here goes for now!

There's only about 18 hours left of this service camp to go, so thought I had better put some thoughts down so far.

I have loved taking part in this week. It's been possibly the most tiring for me as we are back to a cabin of boys who don't want to listen and/or take part...and faced with 13 ten-twelve year old boys all with egos and attitudes gets draining! However there have been undoubtedly some real highlights for me.

The first, finding out that the 3rd of July is known as Commonwealth day, which took me by surprise, but meant that I was able to represent team GB for part of the day. As part of our evening program, our cabin boys put on a short skit which they devised themselves, and did a fantastic job of it. If that wasn't enough...we had a visit from the Queen of England! Or an englishman dressed in drag as Queen Elizabeth II.

Another special part of the day for me was being asked by one of the 11 year olds in my cabin whether we had electricity in the UK, or did we still use candles?!?! I very calmly gave him the correct answer and held back from discussing how Michael Faraday, Alexander Bell, Lord Kelvin all hailed from Great Britain!

The 3rd of July is of course followed by the 4th of July which meant one thing...Independance day!!!

I was worried that I might feel uncomfortable or uneasy during this day as a British Citizen...but couldn't have felt more at home, especially when I heard the tunes to Land of Hope and Glory and God Save the Queen being used throughout the day! As one American put it, we couldn't be bothered to come up with our own patriotic tunes, so we take them from other people!

The whole day was fantastic, from the big BBQ, to the carnival (where I manned the kissing booth!!!) to the campfire and fireworks afterwords. I don't mind at all owning up to the fact that I had a lump in my throat whilst standing listening to God Bless America (Sandi patty - awesome) watching the different fireworks and sparklers.

All in all, it makes me wonder why we in GB don't celebrate our heritage and uniqueness more...could it be - as was said in a prayer by one of the other English guys on the team - because 'We in the Commonwealth have been used as a tool for evil and wrongdoing'?!?!

Who knows?

Milkshakes and being British in the USA

30.06.08

Coming to Hawaii I really only had one cultural objective, to learn how to surf.

Today, I took the first step towards that dream. We took a surfboard out onto the beach with us, and I ended up having my first surf lesson from a 7 year old boy! I managed to paddle out to deep waters lying down on the board, get into a kneeling position, then crouch on the board, and then up to standing on the board…for about 5 seconds before falling off!

At least I can now say I have surfed in Hawaii…kind of! I want to try again tomorrow, but may have to wear a guard to make sure I don’t get a rash from the rough board all down my front!

Tonight we went into Waikiki to eat, which was quite an amazing experience. Walking down the street meant that every 15 metres or so there was someone on the sidewalk either singing, painting, doing magic, playing the drums, rapping, being a human statue, or indeed just sitting wearing a load of spikes all over their bodies! It was quite surreal to have these street performers on one side whilst passing stores like Gucci, Chanel, Dior, Rolex and Armani on the other.

We ate at a ‘typical’ American diner devoted mainly to Elvis Presley. The food was alright, but we were mainly paying the money for the atmosphere…and the waitresses jumping up onto the stage and dancing a routine to ‘Greased Lightning’ when it came on, with one of our group jumping up to join them!

Some things about the USA that I love:

People saying ‘Have a nice day’ and actually meaning it.
People smiling at you in the street without the intentions of separating you and your money.
Free refills.
Patriotism and a genuine love of their country.
Milkshakes.
No beating about the bush or hiding behind words.
Amounts of food.
Weather.
The assumption that a British accent makes you a great person.
Genuine appreciation.
The beach J

That’s all folks!

Small print

29.06.08

I should start with a disclaimer with regards to my last post.

It’s been pointed out that it comes across as quite critical and an attack on the country that is putting me up for 3 months! So I feel I should just explain that it was born from a conversation with some Americans at camp about the relevance of the Pledge of Allegiance and what it means to the average resident of the USA. It wasn’t meant at all to represent my view, and if it comes across that way, please accept my apologies!

So today has been the first break day and a day to relax. We’ve just finished music camp which was very very fun! As you might expect I was in my favourite place, surrounded by music, I had a great time!

I divided up my week singing in the faculty chorus, playing in the faculty band, playing piano for the middle chorus, playing in the humu ono band, playing piano for the camp worship team, playing piano for the praise and worship elective, teaching individual brass lessons in the private brass elective, and helping teach advanced theory class!

The campers we’ve had this week have been delightful. A smaller cabin of 9 boys, and a slightly older age-range has meant that behaviour-wise, we haven’t had to deal with much this week, and we’ve been able to really have fun with them. Our special guests this week for the music faculty have been Matt and Nicola from Pasadena (originally Portsmouth) with Caleb Danielson and Meredith Flinn also from Pas. This talented group of people each brought something very special to the week, and helped to create a really fun atmosphere for the campers and staff alike.

A real highlight for me again has been praying with these kids each day and seeing real transformation in them. The whole experience so far has really strengthened my passion for and belief in camp ministry, and the power of good it could do back home if more people would embrace it and maybe learn from the excellent model we have in the London South-East division.

Another thing that has been strengthened in me today is my hate of shopping. We traipsed around a mall for a couple of hours, and it just made me thank the Lord even more that I do not feel compelled to shop at any time! I saw a few strange things, including a hair straightening stall, which, as the name suggests, you go to to have an attendant straighten your hair, therefore ensuring that your shopping experience is fn and frizz free!

We finished off today with a really intimate time of sung worship and prayer under the stars. I put together a song list and played the piano for over and hour whilst a few of the team sat and sung. It was really nice just to spend time together in that way, and to have a prayer circle at the end where God was clearly present blessing us.

Can’t wait for tomorrow, hope it will be a time to relax, with not a shop in sight! Bring on the beach…

Cynical world view?

I pledge half-hearted allegiance to the flag of the United only by name States of America, and to the Republic for which it no longer really stands. One introspective nation under the God of materialism, indivisible unless there is a presidential election taking place, with Liberty and Justice for all unless any of the following apply: Innocent of any charges whatsoever, part of a minority, part of a majority, prisoner of war, prisoner on death row, ever done anything wrong in the past, part of any religious organisation, part of any non-religious organisation, trying to enter the country, trying to leave the country etc...

Terms and conditions apply, statutory rights are affected, any likeness to characteristics of the USA, real or ficitious, is entirely accurate.

Briefly

Just a quick one today, the next set of kids should arrive in the next 3 hours, so we hav spent the morning preparing which has been fun.

As it's a music school, I've been assigned to play piano for the middle choir, and to play in the faculty band ( I think) which should be good fun. We're all really excited about them arriving, should be a great 9 days!

Slightly gutted that will be missing band weekend back home, think it's going to be a really fantastic few days, I've heard only really positive things about Aaron so far, so it's a shame I won't be there to hear him!

Anyhow, off to go and make sure I have enough devotions prepared for this week!

Aloha!

Crabmeat and cream soda

So today all too quickly we came to the end of the first service camp.

The last few days have held some really positive experiences, I've met some really awesome kids, had a great worship day with my cabin - praying with most of them, seen a real transformation in some of them. There have also been some real challenges, having 11 out of our 14 cabin kids with behavioural issues, seeing the background behind some of these kids and how broken they are, feeling that we've spent more time disciplining than discipling.

Despite having violent fights, one kid using our cabin window and curtain instead of a toilet at night etc. I still wouldn't change our group of kids for the world. So it made it difficult when we had to say goodbye to them today!

It means that we are now on break until the next group of kids come in on friday for music school which should be slightly better behaviour-wise... at the moment they are quite below on numbers, so we could have 5 instead of 14 in the cabin!

This evening I experienced my first Taco Bell (great) and went hunting for sand crabs on the beach after dark (not great). I thought I liked crabs...apparantly not! A couple of us went out and shamefully I ended up being a flashlight holder with the girls instead of a hunter-gatherer with the boys! Still, one of the larger ones we caught we brought back with us and someone broke off a leg for me, so I had fresh (raw) crabmeat! Earlier on I had bought some special cream soda (yum) flavoured with honey and vanilla. This turned out to be my first major mistake so far in Hawaii...it's vile stuff!

Therefore, if you are offered freshly caught crab, make sure it is dead before you eat it...and if you are offered some weinburg's 'gourmet' cream soda...stay well clear!

What's in a name?

So the kids have been here for a couple of days here...and they are awesome!

As you'd expect, there are some minor issues, one or two scuffles, but overall, we are so blessed with these kids. In my cabin there are 14 boys aged 9 and 10. Far more than I'm used to back at camp at home! Already I've been asked if I'm from Australia, how many children I have of my own, what's my wife's name, and told that I look about 46...oh dear. I might have to start a new moisturising routine!

Unfortuantely it seems that I am having to play 'bad cop' in our cabin at the moment, which I don't mind doing, but it just means that whenever I do have a laugh or have fun, the kids look at me as if they didn't know I had a sense of humour?!?!

Ah well, if nothing else, the mozzies love me, I counted 15 bites below the knee on my left leg! Might have to start wearing mozzi repellant...I wonder if they do violent kid repellant?!

I led a camp-wide devotion last night on the second part of the Jonah story which was slightly nerve-wracking! Apart from anything else, chapter 4 of the book is very odd, I'd never realised! Anyhow, I pretty much ignored all my notes and spoke about a different topic entirely which was fun!

It's starting to get confusing here as there is another matt on staff as well as myself, plus I have both a Matt and a Matthew in my cabin...makes for an interesting end of day report write-up: 'Matt showed hostility and aggression towards the rest of his cabin during cabin clean-up' etc...

Pics are up on fbook.

Kapplemeister

12.06.08

I’m not sure quite how this has happened, but I seem to have become resident choir-master here at camp Homelani! I’ve been asked to lead and train up the other team members in singing some staff songs at our weekly production here at camp. They seem to be under the impression that I can sing!

We’ve chosen to sing amazing grace to the tune of ‘In the Jungle’ from the Lion King, ‘Oh Happy Day’ from Sister Act, and ‘Happy Day’ by Tim Hughes (intentional link). Also in the same production, I’ve landed the part of director in one of the major scenes, NOT because of my precocious dramatic talent as I had suspected, but because I have a British Accent, as do ALL directors…go figure?! Best part of all? I was told by some of the girls last night that I sound like Michael Buble when I sing… result!!

So yesterday afternoon was spent on the beach and swimming (gorgeous clear blue water, soft fine sand) where I managed to completely cook my upper back and shoulders, so have bought a load of after sun today to soothe that off.
In the evening, we had our formal night and end of orientation. We all dressed up, everyone looked great, and had canapés and appetisers, and then had lots of local foods and a great evening of fun and games. A popular a small group started is that you have to sneak up behind someone, lightly kiss their back/shoulder, and sing ‘sneaky kisses, sneaky sneaky kisses’ before running off without them noticing. I turned out not to be so good at this game and got caught by the camp director, who promptly returned the favour this morning!

Today is our first break day of the summer, which has been spent getting little things done that needed doing, and going to Wal*Mart to get some essentials. The kids arrive tomorrow, so the excitement is building!

Looking forward to going out into town to eat tonight. Peace out.

Breaking Fast

10.06.08

Today we’ve had the bulk of our ‘safe from harm’ training. Our equivalent in the UK to ‘safe and sound’. In the main, it’s just the same as ours, lots and lots of little rules and clauses and things to do and not do, presented in a couple of hours, with an accompanying video. It was as fun as it sounds.


The morning looked up when we had a visit from a local doctor of therapy, who runs a project for kids with severe behavioural difficulties. Along with her associate, she provided an entertaining yet very informative workshop for dealing with children, and showed us some useful exercises for dealing with violent children without using violence in return!

One of the exercises involved one member of staff walking towards another and seeing how close they came before either staff felt uncomfortable within their personal space. The Dr. was amazed at how close our team came towards each other, which we attributed to having done a ’high-ropes’ course the day before which brought many of us far too close together!

I’ve been amazed at the seriousness with which Americans treat their breakfasts. I would say they definitely see it as the most important meal of the day. I’m not usually a breakfast person, but have found myself joining in and having typically some pancakes with syrup, breakfast pizza (mmmm!), biscuits and gravy (ummmm…), fried rice (pretty much what you would have from a Chinese takeaway), cereal, egg bacon and sausage crème freche quiche type thing and any other assortment of wonderful tasty foods!

I don’t think I’ll be coming back with any less than I came unfortunately!

Easy like...

Sunday morning!

Bright shining sun, a gentle breeze, birds twittering in the air, this is the Hawaii I imagined!

This morning we've had our first Sunday Church Service. It was a really interesting experience noticing the little differences with how things are done here, like standing up for the scripture reading, or mellow hula dancing to a hawaiin version of 'My Jesus my Saviour' (much prefered to worship dancing, sorry English people!).

I've taken some pictures of the camp and the beach, which I'll try and put up on facebook in a second, but it really is stunning here, and the pictures don't do it justice!

The kids join us on friday, so we are starting to gear up for their arrival, still training, running through different situations/scenarios, and finding out what we are meant to be doing!

All in all? It's niiiiice.

Aloha!

Everywhere you go, you always take the weather!

05.06.08


Met some of the guys last night, and most of the rest this morning. The team seem like a really good bunch, and seem to be bonding quickly.

The clear blue sea is literally our back garden! Went for a swim today with some others and it was just amazing!

Most of today was spent doing orientation and learning about how things are done here at camp, so alot of information!

Reason for the title? I’ve travelled many thousands of miles, to a tropical climate, and wake up this morning to a light drizzle of rain! I'm assured that this is very unusual though, and everything I've heard about Hawaii ISN'T a lie!

It's 10.25 pm, I'm sitting outside writing this in shorts and t-shirts, and the temperature is probably around 20 degrees. Niiiice.

The journey

04/06/08

So today the journey begins! 3 months ahead of stepping into the unknown, new experiences, exciting opportunities!

How do I feel? Nervous - Yes. Excited - Yes. Slightly out of my depth - Oh Yes!

I said goodbye to most of the family first thing this morning (5.30) and later to dad at the airport after an intimate breakfast with the notorious orange and carrot juice (don’t do it).

I did find it quite difficult to walk away from dad into one of the worlds biggest and busiest airports, and was pretty choked up for the first couple of hours. I’ve discovered that airports can be a very lonely place if you are on your own!

Anyhow, I’m writing this at the end of the first leg of my journey, the 9 hour flight from Gatwick to Atlanta. Aside from the smell of the baby being changed 10 feet from me, all is well! It’s 5.35pm GMT, so naturally, as is the american way, I’ve already had a lunch and dinner on this flight, played many trivia quizzes, lost far too much (virtual) money on the onboard multiplayer poker game, done a few sudokos, and read some of a Bill Bryson Book.

Life is good, if a little isolated!

2nd Leg of the journey.

Atlanta Airport:
Noun et verb
Def~
1) Something that is intrinsically bad/rubbish/total waste of time.
2) The performing of an action taking three times the length of time it should.
3) The total love of and adherence to daft rules.
4) A form of punishment, usually psychological.

Example use of noun. If you find yourself in the USA, make sure to, by whatever means necessary - up to and including rerouting via Australia - avoid stopping at, passing through, or indeed over Atlanta Airport.

Example use of verb. “If you dare even think of doing what I just asked you not to I’ll Atlanta Airport you.”

Slightly encouraged that we arrived at Atlanta Airport 20 minutes early, but disconcerted by the fact that the hour and a half it took to transfer from one plane (through customs/security/baggage) would have caused us to miss the plane if we hadn’t arrived early!

The second part to that is that on my way back from Honolulu to new York, the stopover in Atlanta is a measly 50 minutes, so it’s almost definitely not going to work! Shall have to think of a plan.

3rd Leg of the Journey

Found out at the aforementioned Atlanta Airport that my flight from Atlanta to Honolulu would be via LA, another stopover!

This flight thankfully went relatively uneventfully, and I arrived in Honolulu! Surprisingly dark for 9 o’clock at night, so didn’t really manage to see much, but was immediately struck by the heat and humidity. Looking forward to the days ahead.