The little girl

When we were in the airport in Seoul, Korea, Kullen and I were sitting on a low ledge at the windows so he would watch the airplanes and I could watch the people. So along comes this little Korean girl about 2 1/2 - 3 years old. She plopped herself down on the ledge between Kullen and I, and gradually made her way closer to me. I had to stop her from actually crawling INTO my lap, for fear I'd have a very angry Korean mother to deal with! I looked around and finally realized she was with "the mom" we were annoyed with. The one who also had an 18 month old with squeaker shoes running all over over place. She never looked to see where her older child was, so she didn't see that her daughter wanted to come home with me. LOL

I told Shelley I was going to sneak pictures of her, because she was flat out adorable. She had these little cards in her hand, and she would lay them out on the ledge, then tap my shoulder and point to them, making sure that I actually LOOKED at them, and when I did turn away she put her little hand on my cheek to turn my head back.

When I opened my computer, she got behind me and like she was going to climb on my back, leaning way over my shoulder to see what I was doing on the computer. Then came her sneaky little fingers to try pushing the keys. LOL I took out my camera and she got very excited, only she didn't want to get in FRONT of it. She wanted to be behind it to push the button. I know, because she kept trying to move my fingers out of the way so SHE could push it. Finally she got busy playing with Kullen so I could snap a couple of quick pics. Is she adorable or what? I'm sure she wanted to come home with me. Oh, and she spoke English too! She started with counting her cards, all the way up to 10, then Kullen did something funny and she let out an, "Oh my God!"

HOME

I arrived home at around 11:00 last night. That was a total of 23 hours of flight time, and the rest is various airports around the world, with a grand total of 51 hours of travel time! It was heavenly to see Dean and Angela again, and i only cried a tiny bit.

Last night i got to bed about midnight, but I didn't sleep well at all. I kept waking up disoriented, trying to figure out where I was; I really didn't know! Finally I'd come to just enough to remember I was in my own bedroom, and go back to sleep. Dean said I finally started snoring around 4:30 this morning so he knew I was finally sleeping. We were up and out the door by 8:00a, and I felt pretty good.

But the rest of today I'm in bed. i'm not actually DOING anything here, like sleeping or anything, I'm just HERE! Dean and I had to run a several-hour errand this morning, and Angela is spending the day with her dad, so when we got home I decided to go curl up in my own bed.My internal clock says it's around 1:00 pm, so I was a little shocked a minute ago to see the clock says 6:00 pm. I had to confirm with Dean that my bedside clock has not been tampered with, and it is, indeed, 6;00 p.m.

No, I'm not taking phone calls today. There is really too much to tell and I just don't have the energy for those conversations right now. Later this week I'll blog more about it, but for now, I'm ready to call it a night.

Good night everyone!

What's this thing?

Question for Korean travelers: What are the "etiquette bells" located in the women's bathroom stalls? HUH? HUH??? What will happen if I push it? I...really... wanna push it. Shelley says she needs some entertainment and is daring me to push it.

Also, anyone have a private jet? Shelley and Kullen are probably going to miss their connecting flight!

Delayed

Our flight from Seoul to Chicago is delayed. UGH! If it leaves when they're promising, I should have just enough time to catch my connecting flight to Minneapolis. Oh man, I'm so exhausted!

Half Way Home!

We're currently sitting at the airport in Seoul, Korea, and will be here for the next several hours. It's 11:38 a.m. on Saturday the 24th here, but 9:30 pm Friday the 23rd at home. We'll fly out tonight at 6:30 local time, stop in Chicago, then arrive home in Minneapolis at 9:45 tonight!!! Our What will be nearly 24 hours of travel time will be less than 3 hours on the clock. LOL By the time I get home, I will have been flying or sitting in airports for 48 hours.

So, what would you like to hear about today? Would you like to hear how, when we got to the airport in Sofia, the boards were listing all kinds of flights cancelled? All of them in the Germany and London areas. We're SO GLAD we chose to go East instead!

Maybe you would like to hear about how we sat on the runway in Sofia for 45 minutes?

How about Moscow? I pray I *never* have to fly through Moscow again! Ok, so we get off the plane and have to catch a connecting flight, but we have a couple hours so we're all good. We're told to go to the "transfer station" right as we get get off the jetway. We stand in line as passports and tickets are checked because we need new boarding passes. After standing in line for 20 minutes we're next up when Kullen announces he has to go to the bathroom, and it's obvious NOW would be when he needs to go. Shelley disappears with him and I hand my documents over. "Please wait over there for the next agent." indicating a place along the wall. Just as Shelley comes back, we're told to go see the woman in the white blouse, but as we moved to her counter another zillion people came from a flight that has just arrived.

Have I mentioned that the people of Korea have NO CONCEPT of what "get in line" means? I've seen this problem played out several times today! After another 15 minutes in line we finally got new boarding passes, but they have not gate listed. She told us to go through "this door", and ask at the NEXT "transfer station."

We ventured through this maze of panels and doors to find ourselves at a security checkpoint. Are you serious? We just got off a plane, and have been nowhere but that counter they told us to stand at twice (which was almost part of the jetway.) and here. The woman told me to put my shoes in the blue tub, and then said something else in her strong Russian accent.

Me: "Can you say that again?"

Agent: "yes"

me: "Yes what? I can you say it again. I don't know what you said."

Agent: Yes, fine.

me: Nothing is fine if I don't know what you're saying.

Agent: Yes. That is fine.

By the time we got through that checkpoint, I was ready to pull what little hair I have left right out of my head!

Next came lunch. Or maybe it was dinner? I don't know, my internal clock is so messed up. So ordered 2 hamburgers.

We asked if they come with fries, and the waitress asked, "Fries? You want fries?"

Shelley: Yes, 2 hamburgers, 3 orders of fries. (pointing to each of us.)

We waited patiently for our food ...brb

Sorry, I had to take a quick intermission to address the Jehovah's Witness who just offered me a free subscription to "The Watchtower". HA! I'm a little bit chocked that this just happened in the airport of Seoul, Korea! I know I shouldn't be, but it caught me off guard!

Anyway, we waited for our food, but only the two burgers came, with fries on the plate. We were almost done eating and asked where Kullen's fries were. She came back with three HUGE orders of fries. LOL All we could do was laugh. That was, until the bill came! $60 US Dollars for this meal! And, I didn't even EAT the burger because it had mystery chunks in it! I will NEVER plan to stay in Russia for ANYTHING!

The next flight was on Korea Air. WOW!!! Let me tell you, this is the best airline I have ever flown with! First of all, the plane was immaculate and appeared to be brand new. It was a Boeing 777, and I think they are the newest airbus. The seats were leather. The first class seats had some kind of sleeper platform thingy, and there in the regular seats there was far more leg room than any other airline, and there were touch screen TV's. The food was a bit too ethnic for me, but that's just me. The flight crew was amazing, and really bent over backward for everyone.

Here's the best part of this airline. When we arrived here in Seoul, we had to go through customs and all that stuff so we can check in with brand new tickets under a different airline. We wandered around, visited restrooms and all that jazz, and had been here about 90 minutes when we found a place to park ourselves for our long wait. Kullen LOVES my Itouch, (I've put LOTS of apps on it for him over the last 2 weeks, though is favorite thing to do is listen to Christmas music on it! LOL) so we decided to let him mess with that while we blog. That's when I realized I'd left my Itouch on the plane!!!! It had gotten stuck in the pocket in front of my seat, and I had forgotten to clean that out when we got off the plane. NO!!!!

I looked at the clock. Oh man, they turn flights around so fast. I ran to an information desk to ask where I could find a lost and found. I explained the problem, gave her the flight information (including my seat number) and she got on the phone. Several phone calls later she said the plane was still here, and they were going to look for it. Come back in a few minutes.

When I went back she said an agent was on her way down with my Itouch! Apparently the plane had been moved to the hangar, and a cleaning person checked the pocket and found it right where I said it would be, and they ran it all the way across the airport, and to me at the information desk. See what I mean about this airline? They're great!

Ok, we're going to attempt to check in for our next flight so we can get rid of all these bags! Next post should be from Chicago!!!!!

Almost Done

When Shelley and I came on this trip, you may recall we were carrying A LOT of luggage. We'd each shipped two boxes of supplies a week ahead of us, plus two 50 pound suitcases each, which were full of additional therapy supplies and developmental toys for the families we're supporting here. The only clothes we packed were what could fit in a carry-on bag! In the picture below, the small, light green bag on the right is my carry-on, and the small dark green one on the left is Shelley's. The black backpack was my "purse" which held my camera, computer, important documents-and my math homework. LOL All the rest of the bags are full of stuff for the families and one orphanage in Sofia! Oh, and the big light green bags? They come up past my waist.

So, for three weeks, we've been living in those clothes. A couple of times we've hand washed things in a hotel bathtub and hung them to dry, but I'm pretty sure my washing skills are not well developed.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. In honor of that, I'm going to put on make up! FOR REAL! And, since we were able to do laundry today I will also be wearing clean clothes. What a day it will be!

Back from the Embassy

Several people are emailing us about various flights, etc. We're done choosing flights. Actually, when we got to the Embassy they had *just* received an email about a flight leaving in 2 hours for London, then on to Boston. For about 3 seconds we were tempted to jump on it, but not really any longer than that! While it would be good to get out of dodge today, and there was some savings in price, the airspace around London and the West Coast of Europe is too unstable. Should the volcano spew again we'd be stuck...yet again. We decided to stick with our plan to head East, and enter the US on the West coast. And, Shelley and I will be traveling together all the way to Chicago, so only one very short flight where we don't have company. We would also still have had to find flights out of Boston with only a couple hours notice, which would have gotten very expensive! Besides all of that, to say that we are a little gun-shy right now would be an understatement!

We sent the Embassy counselor away with my credit cards, as Shelley and I have been shuffling money around to various accounts to get everything covered. The counselor came back with three tickets, but only two had been paid for-Shelley and Kullen's. My other card wouldn't go through. Although I was in contact with my bank yesterday to have them lift the limit on my card, and was assured it was all taken care of so I could purchase tickets today, it wouldn't go through. I tried not to loose my cool, as my fuse feels very short right now! And I didn't really have anyone to loose my cool WITH, since I can't call my bank in the middle of the Minnesota night! LOL The Embassy is holding my card until my bank opens in the states and I can find out what the problem is. As soon as I get the all clear I can call the Embassy so they can run my card again. I'm sure the kink will get worked out, it's just one more little frustration to test just where my limits are.

Refreshed!

Last night we slept in beds of the private home of the Assistant Defense Attache Randy Glover. What a wonderful family he has.
Apparently Shelley and I really needed the rest, because we slept 10 hours!

This morning we'll make another trip to the embassy to pay for the tickets from Sofia to Seoul they've arranged for us. Once that's done we will feel even better! Then all that's left is payment for the tickets from Seoul to home.

I'm sure I'll be exhausted once I get home. It will be 48 hours of travel-all the way around the world-yet I'll arrive in Minneapolis just a couple hours later on the very same day.

I haven't been in a war zone, or suffering the after affects of an earthquake. I've had food, shelter, a hot shower and beds. This experience has given me a whole different perspective on things. Yet, even under the good conditions I was in, the uncertainly that comes with with not knowing what tomorrow brings, , has been enough to make my hair fall out. Literally. I cannot wait to see my family again.

Seats are on hold!

Our seats are on hold! As soon as I have my seats paid for, I will leave Sofia, Bulgaria at 12:30 pm on the 23rd, travel east and arrive in Seoul at 9:30 a.m. on the 24th, and arrive in Minneapolis at 9:53 pm on the same day. When we arrive home, Shelley and I will have truly flown all the way around the world on this trip. Amazing.

Thanks to your donations, my flights to Seoul are now paid for, now I'm just working on getting from Soul to home in Minneapolis covered.

Shelley and I feel like new people tonight. (albeit very tired people!) We no longer have the possibility of an indefinite stay in Bulgaria hanging over our heads. I'm sure Kullen feels the relief of stress too. Tonight we are sleeping in beds, in a private home, with a wonderful family from the U.S. Embassy. I'll post more on that tomorrow, after some sleep so I can be clear headed!

WE HAVE FLIGHTS!

We have flights reserved for Friday from Sofia to Moscow, Moscow to Soul, then we have to find flights from Soul to home.

To put it bluntly, I need an additional $3,000 from what I already have in the bank. (which is quickly running out.) and I need it within the next 24 hrs to reserve my seats.

This took a congressional notification of the Embassy this morning. We were notified to come to the embassy at 2:00, where we were greeted by the Assistant Defense Attache. We met with several different people from the embassy staff, and it took awhile to get things sorted out.

For tonight and until we leave, we'll be staying at the home of the Asst. Defense Attache and his family. He was very gracious to offer this, and really, many people from the Embassy made similar offers. For this we are truly grateful. Going back and forth to the airport every day, the additional hotel and food is costing around $200/day, not to mention Dean has now taken time off work so he's losing his pay, and I've lost mine as well. Staying with someone will greatly decrease our expenses here, and leave us more money to get home.

Thank you everyone for your support. You're all amazing. Later I'll fill you in on our VERY interesting visit at the Embassy (a once in a lifetime type of visit. Lots of those this trip!) for now I have to go pack, so we can move house again.

Up to $8000

The price gouging going on here is insane! The US Embassy is working on getting us to Italy, and the Embassy travel agent to get us from Italy to the US. We will have to pay for the flights out of Italy, which are currently running anywhere from $3,000-$8,000.

The Asst. to the the Defense Attache says there will be emergency military funds to get Shelley and Kullen from Italy to home. Because I'm not military, those funds are not accessible to me. I will be stuck.

I cannot even tell you the emotions I am feeling right now. Yes I can. I am angry, frustrated, exhausted, homesick, and...well angry is mostly where I'm at at this very second, which comes in between the tears of frustration and thoughts of "How will I ever get home?"

The airlines need to be held accountable for this. This is financial rape, and nothing less.

Clarification and an update

Ok, to answer a lot of questions from everyone: Yes, we are adopting. No, I cannot tell you "M's" name at this point, and really not until we're very nearly done with the process. Really, I can't say anything more about the adoption than that, because we can't legally commit to her until I can get home and we can get paperwork moving. There are a LOT of steps involved!

This morning was Shelley's turn to go to the airport. (Kullen and I stayed at the hotel so he could sleep.) The airline was of absolutely not one ounce of use to us! Lufthansa said the entire airport of Sofia has nothing going east, but on the way out the door Shelley saw a brochure, and stopped at another counter. (Austrian Air I think?) Who said they had a flight leaving at 10:00 for Turkey, sold out of course.

Oh, and on the way back to the hotel she had the same scam artist cab driver! (that's another blog post all together....cab drivers.) It costs us about $40 per day all this stupid running back and forth to the airport. Not to mention the hotel. We checked into a hotel closer to the airport but they're even more expensive.

We do have UNCONFIRMED flights for tomorrow. Shelley at 6:30 a.m. and me later in the day, but if Lufthansa isn't flying (and right now they're saying they won't be.) that does us not one bit of good. Our travel agency isn't able to access up to date information, mostly because it seems even the people right here working in the mess don't know what's going on! We'll be calling the Embassy again in a few hours, but going to TRY to get to sleep.

Reporting from Bulgaria, one sleep deprived mom running on less than fumes. Needing to get home. Missing my family, and hoping Dean can get back to work soon without too many transitions for Angela. Check back later for my segment on the Sofia taxi industry.

Recap in 200 words or less

Recap of the last 3 days in 62 words or less:

Giant Pizza

Volcano eruption

Decisions to "worry later"

Wake up to CNN and worry NOW

Flights canceled

Internet down

Embassy closed

Then open

then closed

Guinea pigs

No water

No HOT water

NO CHOCOLATE

Embassy open

Embassy help...maybe?

Dunkin Donuts

knocked in the head

No internet

lots of shedding

New hotel

CNN

FOX

KSTP

Exhaustion

Bed

Do it all again tomorrow.

Umm Clarification please?

Just to ease my mind, can someone verify for me that this part of Europe doesn't have Earthquakes? You know, peace of mind and all.

We're still here!

Did you really think I'd have any exciting news to share? No, we're here. Sitting in a hotel room, counting our blessings. We *could* be trapped in an airport. We *could* be without internet (shudder!) We could be in a lot worse situation than we are. But, even though things are good at the moment, they can change quickly. Most people traveling for humanitarian purposes don't budget for a lot of extra money "just in case". Besides, who prays that no volcanos will erupt while on a trip?

We'll be on the news tonight. Shelley was interviewed by phone by CNN a little while ago, and it will air on CNN international. I was interviewed via Skype by KSTP Channel 5 in Minneapolis, and it will air on the 6:00 news.

To all our friends and family, I'm sorry that you'll be hearing news for the first time...on the news...about a decision Dean and I have made. We love you, we just had planned on talking about this more when I got home. But here I am in Bulgaria, and "M's" time is running out. So, there ya go! Between getting stuck here in Bulgaria, and funding the adoption of M, things will be financially interesting. But we'll get her home. If you're new to the blog, you can find out more about "M" here. (scroll down once you get there, you'll find what I'm talking about.) She's amazing, and she needs to get out of Serbia SOON! Also, please visit the CTR blog to find out why I'm here in the first place!

It was suggested to put a donation button up on the blog. I'll will be having to purchase new tickets from Germany...eventually...hopefully sooner than later! If you're interested in helping me get home, the button is on the right sidebar. I feel really weird mentioning that, but I guess I'll have to get over it. Thank you so very much for helping me get home.

Some progress made

We are just back from the U.S. embassy (who, by the way, says we are the only Americans here in Bulgaria in this situation. GO FIGURE!) Anyway we found a very helpful counselor who is not happy with what we were told this morning.

What is in the works now: She is contacting the defense liason person, to see about getting us to Germany to the large military instillation. Thankfully I'm with Shelley who is a military wife! From there they will get us home.

Just a few minutes ago we saw a military plane. We're waiting for a phone call. If we can't get on some type of flight or ground transport, they will give us humanitarian priority on a train to Germany.

We STILL need publicity to get us across the atlantic, and all the way to our homes. (Shelley in AL, and me in MN.) There is a chance we will need to pay for new flights from Germany, if so, they are incredibly expensive and neither of us are prepared to pay that kind of money. It will be around $5K for Shelley and Kullen, and around $2500 for me.

That's where we stand right now. Internet at our hotel is still down so we've walked a few blocks away to another hotel to use theirs.

TRAPPED!!!!!

PLEASE someone call CNN or someone for us. The US Embassy is of NO HELP to us at all! In fact, they're downright ugly! Meanwhile, the news is showing forgeingers trapped in the US getting all kinds of help!!! Mayday Mayday! Tell news contacts we are staying at the Hotel Budapest in Sofia.

The internet at hour hotel has been hacked, so they've made arrangements for us to walk to another hotel (the Princess) and use their wifi, which is where we are, but only for the next hour. We have a disabled child with a heart condition who is very ill. We need to get OUT of here!

PLEASE someone call CNN or someone for us. The US Embassy is of NO HELP to us at all! In fact, they're downright ugly! Meanwhile, the news is showing forgeingers trapped in the US getting all kinds of help!!! Mayday Mayday! Tell news contacts we are staying at the Hotel Budapest in Sofia.

Guinea pigs

Last night our internet was down, forcing Shelley and I to get some sleep before venturing to the airport at 4:00 this morning with one very tired little boy.

Sometime during the night I sat up in bed, "Shelley! Wake up!!! Where are the guinea pigs? Where did we put them? They have to be starving if they aren't already dead from suffocating in the luggage!"

Really, I did that.

Poor Shelley. I'm claiming stress-induced nightmares.

Just in case you need to know:

Some things you will need to know while living in a Bulgarian hotel:

The bottle opener can be found on top of the fridge, next to the condoms. (not purhased by us, I might add, but provided as convenience for all guests, along with the full liqueur cabinet and billed to you should you decide to use it.)

We're wondering if the gum is for before or after the condoms are used?

A "structured enviroment" for a newly adopted, and very bored child includes two wacky American women speaking a different language who lay on the beds starting at computer screens a lot. They cry at random times, but laugh at you when you're being exceptionally cute. Even wearing Leah's glasses upside down.

The same newly adopted child's first sponatneous American words are going to be, "Cheerleading" and "snowmobile" thanks to my Ipod touch and ABA application downloads. His favorite place to be is behind the curtain-overlooking the city- listenening to those or Christmas music apps.

Three day old leftover Pizza smells, because it's 3 times the size of the refrigerator.


"Same day service" for laundry in Bulgaria does not have the same meaning it does in the U.S.

If there is a hole in the sidewalk, the people here will fill it with trash. (they're very big holes.)

We don't understand why parking is so expensive in the U.S. Here you just park wherever you want.


Missing socks is a universal problem. We have lost a lot of socks in our hotel room! This could be due to a little boy who's favorite pass time in the institution was flushing them down the toilet. We're planning on playing dumb if this becomes a plumbing issue with the hotel.

We now know why people here walk looking at the ground. They're not being rude, or inapproachable. They watching for piles of dog crap from one of the the million plus stray dogs here!

Kullen showed us that he was taught to spit at pidgeons.

Putting chap stick on Kullen causes him to spontaneously break out his whistler. We didn't know he could whistle!

Looks can be deceiving!

When under stress, eat chocolate cereal. Well, at least that my and Dean's motto. So I found this at the little market across the street. The cereal says "Nestle", the milk says some version of 2%. (the coke in the background just happened to be there, I didn't eat it all together.)

Well, being the math wiz that I am, I have put 2 & 2 together, and discovered why europeans are not fat, and Americans are. They don't sweeten ANYTHING! The cereal is whole grain, and there is a very slightly sweet coating on the pieces, that quickly disappears to leave you with bland, unsweetened chocolate. If you've ever had Cocoa malto meal without sugar, it is exactly the same taste.

As for the milk, I'm pretty sure it's soy. At least this particular kind.

Yesterday I had my first cappuccino. I don't drink coffee but I really needed a good shot of caffeine. I put sugar in it, except the only table sugar they have here is raw sugar. I had no idea that stuff doesn't dissolve in anything with milk, cappuccino included!

We've tried several different types of chocolate here, and all of it is either NOT, or only slightly sweetened. Nothing like our creamy milk chocolate back in the states. No wonder people here aren't fat. Who wants to eat unsweetened chocolate? I would think this would be a good diet plan. You know, just move to Bulgaria for a few weeks, right? Well, there is a lot of bread here! I'm trying to stick to salads and stuff like that during the day, but will admit my defeat.