Clemster's Playground

Sunday, July 17, 2005

I'm In Florida

After a very long and tiring day, I'm finally in Florida.

My dad dropped me off at the bus station shortly after 11pm, so I have a bit of time to kill while I was there. I basically just ended up people watching. The bus was about ten minutes late which got me plenty antsy so I was sitting there, starting to get concerned about not getting to the airport in time. At first it looked like I was in for a really good bus ride because one of my former campers from Norland, Amanda Bunyack, was taking the bus as well. She was pretty surprised that I recognized her but it wasn't that long ago that we saw each other. She was on her way to Toronto to get away from Sudbury for a bit as she just broke up with her boyfriend of 2 years. Unfortunately the bus was pretty full so we weren't able to find seats together. I asked the lady beside me if she wouldn't mind moving, but she wouldn't. So Amanda and I sat across from each other and chatted for the first little while. Our both being on the bus at the same time was definitely arranged by God. Hopefully I was the encouragement she needed to get her walk with God back on track. Unfortunately I didn't get a wink of sleep the whole trip because the woman beside me had the light on all night and well the seats were terribly uncomfortable.

Once at the bus station in Toronto I had to walk a few blocks to get to the airport shuttle stop. It was definitely nice to getting dropped off right at the terminal. I got to the American Airlines check in and passed through customs without any problems what so ever. I was very very happy to get through so smoothly. While waiting in line I also ended up right behind Zack, one of the judges from Canadian Idol and his daughter. My little taste of being close to a "star".

By the time I got through customs and checked my bags, it was 7:30 and I had about 2 hrs to wait for my flight to leave... or do I thought. Our plane which was due in from New York ended up being put out of service because of an electrical problem. Which of course meant a major delay for all of us. After 4.5 hrs of waiting our plane finally arrived. Talk about a long wait. Definitely rough when you didn't sleep all night. I got a bit of shut eye on the flight but it was definitely not all that much.

Once the plane got over Florida I spent my time looking out the window. It was something to see how flat the land was and how organized the urban planning is. I mean their roads will have a curve because they feel like adding one. They don't have any hills, mountains, or giant black rocks to go around. It was also neat to see all the "little" ships bootin around on the ocean. It reminded me a lot the old days of playing SimCity looking at the city like that.

After landing in Florida and walking a good mile I finally found Bryan. Man was it ever strange to hear his voice coming out of a real live face. Too funny. So we chatted for a while as we waited for my baggage, which of course was a little ordeal on its own since the staff on the plane told us one carousel while the employees at the airport told us another. Oh well. I was just glad to finally be here. Once we left the terminal I got to experience Florida weather and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Sure it was hot and humid but it was bearable. On the way back to Bryan's we picked up a pizza and some drinks and then spent the evening chatting with Carol about Canadian/American differences in culture and such. Bryan's dad stopped by too for a little pizza and conversation. It was a nice relaxing evening especially after my traveling ordeal.

Today we're going to a really big church with something like 20,000 members at 4 different services. So that'll be an experience. I'm very glad to be here and having plenty of fun just relaxing and hanging out. It makes yesterday's ordeal all worth while, but make sure you have my head examined the next time I decide to take a midnight bus. More to come as the days go by.

Matthew.

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