A bigger bite...

So, here's a brief rundown of the trip.

SATURDAY, JUNE 30TH
Meet at Lifepoint building at Noon for a commissioning service
Leave to go to DFW
Flight to leave at 4, but didn't take off until after 6
Touchdown in Houston at IAH around 7:30
Leave Houston for CDG, Paris, France at 9:55 CST
Fly for 8 hours
SUNDAY, JULY 1ST
Land in Paris at CDG somewhere around Noon local time, I think
Take off a few hours later for OTP in Bucharest, Romania
Land at OTP in Bucharest in the evening, I think maybe somewhere in the 6 o'clock hour
Wait and Wait and Wait to find all our luggage
Leave the airport around 9ish, local time, and go to Soterius Tataru's house, pastor of AlfaOmega
Sit and talk and eat at the Tataru residence for HOURS; meet the Ungureanu family
MONDAY, JULY 2ND
Go to bed at 2 in the morning
11 AM, wake up and repack my stuff, eat breakfast
1 PM, leave to go to Camp Eli in Ojasca
3 PM (approx), wake up, travel the remaining 20 minutes to Camp Eli; get to the camp grounds; move in to my room
Around 8PM eat supper and prepare for worship at 9
Worship at 9, broken into our teams for the week, choose our team colors
TUESDAY, JULY3RD - SATURDAY, JULY 7TH
Midnight soccer up at the arena -- this was especially fun for me because I got to play and show them American style soccer
Go to bed around 2 or 3
10 AM, wake up, eat breakfast
11 AM, small groups
2 PM, lunch
3 PM (Tuesday only), 4:30 PM (Wednesday through Saturday) was recreation time and then free time until supper, at 7
7 PM, supper
9 PM, Worship
11PM/Midnight, Rec finals at the arena
SUNDAY, JULY 8TH
10 AM, breakfast
Noon, Worship, I'm pretty sure that was the time
2 PM, lunch
4 PM, load up the bus and go home
6ish PM-9PM, wander the streets of Bucharest trying to get everyone home
Somewhere after that I lost track of a distinct schedule, but we eventually went to this eating place in downtown Bucharest very similar to a Freebirds of Chipotle, except not as good as Freebirds
Sometime after that we all ended up at our respective host homes and crashed at our various times. For me, it was about 2 AM, Monday morning.
MONDAY, JULY 9TH
9:30 AM, wake up and eat breakfast
11 AM, go back to sleep
11:45, woken by Daria and Iulia, apparently it's time to go, so I get dressed and ready to go
About Noon:30 or something we catch a subway from one part of Bucharest to another and begin our trek all over Bucharest for that day. We visited some park that had replicas of different houses from different parts and eras of the Romanian country's history. Then we went to the palace and took a tour of that and then we ate lunch at a KFC, and then toured a mall.
After that we went to a cemetary of the heroes who lead the revolution against the communist regime 18 years ago, this Christmas. That was an experience I don't want to forget.
After that, we took a bus back to the other side of town, and went to the other mall in Bucharest and ate some dinner. I had McDonald's. In Romania. It was good.
Left the food court, went outside, and took lots of pictures with Cristi and Simona and exchanged emails with them. That was a fun time.
Back to Soterius' house to pack my stuff.
TUESDAY, JULY 10TH
Pack my junk, don't go to bed, stay up until 4 in the morning when the taxi arrives, pick up Courtney and her mother, and take a the taxi ride from hell on wheels to the airport.
6 AM, fly to CDG, Paris.
9 AM or 10 AM or something way too early, go through international customs and board our flight to Houston
Spend the next 10 and a half hours flying over Iceland, Greenland, Canada, and down the Mississippi River and then over Texas down to Houston
In Houston, I was detained by Homeland Secuirty because evidently I'm a terrorist. Not really, they were just looking for a guy with the same last name as mine, Payne, and they wanted to see if it was me or not.
Fly home to Dallas around 5 PM, get picked up by my dad, and go home.

Obviously, I lost quite a bit of my steam in the middle of writing this, but if you hung on to here, thanks. I'll put up something(s) with a little more content and meat later, but this is what I can do now. I will say that it was an extraordinary trip, and that I learned more than I ever thought possible. I will be eternally grateful to God for allowing me this experience.
1 Thessalonians 2:8