European Rendezvous

I’m back in New Hampshire. Well, for now I am. However, in a little more than 36 hours I’ll be back on a plane and headed to Mexico to co-lead a week long mission trip. But for now I’ll suspend my thoughts on Mexico and give a little recap on Europe.

Flying out of Boston’s Logan International, I was supposed to catch a connecting flight to Zurich, Switzerland in Philadelphia. But that never happened. Unfortunately, an isolated thunderstorm system meant that my flight was not going to get off in time. My plane sat on the tarmac for an hour-and-a-half which meant there was little hope for reaching my connecting flight.

But I was determined. I literally sprinted as fast as I could through two terminals only to see that the plane I was supposed to catch had already pulled away from the gate. But this was not all in vain. I had a really great conversation with an openly gay mathematics professor from a Cal State school about religion and numbers while standing in the special services line to find another way to Zurich.

I finally reached Zurich. Unfortunately my checked bag never made it across the Atlantic. To make matters worse, I had no way of reaching my friends that were supposed to be picking me up, and didn’t know if they had received my sister’s message through Facebook that I was coming in later on a different flight. However, as I’m filling out the paperwork to reclaim my lost luggage, I look to my right and see on the other side of the glass windows seven smiling faces. These are my friends—and I’ve waited all year to see them. I hardly recognize Jake because he is so hairy, but everyone else looks just as how they did when I said good-bye to them a year ago.

And then I was running again. I wanted to find my friends as quickly as possible, but only one problem: I could not find the exit. Slightly embarrassed, I eventually found my way out of the maze that is Zurich airport’s baggage claim, and into the warm embrace of my friends.

That first night in Switzerland would set the tone for the next week: Dinner outside in a trellised enclosure with bunches of grapes hanging above a large picnic table surrounded by friends enjoying cheese fondue and white wine with the glow of a fire in the back ground as the sun slowly set.