The First 24 Hours: Non-Stop Adventure

Our first full day in Medan was exceptionally eventful!  Before you scroll any further (Moms) just know that no one was hurt and there weren't any accidents.  I know...if you weren't paying attention before, you are now.  Sorry about that.

My wife boldly jumped on the back of Joanna's motorbike in her first 10 mins in Indonesia.  I am impressed!

Seaweed flavored Cheetos...they weren't half bad

This is my lesson on how to operate a motorbike.

This is me DRIVING a motor bike.  30 mins later, Joanna gave me the keys and sent me to get orange juice.  Adventure...you cannot hide from me...so don't even try

Abbie's turn!  She LOVED it :)

This was some of the hottest food I've ever tasted.  It was partly due to the spicy food, and partly to do with the no air conditioning.  We are still adapting to the climate.

We also rode in a sort of taxi thing, that was a cart attached to the side of a motorcycle.  THAT was an adventure!  Medan traffic is, as Joanna describes it, "like a school of fish."  It seems really chaotic, but the fish know what they're doing.  We also had a cream bath for over an hour, which was like someone massaging your head and shoulders with aloe vera and cream and washing it a couple times.  We got some blue paint so that we can paint Joanna's front door to look like the doors to the TARDIS from Doctor Who...pictures of this adventure to follow :)  Caroline, Abbie, and I tried boba tea for the first time...it was a shocking sensation.

Over all, a day full of adventure.  Tomorrow, I will take pictures of the bathroom and show you how one is meant to take a shower.  I'll give you a hint...it involves taking a scooper full of cold water, and dumping it over your head...but that's all I'm going to say.

Until then.

Singapore

We landed safely in Singapore, and have a long wait until we can fly to Medan, Indonesia later tonight.  

A garden in the Singapore airport

Enjoying some chocolate we picked up in Germany

Sunflower garden on a patio in Singapore

Tired, but glad to have the long flights behind us

Heavy rain and sleepy crew

Wir Sind in Deutschland

We are sleep deprived and on a short layover in Frankfurt, Germany.  They have 30 mins of free wifi, so I'm going to type quickly.

We spent our 12 hour layover in JFK putting together a 500 piece puzzle, which we left, put together, with a note, for any other weary travelers who need a puzzle.  I made a domino chain, which was not very impressive, we practiced our Indonesian, which is getting increasingly more impressive, and played people-watching bingo games to pass the time.

Caroline said that my doughnut wasn't a "real" doughnut...I disagree.

Learning some useful Indonesian words

Our amazing puzzle skills!

We left the puzzle on the table at JFK with this note :)

The first dozer.  I still can't believe she fell asleep in that position.

My mad domino skills

Our humongous plane!

During the flight, we were given hot towels, socks, a toothbrush, headphones, a pillow, a blanket, dinner, breakfast, a glass of wine, and a lot of movie options all for free!  (I know I might sound a little bit like one of the Beverly Hillbillies, but I am too sleep deprived to edit this out).  Singapore Airlines is amazing!

My half-hour of free wifi is almost up, so I'll sign off for now.

The Not-So-Impressive Time Travelers

Because I have never flown more than three time zones at one time in my entire life, figuring out our travel time and how it will relate to jet lag was a bit confusing for me.  I thought that because we were taking off on Thursday evening and landing on Saturday morning, that if we just slept on the plane, we'd be fine.  "Jet lag won't be a problem for us" I foolishly claimed.  Somehow, I thought that the flight was 12 hours long.  

At first, I thought that we would skip an entire day, and it would somehow fall into the time vortex, never to be seen again.  But this, like most things that men mess up on, was only because I didn't read the directions closely enough.  That day, which I thought would just disappear because of how we were spinning around the world, is actually being absorbed into our wearied bodies.  I thought our flight from JFK to Singapore was 12 hours long...but...it's actually 19 hours long.   

19 hours.

I don't know about you, but I am incapable of sleeping for 19 hours straight.  Maybe when I was in my prime I could do that, but I am an old man now, and I wake up at all hours of the night.  

Jet lag is going to be rough.  I am very, very scared. 

Why We're Going

It's not every day I get to say this, but there is an adventure brewing.

My wife, Caroline, and I are going to spend thirteen days in Indonesia this summer, and I am going to use this blog to share with those of you who want to keep up with us.  

Here's why we're going.

This is our friend Joanna.  She is amazing for many, many reasons.  Not only is she a Dr. Pepper drinking, adventure seeking, Jesus loving, Whovian, she also lives in Medan, Indonesia.  A few months ago she asked me when Caroline and I were going to fly over there and visit her.  Explaining that finances were a bit tight and it wasn't the best timing did not sway her enthusiasm.  I said that unless the money just fell out of the sky, it wasn't a possibility.  She boldly said that she was going to start praying that the money fell out of the sky because she really wanted to see us.  Caroline and I talked, and we decided that if the money for the plane tickets (about $4,000-$5,000) just showed up unexpectedly, then we would know that God wanted us to use that money to go visit Joanna.

4 days later.

The University of North Florida sent me an email that basically said "we had some leftover money and we thought you might need it.  Here's $2,000."  I told Caroline and she said, "maybe we're supposed to go to Indonesia this summer?"  

7 days later.

UNF sends me another email that basically says "we had some more  money, and we think you might want it, so...here's another $2,000."  

$4,000 in 11 days, out of the blue.  So we said, "let's go to Indonesia!"  The tickets were exactly $2,000 each.

In the process of telling people how amazing God is, Caroline told a coworker named Alicia.  Her daughter, Abbie, was eager to do more traveling and she asked us if she could come with us.  We talked about it, prayed about it, talked to Joanna, and said, "the more the merrier!"  

We got our passports, got our immunizations, took every precaution we could, and now, we are boldly heading where we have never gone before.  

If you would like to pray for us, here are some things we would love prayer about:

-Safe travels and minimal jet lag.  

-No complications with any of the baggage, tickets, transfers, or layovers.

-Whatever reason God decided to send us there, please pray that we would be able to recognize that and do it without fear.

-That there would be no financial trouble with us missing work and having unexpected expenses and that the last bit of money we need for travel would be provided.

-That our health would not be compromised while we are there.

I am going to try to post to this blog as often as I can while we are there, and it will be my main place to upload pictures, so hang tight for that!  

Alons-Y!