It was 2:30 am on Saturday (3/15/2008). I finished watching a Celtics game and the Late Night Show with Conan O’Brian. My bags were packed and I couldn’t wait to leave. As my eyes became heavier, my phone began to ring. It was Mike’s wake up call, which came right on time. I woke my brother up and we headed towards the 150 Tremont Dorms. I picked up three students that I didn’t know much about, but I knew I would grow closer to at the end of this trip. We headed towards the airport and then began to wait for the other members of the ASB trip to get to Logan. Most of us were exhausted, but we stayed awake and mingled with each other. The time flew by and we eventually got on the flight to Dallas. I hate flying; especially the take-off and the landing. The ear-popping doesn’t help either. I slept the whole flight and woke up in Dallas. That airport was HUGE! We took a trip on a “Skylink”, which was this futuristic looking monorail. Our T would be awesome if it was like this.We had to quickly run to our connected flight to El Paso Texas. We all got on this flight and couldn’t wait to feel the warm weather of El Paso. We finally arrived to beautiful El Paso Texas. We got our luggage and stepped outside. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I remember overhearing someone calling their family back in Boston and then telling us that it was snowing back home. That made me feel real good to be in El Paso, because I was getting sick of the cold weather. When we stepped outside there was an awesome background of mountains. We were all very hungry so we went to eat out at an Applebee’s. Some of us were a little agitated because we wanted to eat authentic Tex-Mex food. I think I got a little sick from eating there. Probably, some of the others got sick as well. The highlight of this first day was when we hit the highway to go to the church we were sleeping at. In the distance we could see a huge Mexican flag. We realized how close we were to the border and it was very exciting. We arrived at the church and everyone got settled. I was looking forward to our workdays on the house, but for now I needed the energy to work, so I called it an early night.
2 thoughts on “Departure/Arrival”
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Juann….love the post, but I want to make my own post!!! I can only comment on other peoples haha!! Maybe im just missing where to write it haha
Shoot me an e-mail
Juan has set the scene of our departure from Boston and arrival in El Paso quite well. Being 20 years older than the rest of the group (ok, MORE than 20 years older!) I am certain my energy level was even lower than Juan’s, and everyone’s. Just the same, the excitement of the trip and anticipation of spending a week in warm weather with a group of students that are AMAZINGLY caring…and FUN…was more than enough to get me out of bed in the middle of the night and keep me going all day, even with an extra two hours due to a time change!
ASB trips always create unforgettable memories and foster truly wonderful relationships. This trip was no exception. I will remember hours in the van…”yes, this is our third U-turn, so what?” Can one van of ASB participants actually pass another one without the aid of flying arms? It only takes nine guys sharing one room after a meal of Mexican food to prove there is no gas shortage. Cool weather makes both rattlesnakes and black widow spiders sluggish. Just when you think you are seeing the most spectacular sunset EVER, it gets better! Curtain rods make for very interesting bedtime stories. Miles and miles of fine white sand dunes and 75 MPH winds can leave you picking sand for days out of places you shouldn’t mention in a public blog.
Oh, the memories. In the past, Carolina Garcia has done a truly amazing job coordinating and taking care of details. This year much of that work was done by the student leaders in addition to the what they were already responsible for. Ally and Mike did a great job every step of the way! Not only did they help select an outstanding group of participants but they also prepared everyone appropriately, kept everything organized – even faced with flight delays and missed connections, encouraged healthy group dynamics and fostered development of meaningful interpersonal relationships.
Oh, yeah. And we built a house!!! We arrived on the site to find two cement slabs – one small and one large. By the end of the first day we had covered the small slab with a shed. Four days later we had covered the large slab with a three bedroom, two bath house! We also covered the ground with thousands of bent nails, but that wasn’t part of the plan…