The adventure begins... maybe?

Well, after hours of packing, last-minute errands, cleaning, saying goodbyes... 

(Beth did my hair and said bye before I left while she was getting ready for scoala)

(had to give Tess one more belly rub before I left)

We head for the airport around 7:30am and I get a call from Delta telling me that my flight is delayed! (Can't say I was super surprised) After doing the simple math in my head, I realized that I wasn't going to make any of my flights. So I called a nice lady from Delta who rescheduled my flights so that I could get to Iasi at the same time, very helpful and efficient actually. So I got to go home for another 2 hours and relax, watch an episode of mod fam with my dad, do some yoga with the folks (too tired though and I wasn't in a laughing mood ? ), and walk around my kitchen aimlessly. I probably opened the fridge 30 times, it's strange how you expect something different to be in there after only 2 minutes of absence. I was really anxious to leave so I didn't eat anything but I knew I was hungry. Finally it was time to go! 

I got my suitcase on the scale at Delta's service desk and crossed my fingers, hoping to be under 50 lbs... 48.0! What's up!!?! I hand my passport and boarding pass to the lady, (Sarah... don't worry, by the end of this story we become good friends, that's how I know her name) and she tells me that I need a visa to leave the US. Hmm... Do I have a visa? I don't remember getting one of those... yep, I'm pretty sure I don't have one of those. "Ok, well you need a visa to leave the country because your trip is over 90 days. I can't send you to Bucharest today without one."

Panic.

Yes, I too thought at this point that I was screwed and wasn't going to get to go, but also had this secret hope that things would work out. Just so the suspense is gone, I am sitting in the Boise airport right now on my way to Romania, so it's all good. BUT it took about an hour an a half of calling the Romanian embassy, consulate, Delta, BYU Travel, Romanian airlines and their supervisors, and essentially all their moms too before I could get an ok to go through security. Also a huge fine that I am not happy about, but hopefully I can get refunded later. Anyways... this awesome lady, Sarah, went through all of this and worked with me so I could get on the plane, right? Well while she is on the phone switching my flights around, she googles "Romanian visa requirements" and has me call the LA Romanian embassy about visas and we find out that you can get an extension once you are in Romania. What does that mean? It means we were about ten minutes too late and I wouldn't have had to switch my flights around or pay a fee, but the changes were already made. UGH. I guess I could've been really mad, but by this time, I was just glad to hear that I could get on a plane. 

So... so far there's been a delay, flight scheduling problems, messy exchanges, frustrated agents and attendants, fees, confusion, and a hungry, tired Chelsea. 

I'm just throwing this out there, but I think that means this is going to be an awesome trip. Somebody (I won't give names, ok... he-who-must-not-be-named) obviously doesn't want me to go and when there's lots of opposition, I am a firm believer that the contrasting joy, adventure, growth, and learning on this trip is going to be just as great or greater. Stuff has been crazy and confusing, but ultimately I am amazingly lucky and blessed! I'M GOING TO ROMANIA!

More to come... I'm still in Idaho for crying out loud!!