Sidetracked...

We had it all planned. After church, Becca, Justin and Grayson would drop us at the airport, we'd catch our flight to Chicago and the journey would again begin. But plans are always meant to be changed...We did actually board our plane this year for Chicago. That has never happened before. Usually the plane has mechanical problems and we would take a bus to ORD. But this year, we began our trip by flying. The LOT flight over to Warsaw was good, except the lines at customs and security were much longer this year in Poland. So, we just waited a little longer. Then our flight to Vilnius got cancelled--out of the blue. That only happens in Chicago. So...we boarded a flight to Sweeden--never been there before--at 4:30 to catch a flight to Vilnius at 9:45, arriving in Lithuania around 10:05. I got ahold of my friend Kel, texting him of our delays--didn't realize I could text Kel from my phone from Poland. [wait till that bill comes] He let me know of a bus leaving from the airport at 11 pm, arriving in Klaipeda at 4:15 am, traveling through every little city and burg in Lithuania. A few facts--the sun does not really set. It does go down for just a bit and then comes back up again around 2:26 am. The sun peeks through around 3:36. So even though it was night, it was not dark. We stopped at all the bus stations between Vilnius and Klaipeda. We even picked up some passengers at 2:25 who paid their fare with a 10 litas and 5 dollars...he overpaid the driver, but since I didn't know enough Lithuanian [it wouldn't have mattered since the bus drivers only spoke Russian], I couldn't help. We arrived promptly in Klaipeda, took a cab to our dorm at Karklu, unpacked, showered and fell asleep until 1:30 pm. Then we walked to the school, where we reacquainted ourselves with old friends.

One more exciting incident. While waiting for the flight in Warsaw, Jude went to find a bathroom. She walked in and locked the door. [now you have to know this was an entire room and not just a stall] After a while I noticed she had not returned. I saw a commotion over at the bathrooms. Someone [Jude] was pounding on the door--it had jammed. She was locked in the Warsaw bathroom for over 5 minutes. She vows never to lock her door again.