Holy cannoli, I'm finally here! And I still hate airplanes.
The most exciting part of the trip happened before we even left. After I met up with Casey (ILP director) and the other teachers, checked in, and went through security, I went to the front desk to get my seat assignment - we had about an hour before departure. But I was informed by a grumpy, hungover man that they wouldn't let any of us on the plane because our itinerary showed that we would be overstaying our visa. Crap. Steven (one of my fellow teachers) made some noise and got two supervisors over, but they still wouldn't let us on. Eventually we were able to get ahold of Casey, and he bought us plane tickets to Vilnius, Lithuania that we showed to the front desk. Success! They let us on the plane. Unfortunately, we probably won't actually be going to Vilnius; the tickets were just to prove that we would be leaving the country on vacation sometime.
The flight to Paris was pretty long, but not the worst flight I've ever been on. We all had personal screens, so we got to watch/listen to whatever we wanted, which was super nice. There were TONS of options for movies and TV shows. It was even better than Netflix. I was also surprised at how much food they gave us, because usually I starve on planes. We got dinner, a sandwich halfway through, and a pretty decent breakfast (at 2:00 AM MDT). I do wish that I had kept the blanket we got on the flight - it was small and would be perfect for traveling.
We spent about 2 hours in the Paris airport - it was pretty boring. Except that we had to go through security again and I had to throw my nice water bottle away. I should've chugged it. We found our gate, printed our boarding passes, and brushed our teeth. I have no idea what the flight from Paris to Kyiv was like, I passed out as we were shooting down the runway. Three hours of sleep in 28 hours is pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Once we got to Kyiv, we had to go through Immigration and Customs. The man at Immigration seemed kind of grumpy, but he also seemed to appreciate that Steven could kind of speak Russian. Between the two of us, we were able to answer his questions. Customs was pretty easy: future ILPers, take the green line, not the red one. Unless you have antiques, I guess. At customs you just put your checked baggage through a scanner and then your native coordinator will be right outside the door. In fact, they may even be standing in the doorway, watching you go through customs.
Olia and two others (Tanya and her husband?) were all waiting for us, as well as our Head Teacher for the winter camp, Kerry. Our native coordinators are so amazing, I know I'm going to love them! We all got loaded in a van with our luggage (none of which got lost!) and away we went. I'm now at the school for the winter camp, I think we'll be here for two weeks. So far, we've eaten a lot of potatoes.
And now, off to bed. #myreallife
The most exciting part of the trip happened before we even left. After I met up with Casey (ILP director) and the other teachers, checked in, and went through security, I went to the front desk to get my seat assignment - we had about an hour before departure. But I was informed by a grumpy, hungover man that they wouldn't let any of us on the plane because our itinerary showed that we would be overstaying our visa. Crap. Steven (one of my fellow teachers) made some noise and got two supervisors over, but they still wouldn't let us on. Eventually we were able to get ahold of Casey, and he bought us plane tickets to Vilnius, Lithuania that we showed to the front desk. Success! They let us on the plane. Unfortunately, we probably won't actually be going to Vilnius; the tickets were just to prove that we would be leaving the country on vacation sometime.
The flight to Paris was pretty long, but not the worst flight I've ever been on. We all had personal screens, so we got to watch/listen to whatever we wanted, which was super nice. There were TONS of options for movies and TV shows. It was even better than Netflix. I was also surprised at how much food they gave us, because usually I starve on planes. We got dinner, a sandwich halfway through, and a pretty decent breakfast (at 2:00 AM MDT). I do wish that I had kept the blanket we got on the flight - it was small and would be perfect for traveling.
We spent about 2 hours in the Paris airport - it was pretty boring. Except that we had to go through security again and I had to throw my nice water bottle away. I should've chugged it. We found our gate, printed our boarding passes, and brushed our teeth. I have no idea what the flight from Paris to Kyiv was like, I passed out as we were shooting down the runway. Three hours of sleep in 28 hours is pretty good, if I do say so myself.
Once we got to Kyiv, we had to go through Immigration and Customs. The man at Immigration seemed kind of grumpy, but he also seemed to appreciate that Steven could kind of speak Russian. Between the two of us, we were able to answer his questions. Customs was pretty easy: future ILPers, take the green line, not the red one. Unless you have antiques, I guess. At customs you just put your checked baggage through a scanner and then your native coordinator will be right outside the door. In fact, they may even be standing in the doorway, watching you go through customs.
Olia and two others (Tanya and her husband?) were all waiting for us, as well as our Head Teacher for the winter camp, Kerry. Our native coordinators are so amazing, I know I'm going to love them! We all got loaded in a van with our luggage (none of which got lost!) and away we went. I'm now at the school for the winter camp, I think we'll be here for two weeks. So far, we've eaten a lot of potatoes.
And now, off to bed. #myreallife
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