The Adventure, Thus Far

 Well.

This week has been both incredibly long and terrifyingly short, and it started like this: 

"Cut the ties that bind, man."

...with goodbyes.

By the time I said goodbye to my family Tuesday morning and hopped in line for security, I was a mess. Two months is a long time to be without my family! Thankfully, an awesome TSA agent walked with me while I waited in line and calmed me down (Terrence: you're my hero,) with the aid of the lady in line behind me. By the time I'd cleared security and left my new friends, they were calling final boarding for my flight, and I literally had to run down the hallway to my gate, where an airline employee was waiting for me with an amused grin and asked "Jurries?" to which I affirmed, yes, indeed I was. I hopped on the plane and wound up sitting in an emergency exit row and had to go through a little safety briefing, which was unfortunate as the whole circumstance was pretty akin to the opening scene of "Flight" and I was convinced I was going to die. Providentially, Denzel Washington was not flying the plane, and we landed safe and whole in Atlanta. After a few hours of waiting and a whole lot of aimless wandering, I met up with the MTW group, and after everyone had assembled, we loaded up a big old bus and headed off to Ridge Haven for pre-field training (PFT).

Behold, my ONE photo from PFT!

Our two days of PFT were chock full 'o workshops and team bonding experiences. We stood on tables lifted by balloons, tackled 12 ft walls, and discussed things like spiritual warfare, culture shock,inner-team conflict, personality dynamics, child safety, and more. It was a very fast, full two days, and it seemed like we had just barely gotten there when I blinked and it was friday morning and we were all on the bus back to Atlanta. We dispersed our separate ways and I headed off to board the prettiest fight of my life. If you've never experienced it, put "fly in over New York in a window seat" on your bucket lists!

Delta Flight 486, from Atlanta to New York!

 After some slight confusion and a few texts after landing, I grabbed a shuttle to the terminal that Emma, my fellow intern, was flying into, and once I'd caught up with her, we embarked on the great adventure that is the M60 bus line with two months worth of luggage. Allison, who works at Operation Exodus, met us on the bus and guided us to our apartment, which we share with her and two other Operation Exodus staff members. We did a little unpacking and then promptly crashed!

Saturday morning we walked up to Operation Exodus and got to experience the last regular session of their saturday morning mentoring program for the summer. Right off the bat Emma and I were given charge of the K-1st grade boys for the morning, and while it was chaotic and a wee bit stressful, it was really fun! Afterwards we went out to lunch with some of the O.E. staff and mentors to a local Dominican restaurant that we're told we're going to get used to eating at this summer. Once we were released from duties, we headed back to the apartment, and I called home and caught up while Emma went on an adventure. We didn't really do much the rest of the day beyond that but to go get some pretty darn good Mexican food, haha!

This (sunday) morning Emma and I ventured into the city to go to a Baptist Church that she worked with when she visited NYC over spring break. It wasn't really my flavor, but it's probably the only church I'll ever go to where they spontaneously break into "Lean on Me." Once the service was over we walked up a few streets so I could see Times Square (IT'S A REAL PLACE!) and Emma could pick up a much-needed new pair of sandals at the terrifyingly large forever21. We wandered back at our leisure, got some groceries, and are currently sitting in the apartment relaxing.

I couldn't not be that tourist!

Tomorrow morning we head to work! I'm really excited to get started. We've been warned that O.E. doesn't do orientation as much as they do total immersion, but hey, immersion is the fastest way to learn, right?

Thanks for reading this longish, very rambling blog post! It really has been a very good week, and I'm eager to see what this week holds, and to sink my teeth in to work and the city! Keep praying, and I'll check in again soon!
Betsy