Bienvenidos a Miami

Well, in keeping with tradition, our flight didn't work out quite as we'd planned.  We were delayed about 50 minutes out of Chicago, which caused us to miss our connection to Quito.  We actually found out, as we were running through the airport, that we would have had to exit the terminal, go through security again, and make our flight in 45 minutes even if we were on time.  We had about 5 minutes, so it didn't happen.  Therefore we are staying at the Double Tree and eating 3 meals on American Airlines' dime.  Our baggage will be traveling with us tomorrow on the same flight for which we were booked today, we'll just be a day late.  Such is life!

This is the crew waiting at the LAN ticket counter trying to figure out our next move.  By popular request, my travel companions are, from left to right, Ryan, Dan, Laura, and Sophie.  Not pictured are Sarah just off the screen to the right, and Elaine.  Ryan and I go back to Freshman year at Notre Dame.  He taught Spanish during his ACE tenure so he's got a bit of a head start.  Dan was my first summer roommate for ACE.  He studied Journalism at Michigan State for undergrad.  Laura and Sophie are both ND grads and did the ACE program in Sacramento and Phoenix, respectively.  Sarah joins us from the Magis program in Nebraska.  She went to Nebraska for undergrad and her sardonic wit kept us alive today.  Elaine is from Ireland and has been in America since she began the ACE program teaching 5th grade in Mission, TX.  We make quite the crew.  We're all outgoing and excited for this new adventure!  Praying we make it to Ecuador tomorrow!