Flying home: Lisbon-Amsterdam-Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN USA

Elizabeth Apungu, graduate of St. Paul Como Park Sr HS, brother of Dan and Joachim (Como current student), is pictured with her sister, Sherry. They came up to me in Amsterdam Schipol Airport on Tue 3/21 while I was waiting for a flight to Minneapolis St. Paul. They had spent 2 weeks in Nairobi, Kenya, visiting their relatives, father's farm, & grandparents. Before they said anything to me, I awakened from a 1/2 asleep slumped over my luggage and said, "Aren't you Aunpgu girls?"
I said that I couldn't believe that they could recognize me, but Elizabeth said it was because I had a black & white warm up suit on. Como colors minus gold for those who aren't in the loop.

Elizabeth played volleyball for Como, is graduating from my alma mater, St. Catherine's, in science. Her mother got her nursing degree from St. Kate's and is working at Fairview Riverside in sub acute, her sister Sherry transfered from St. Kate's to the U of MN and will be graduating soon. Brother Dan is at the U and the youngest should be at Como now. I watched the 10:35, the 2:00 and I finally made the 4:35 flight to MSP. I'm home! I started out at the Lisbon airport at 7:30 PM Monday, 3/20 as I had to check in at 3:00 AM 3/21 for my flight to Amsterdam Schipol Airport. It's my favorite airport as it has a Ryksmusem art museum, casino, internet, cool sports car display and great food: The Mediterranean Cafe with good paninos & prosciutto (Italian ham).

I tried to stay awake to guard my luggage because there were many undesirables lurking around without luggage. This was difficult as I had lost sleep the night before because leaving Tangier, Morocco, the ship had to turn around Gibraltar and head up the Atlantic Ocean to Lisbon, Portugal. Midnatsol met heavy waves again and I & the toilet bowl became good friends again. I decided to sit near 2 other women, one a Brazilian working in London to earn English. Now that's funny!!! The other also spoke Portugese but my Italian got me connected. I was getting rid of extra stuff I was carrying so we shared mini Babybel individual cheese packed in red wax, Pocket Coffee (hits of expresso packaged in chocolate), gummy candy that I won in a music contest on the ship by naming my team of one "Muchos Problemos." I knew the contest was being judged by the band, "No Problem." I won their last contest because it included many questions about American songs and the Norwegians were clueless. Questions included, "What is Bob Dylan's real name?" and others about Elvis Presley & Frank Sinatra.

I also won at Bingo. It was the 3rd win, the following was the Grand Prize of a cruise. I had taken a little nap during the bingo game so Trevor scored mine. (Hey, it's tough when you had a rough night, your prescription glasses were run over in the drive way outside Bruno Gilardi's house and I'm operating with an old prescription. (The first thing I did when I got home was to get my new prescription and try to find frames). Trevor woke me up and & told me to yell Bingo! I was so excited because I thought I had won the free cruise on the Norwegian Coastal Line. I wasn't disappointed with the bootie.

Back to my stash of Bingo prizes. My stash included a ship t-shirt showing the itinerary: 125 Kroner, 3 bottles of Jacob Creek wine: 245 Kroner, Toblerone Swiss chocolate: 45 Kroner, I lb of Mars candy bars: 45 Kroner and 2 lbs ofgummy candy: 30 Kroner. At the exchange rate of 7 Kroner = $1 I was doing very well for sleeping on the job. I gave the wine to Trevor, Phil and Hanne, because she forked over the 200 Kroner to begin play.

The alliance at the Lisbon airport paid off. We agreed to take turns sleeping and guard the groups luggage surrounding us. Marcello, the Brazilian's hottie, was Italian. I also gave away 2 great coffee table books, Rome, City of Popes, and architectural art history. She wanted all of the city maps I was dumping and also all of the literature about the 19 port excursions. Now I will never remember what we did where!!!