May 23, 2000

We finally boarded the plane in Frankfurt after sitting in the airport for five hours. We settle in for the eight hour and 20 minute flight. We are spread throughout the large plane and we sleep (a favorite free time activity), eat lunch, watch a movie, sleep, eat a snack, and finally land in Atlanta at 3:30pm. We go through immigration, claim our luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage and proceed to A concourse for our flight to Tallahassee. We gather for hugs and final pictures with Lucy McDaniel (our major Booster) and Racheal Maxwell from Global Outreach (the exceptional tour leader and organizer). We board our short flight and immediately fall asleep again. We land in Tallahassee at 6:41pm and greet the crowd of family and friends who have come to meet us.

We returned safely from a 16 day trip that took us on vans, planes, charter buses, the U Bahn, the S Bahn, lots of walking, city buses, a tram, a ferry, trains, sleeper cars on trains and a river boat! We played eight international teams, eaten all kinds of food, seen all kinds of toilets, learned a lot of history, carried each others luggage and had the experience of a lifetime. The benefits of this trip will become apparent as we reflect back in the next two months and as we develop as a team over the next few years!