Photos from ferry trip

I don't have much time online, but here are some photos from the ferry that we took from Rome to Sardegna. They're all mixed up, and I don't have time to change them around -- oh well. :) They're all pretty self-explanatory.
Basically, after lugging our luggage around for WAY too long -- we were both drenched in sweat and SO exhausted from not sleeping on the flight, being 7 hours off schedule and carrying those suitcases everywhere. So we got a cabin, where we were finally able to change our clothes and take wonderful showers (hence the big smiles on our faces, heh!), and then we explored the ship -- with nice big cold beers to top it off, YES! And then we were able to crash for a much-needed 2 hours of sleep, thank the good Lord.
Here are the photos -- enjoy!

(Celeste thought our hair looked cool so snapped the above shot, heh!)

(Our tiny cabin room, heh!)

Below: THIS was our speedo men. :D I haven't seen so many speedo men since Brazil! Okay, maybe it's a typical thing in Italy (or Europe for that matter), but I'm not used to it, coming from Mexico and the US for the past 5+ years. So I had Celeste capture this photo for me -- and Heather, I would like to give you these to Italian men, since you see beauty all around you. I am sure that you will enjoy this one!

Photos from our travels ...

Above: Celeste figuring out her Ipod (I secretly took this photo, heh heh)
Below: Cel being a good secretary and catching up on work, while waiting for our plane.

Below: Me trying to persuade Cel not to take a photo. :D
Below: The long line of people waiting to board on our flight. Below: The wonderful dinner (and wine!!) that we had on the plane, while watching a movie. Jesus loves us! :)

Below: Check out what strong women we are!! We had to lug this luggage for such a loooooong time, and the big ones were at 50 pounds, gulp! That's where Cel's muscles come in handy, heh! After landing, we took two trains (the below photo is of us waiting for our train, which came typically late, heh), and then had to walk a few blocks to buy tickets to the ferry that took us to Sardegna. More photos of that will come later ...

Below: Celeste and her dad, right when he picked us up after our 5 1/2 hour ferry trip, from Rome to Sardegna.

The End ... more photos on the way!

Being positive and all...

I’m feeling more and more thankful that Jamie’s helping blog about this trip – look at her, already three posts and pictures. What a shiner! ;) Now it’s my turn…so I can also take part of the glory for the adventures we’re getting into – it’s incredible, I had kind of forgotten about all those crazy things that happen when I travel. – At least I’m kind of “used” to it and the Lord gives me the calm to handle it. Ha!

So here we are – in DC! And yes, that was NOT the plan, in case anyone was going to ask. We honestly were doing great after that last border crossing issue. We spent those two nights in San Antonio (one night at Fiesta and one night at Blanco to make everyone happy – they’re all so hospitable and COOL!!!), went to a POA gig, for me it was great seeing old friends and making new ones, and we then drove on to Houston to spend the night with some friends who SO sweetly drove us to the airport at a rather ungodly hour (especially seeing as it was a Sunday).

Things seemed to be going great, I even managed to get exit row seats (for my long legs), and then we land for our first stop over in Charlotte. We get to the gate and they offer to put us on an earlier flight to DC, which, again, seems to be just peachy, until we realize that the “earlier flight” had been waiting to take off since 9:30 in the morning – and it was 12:30 at the time. Yikes! (There was something wrong with the earlier plane, so they had to find another plane to fly people. Heh!) We were also thankful we still had our other tickets too, just in case that didn’t work out! The fun begins though when we’re about to start loading up – that’s when they announce that there’s a ground stop in DC – due to weather – no incoming or outgoing flights. Oh d-d-dear!

To make a long story short we sat in the airport lounge for 3 hours, with updates every half hour as to whether DC was open yet or not – and then they load us on to the plane at 3:30 – so we think “yes, we’ll make it to DC in time for our 6:20 flight out”, but no, we sat in the plane itself for almost 2 hours as they simply shipped us off to the plane to await DC airport opening (heh) seeing as they needed to use that gate for other flights. :(

Oh, and I forgot to tell you that poor Jamie got a tummy bug (and she’d like me to clarify that NO, she’s not PG – snicker) so she’s like puking the whole time. Poor baby!

The happy ending of the actual “plane” part is that we took off shortly after 5:00, though we land in DC just 10 minutes after our flight to Italy took off. – Sniff…

So then start the lines – we waited in one line for like 45 minutes only to then notice a small sign (posted out of the way, of course) that said we had to go to another converse to wait in another line if we were flying internationally. ARGH! So we go to that line, and OH MY GOD!!!! – That line was just ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly! I think it got to about half a mile long or more, it was that bad!

So we waited, and we waited, and we waited - then we took turns waiting, I don’t know about Jamie, but I got my Word time…and yes, 4 ½ hours later (meaning it’s almost midnight by then) we finally get to the front of the line and are confirmed on a flight out to Rome the next day! :( - So that would be a 24 hour delay!Thankfully the airline gave us a discount voucher (it wasn’t their fault the weather shut the DC airport down, but I must say, they handled the frustrated and even disgruntled passengers so well – I felt so sorry for them) so due to the sweet couple we stayed with in Houston helping us with a donation, we took the cheapest hotel possible (which was actually a lovely Hotel - turns out we got a $200+ hotel room for basically a third of the price), and after being discounted comes up to JUST the same amount they gave us (minus tithe). Is that awesome, or what?!

And yeah, we had a GOOOOOOD night’s sleep! Jesus loves us so much! I know things have been kind of challenging and even tough at times, and all that, but seriously, we’re in an awesome Hotel room, we each got our own double-bed, we showered, and showered, and showered, and then we slept, and slept, and slept with lots of super comfy pillows – had a lovely breakfast, and have just been relaxing and enjoying the comfort of it all!

So I’m positively positive about it all! ;) Just think, it’s the first really good night’s sleep we’ve had all week! (Hey, sleep is on the bottom of your “to-do list” when you’re visiting friends.) We had JUST the right amount needed, and not just that, but we’re feeling good and CLEAN – Jamie’s feeling much better, and I’m sure the Lord’s going to protect us the rest of the way.

Here, I took some pics of our Hotel room...we kind of didn’t think to take a picture of the long lines we stood in (yeah), but this is a positive post, so that’s probably for the best. ;)

Please pray for NO further complications. Hopefully next time we blog we’ll be doing so from Sardegna, after our flight, a short train ride and a five hour ferry crossing. So…to be continued.

Some photos from POA's gig

Backtracking ...

I am writing this at the Houston airport, as we wait for our first of three flights, with our final destination being Rome! HURRAH! So far so good – the Lord has been so amazing to us each step of the way. There have been countless adventures, but we are here and alive (and buzzing on coffee, heh heh).

To back track – we made it safely to Monterrey, despite the adventure of the trunk breaking. On Thursday, we drove up to San Antonio – we took the libre road from Monterrey to the boarder, and felt the hurricane that was hitting the Valley area. It wasn’t so, so bad, but it was VERY windy, rainy and that was exciting, having to pass large trucks along the way and not seeing in front. GB Cel who drove that part!

Anyway, we had an exciting border crossing. We got pulled aside, since the three of us girls were all born in different places – Philippines, Venezuela and Brazil. At first, everything was fine and dandy, according to procedure, but then they started to get nasty. I guess they thought that three blonds traveling in a car was a serious threat – go figure. At first we were being questioned at the amount of luggage we had (to which Celeste replied – of course we have a lot of luggage, we’re all girls! :D), but when we explained what we did, where we were going, etc, they eased off that.

But then they had us completely empty the car, they went through every single piece of luggage, and then drove the car off for an x-ray. By this time, we were getting a little annoyed, as they were being VERY rude, I had to answer a million and one questions – the same one at least 20 times (“Where are you coming from today?”) and so and so forth.

And there is the crowning moment – one of the female border guards came up, VERY serious and gruff, to ask whose car it was. When I told her it was mine, she asked the typical “Did you lend your car to anyone else? Did anyone else drive it?” etc. When I answered the negative, she then asked, “Ma’m, do you smoke marijuana?” Of course by now, we had explained we were missionaries in Mexico, etc, so I told her that no, I don’t and we don’t do that in our group – I don’t smoke at all. Then she said, “The reason why I am asking is because we found seeds in the trunk of your car.”

Okay, I had no choice but to laugh and then gave an explanation – the ‘seeds’ in the back of the trunk were sesame seeds! Someone had donated a bag of sesame seeds (along with a bag of flour, sugar and various other dry goods), and that bag broke all over the trunk. I explained all of this, but they still didn’t let us go – maybe they realized what a dumb mistake it was so had to make up for it some other way … or something.

By now, it’s been over an hour – another female guard (what is with the female ones? I think trying to prove something …) had us remove our shoes, take the soles out, pull out our pockets (even though the shorts I was wearing had no pockets, this wasn’t good enough, ha!), etc.

NARGH – we were all tired and frustrated by now. They finally bring the car back around, and as we go to load up the car, the bottom part of the seat in the back car, was torn off and the fixtures broken! Those who know me, know how I am like with my car, so this was NOT GOOD. Thankfully Celeste took over, and gave the guy an earful and asked for the supervisor, heh! So they came and fixed it, after some time, and we drove off – haha. Lordy, we do good with these kind of adventures.

Wow, this is getting long. Anyway, we drove to Fiesta that day – thank you, Fiesta Home, for having us! The moment we got it, we were told that POA (that would be the band, not Power of Attorney, ahem) was doing a gig at a bar/club that night, so we could go. I have photos, just not with me, but will post them in a bit – that was fun, but tiring, ha!

And that’s about it – we drove to Houston on Saturday, and now we’re on our way to Rome!!! SO COOL! I can’t get it over it, the Lord is way too good to us! It didn’t hit me until now, coming to the airport, ha! Can’t wait!

Photos will be posted shortly, promise. Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

We made it to Monterrey!

Thank you for your prayers -- we made it safely to Monterrey! We had a rather semi-adventure trip, in that the latch to the trunk of the car broke halfway through our trip. Like a good secretary, I wanted to get my laptop out (after my turn of driving) to get some work done, but then the latch got stuck and it wouldn't close. :(
I have to admit, it was rather amusing to see three blonds trying to figure it out - heh heh! Cel and I were leaning/pushing on the trunk, while Sharon was figuring out how to tie it down - ha ha! Finally, we called a guy over (who worked at the gas station) to help us, and he tied the trunk down, to the bottom of the car with some wire he found. That worked grand for about 2 hours, and then it broke on a lone highway. SO we pull over and out comes Mercy's precious blanket for me to lie down to tie the wire back to the car (albeit a bit shorter) and for Sharon to do her "nifty-keno" knots. Then about 20 minutes from my parents place, it broke AGAIN! This time, the wire was considerably shorter, but we managed to secure it once more, and prayed that a "fat angel" would sit on it all the way to my parents Home. And it worked! I knew there was a purpose for those fat angels, heh heh! It didn't break until right around the corner to my parents gate - hurrah!!! (Please pray that I can get it fixed tomorrow.)
And that's that - we're exhausted (left at 6 this morning, up at 5 am) but happy! Thank GOD there is a pool here!!
We're here for one more day, and then leave for San Antonio on Thursday.
I love you everyone at Home and am praying for you! xxxx And again, thank you for your prayers!

One week to go ...

Well hello, readers of "Curly Me." I thought I should write a preliminary post, before we begin our trip to Italy. This is going to be SO exciting -- it's my first trip to Europe, a definite dream come true.
So I had a question -- for all of you who have been to Italy before. :) I've been hearing lots of different stories, opinions, input about the men of Italy. I've had Celeste and Cristina who, bless their souls, have been "preparing" me for the men of Italy (being that I am a blond and apparently, Italian men have a thing for blonds). They have been telling me of what will happen, what I will be hit up with, offered, told, affronted with, etc.
I've been hearing their side, but then I also have been hearing the other side - about the "fat and hairy" Italian men. (Please all Italian males, take no offense, I am sure you are all beautiful and wonderful.)
So therefore, I want to ask your opinion of what/how I should prepare for my trip, especially in regards to this aspect. (*Note: Luca, I will be extremely interested to hear your opinion of this.) At the moment, I don't know if I should be worried or ecstatic - although I am most definitely leaning for the latter, heh heh.
And I leave you with this beautiful video, which Cel suggested to me, as these are Italian male models. ;) (Females, let us all say yum-yum!)

Countdown...

...to departure day! - Freaky!

For those who didn't know, Jamie and I are set to spend 6 weeks in Europe this Summer. Five of those weeks will be in Sardegna! I kind of grew up there (well, when we weren't in some other country like India, or elsewhere - Ha!), so we have contacts, supporters, and opportunities for fund raising. It's going to be fun, I'm sure, but a LOT of work, so I'm going to start asking for proactive prayers that it all goes SUPER well and that we both keep our sanity! ;) We have some monetary goals, so please claim awesome miracles of supply too!

In the meanwhile, I've added Jamie to my blog team so she can post too - teamwork effort. And as a start, I leave you with some pics from other visits...just to give a sneak preview.

We'll do our best to keep you posted. ;)