Destination reached!

Hello (finally) from Palau!

Houston->Hawaii
-Took a sleeping pill…zzzz…Landing was really beautiful. We flew along the coast of the island and we got to see the mountain and Wakiki beach. Then when we landed, I saw the…airport….off to Guam.

Hawaii -> Guam
Now this was a long flight. I couldn’t sleep because then I would be very jetlagged so I forced myself to stay awake. After hours of House watching, iPod touch playing, and staring into space we finally landed in Guam! After reaching the end of the world, we continued into the Abyss of the Pacific…next stop…YAP

Guam -> YAP -> Palau
You ever hear of YAP? Neither have I. but I was there. Some random island in Micro Asia. The plane was about half islanders, and the other half were white people going to see fish. The guy next to me worked for the US military doing the technical work for journalists that go to places of battle. He was coming from the military school in Maryland where he taught advanced technical training to other people going on journalism trips. That was pretty cool. He told me about places that I need to go visit in Palau. Finally, at 10:00pm we landed in Palau.

And what the first thing I saw? Dozens of people wearing mouth masks…fantastic. I arrive in paradise to find that it is infected with swine flu. But the real reason was that they were simply trying to protect the country from it. So I convinced them that I didn’t have swine flue.

They weren’t going to let me into Palau, but after some convincing that I was ACTUALLY working for the Ministry of Education they finally let me in. What’s even more amazing, my luggage made it to the baggage claim in Palau. I was certain it wasn’t going to make it. But after 3+ flights, it was there.

After having customs ask me 1000 times if I was bringing food into the country they were finally convinced that I wasn’t and went into the greeting area. There was a small man with a sign that said: Carnegie Mellon Students. So they actually did know we were coming! Hurray! Kate and Brandon went separate from me because they are in fact working for the Ministry of Health. I met up with Yixin and he took me to the hotel we are staying at for a while until they get our apartment ready.

After passing out last night, I woke up this morning to the ugliest view of the most beautiful site ever. The hotel is in this weird sorta valley surrounded by trees. So I am still waiting to see the shore. Edwel called the hotel to notify us that he was coming to pick us up to get breakfast. Now I am waiting to get picked up to get out of the hotel and into the city of Koror.