Tuesday, August 23, 2011

YAV Orientation!

Well I finally made it to the YAV Orientation in Stony Point, NY! I had a bit of an adventure getting here...which started with me leaving the house at 4:30 this morning. My wonderful mother sacrificed sleep to take me to the airport!! (Thanks Mom!) It was a bit of a hassle at the airport getting my suitcases and guitar checked but we finally got it. Then for some reason, when I was going through security I triggered some sort of alarm and they decided that they needed to check me for explosives! Of course I was fine, but my flight had already started boarding at this point so I was extremely worried that I was going to miss it! NOT a good way to start my YAV year. But I did make it on time, so at least I was guaranteed a flight to St. Louis.

Once I got to the airport in St. Louis, I had about an hour before my flight to Newark, which seemed like plenty of time. Except for the fact that I had to leave security and go back through it again to change terminals!! I guess the airport had been hit by a tornado a few months ago and they are still undergoing construction to fix the damage. But I managed to make it through with just enough time to get to my next plane before they closed the doors.

When I landed in Newark, I was a little concerned because I still hadn't heard anything about where I was supposed to meet up with the YAV group. And Newark is a fairly large airport so it wasn't like I was just going to run into people I knew...but I got a call from the program director, Shannon, and she reassured me that I wasn't going to be left at the airport. Which made me feel better, until my luggage came down the carousel. Somehow, one of the airlines I was traveling on managed to break my suitcase! I gave it to them with 4 wheels and got it back with only 3. :( It was really upsetting because not only was my luggage set a high school graduation present from my parents, but I had all of my other stuff that I had to lug around the airport. To make a long story somewhat shorter, eventually I did manage to move my stuff between terminals and find my group.

The bus ride to Stony Point from Newark was really pretty! It was really cool seeing the NYC skyline again and Stony Point is in a really beautiful park of New York near the Hudson River. The campus was donated by a group of sisters back in the day and historically has been used to help prepare missionaries before they go out into the field. A little bit of their history can be found by clicking here. It isn't the entire history of the site, but I couldn't find their history on their website anywhere.

It is really beautiful up here and I am so glad to be here among all of the other YAVs. It's nice seeing all of my friends that I made at the placement event back in March and meeting the other people that are going to Chicago! I can't wait to get out there!