So day 1 of my adventure was a rough start, but hopefully the worst has passed. After driving, or rather sliding, to the Pittsburgh airport down 376 at a maximum speed of 30 mph at 4:00 am I thought the rest of my journey would be smooth sailing…. But that was just the start. My flight in Pittsburgh boarded on time, however de-icing the plane proved to be the first of many obstacles standing between Bonaire and me. After spending half an hour at one de-icing station, we were informed that the machine was broken and the plane had to move to a different station, which also took half an hour. Almost to Atlanta, we were informed that the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport had closed down due to Tornado warnings in the area. Not to worry, we were told; it should only be a 15-minute wait. After circling the area over and over again, the plane finally landed…in Knoxville. Once re-fueled we were again en-route to Atlanta—a 35-minute flight turned into an hour and a half of turbulence. Because of the closings, the airport was bombarded with incoming flights, meaning my plane, along with many others, was stuck in the air, aimlessly drawing circles in the sky. At this point, the “fifteen-minute” notices the pilot kept promising over the intercom gave us at least one thing to laugh about in the cabin. I had a window seat and, when we weren’t in the middle of lightening and thunderstorms, the view was incredible. The cumulus clouds looked like a range of snowy mountains, and other delayed planes drifted along side us, waiting to finally touch ground. In Atlanta I was re-routed on a flight to Aruba Sunday morning, and thanks to mom and dad, I got on a flight from Aruba to Bonaire that night (tonight).

As soon as we landed in Bonaire (me, another girl from my trip also named Juli, and Devon from WT) we went straight to the director's waterfront house for a bbq and beer. I have three roommates and I am in a top bunk. 

I packed way too much.