I made it!!!

So here I am in Denver, Colorado! My very first leg of my 5 month long trip around the world. I just want to say first off thank you to everyone who helped me get to where I am right now. It means a lot to me and I won't let you down!

Next off, let me tell you a little bit about the last couple of days...

Well, I made it out of my apartment and to my mom's house with Angel my cat Wednesday night about 1:30am! The next day I went out with my girlfriend, Angela for breakfast and last minute shopping. Hmmm...no success on finding new shoes, but oh well, the ones I have will do just fine. Thursday night I went and had my computer put together for the trip. Woohoo for powerpoint and a faster computer!!! Thank you!

Friday was my last day for everything. I started my day with breakfast and a walk with my friend Adam. We talked about everything and nothing, but more importantly he helped calm my nerves. We hugged a goodbye and me with a lot of tears, drove back to my mom's to do some long awaited packing. All of Friday I packed and packed and oh wait...no. My cat got outside! I spent 3 hours Friday afternoon on my belly trying to get my sassy cat, Angel out from under my mom's deck. First we tried to call her. She didn't come out. Next I tried to poke her with a broom. She didn't budge. So we brought out the hose. I found out this wasn't the first time Angel had an encounter with the hose (my mom used the hose on her back in June when she babysat while I was in Mexico). I didn't want to spray her but I didn't think we had a choice. So we sprayed her. And guess what? She didn't come out. I finally got her out tempting her with a hairbrush! Of course when we got her out, she was full of mud from getting sprayed in the dirt. And just like when you give a mouse a cookie he's going to want a glass of milk....when you spray Angel with a hose she's going to need a BATH and when you give a cat a bath...well, I'll let you finish the rest. Long story short, instead of packing all day I chased my cat all day. After all that my friend Angela stopped by to give me a going away gift and to say goodbye. I'm gonna miss you Ange! Anyways, the rest of the day went fairly bust and hectic, but I got it all done about 1am, went to bed with my kitty in my arms and woke up Saturday morning 5am to get ready to head to the airport.

Saturday:

I got up at 5 took my shower, got ready to go, said a tearful goodby to my kitty and headed for the O'Hare international. Now while my flight left at 10:55am, they say you need to get to the airport for security 2 hours ahead of time, and it takes sometimes 1 1/2- 2 hours to get to O'hare so we (My mom, my sister, and my niece, Alexis) left the house at 6:30am. Well, we got to the airport super early, I said yet another tearful goodbye this time to my mom, sister and niece and headed in to check my bags and get through security. I got through security super fast, and had A LOT of time to kill. So with all anxieties gone I sat down at Chili's in the airport and had some breakfast. From there I hung out for a bit, and headed toward my gate.

My flight got into Denver about 12:30pm. First impression of Denver? SNOW all over!!! For those of you reading in Wisconsin...wow. They have soooooooooo much SNOW!!! And it's cold but not too bad for me cuz I'm used to the Wisconsin air. Right now as I'm sitting here typing it's about 30 degrees or so. I got to meet everybody (for the most part) yesterday. I got off my plane, and took a train to the baggage claim area where the Up With People people were standing there waiting for me! I got my luggage and started the waiting process. Before leaving the airport we needed to wait for more people to arrive so we could go as a group. We eventually left (after other students we taking longer than expected to arrive) and mde it to our shuttle bus that took us to the rec center where we would stay until about 8:15pm that night. It started out with just a few of us but by the end of the night the room was packed!

When I arrived at the rec center I was great by a bunch of Up With People people. I got myself registered, paid the rest of my tuition, got my host family info, and got my name tag! I got settled into the rec area, had some lunch, and proceeded to meet some of my fellow cast members. A little bit later a bunch of us went outside to play in the snow and play American Football. After the first person made a touchdown we called "game" it was cold and the snow was so deep that one point was a long enough game! We got inside, chatted a bit, then learned a new card game! The Great Swahili and the Rocksucker- Kevin taught this to us and I don't think that this is the real name...but we'll got with it for a bit. There were about 12 of us playing. It was a great time to learn a new game with new friends. We laughed a lot and had a lot of fun. I was on a team with Aoife (Efa) from Ireland. We ate some pizza, talked and played some more and 8:15 came very fast. I met my host family and my roommate and we left for what would be our home for the next month.

I need to go for a while as my host sister turns 7 today and is having a huge birthday bash. I will be back later tonight to tell you about my family, my roommate and my roommate!

Till then from Denver, Colorado,

Jessica!!!