Sunday, Jan. 10
Today we woke up at 6:15 to get ready for the airport. I woke up at 2:00, ready to go and was wide awake until about 4:00. :) Lindsay took us to the airport at
7:30. Getting through this airport was a breeze. We had Starbucks for breakfast and sat around until our plane took off at 10:30.

We arrived at Chicago to find a much bigger and busier airport. We couldn't even find a place to sit down! We were here for a few hours then boarded a plane to Washington, which was an even bigger and busier airport! It was a bit hard to find where to go. We had to take a big shuttle from our terminal to the main hub. Then we waited for our luggage which was already taking a beating! We got a cab to the hotel...20 bucks for like 2 miles! We walked next door for dinner at a pub and then went back to the hotel and went to sleep. We had a 4:00 am wake up call for Monday morning.
Monday, Jan. 11
This morning we had to be at the airport at 5:00 am...no fun. We stood in line at the Ethiopian Air place forever! Here is James and all the luggage.

After waiting for a few more more hours we finally boarded the plane almost an hour late.( we didn't know it yet, but this is the start of a pattern!)


The plane ride was horrible. It was way too long and crowded. It was very hard to sleep, but we were able to take a few short naps. I expected everyone to stay in their seats, but that didn't happen. The plane was full of Ethiopians and I think they all knew each other. They were all up walking around and talking to each other. They congregated around that bathroom to chat and stretch their legs. This stunk for me...with all those people by the bathroom door, I just couldn't pee! Not good during a 17 hour flight! After about 9 hours we stopped in Rome to refuel. A little while before that I started to feel really bad. I got really dizzy. I think I snapped at James a few times. It was not a good feeling. I ate a little something and felt better thankfully. We were in Rome (still on the plane) for about 1 hour and then started out 6 hour flight to Addis. I almost forgot....as soon as we touched down in Rome, everyone clapped! I thought that was funny. As soon as we landed in Addis, they did it again!
All this said, the flight was pretty uneventful. I was ready for the exciting stuff!!! More on that soon...