Religious Education Congress-day 0

Having lived in a Seminary for 2 years I almost forgot the feeling of being able to travel around as I used to before entering. I also forgot how much preparation it would take to travel from one corner of the country to the other. Departure point: Latrobe, Pennsylvania, where no commercial airlines have business anymore, and the closest airport, Pittsburgh International, is one hour and thirty minutes away. Destination: Orange County, California, one of the most populated counties in the state.

I left St. Vincent Seminary at 2 pm, and didn’t get to the parking garage until 3:30 pm. I had printed the coupon from home with the deal of $5.00 per day. The shuttle followed me from the gate to where I parked my car, picked me up and took me to the terminal of the air-port which was 5 minutes away. Good service.

Here I was at the airport, still having another hour to kill before boarding. I had planned to do a lot of school work on this trip during the waits or on the flights, because I knew once I arrived at my cousin’s house, I was not going to have the time nor the focus to do any school work. I was disappointed to find out that I forgot the Medieval History Midterm questions in my room. This midterm paper will due one day after I come back from the Congress. So while waiting to board, I sent an email to Bro. Bruno, the instructor of the course, and asked him to send me those questions again. He did the following day.

The flight from Pittsburgh to Dallas Forth Worth took 2 hours and I was able to read the Introduction of the book Christological Controversies. Since I couldn't work on the Medieval Midterm, I continued reading other books. At the end of the flight, I realized I had never read that continuously for a long time. Being on the airplane for 4 hours straight forces you to do so. Dallas Airport is rather new and beautiful, but the food is expectedly expensive. I had to eat there because it would be too late to eat once I arrived to California.

I arrived at John Wayne Airport in Orange County at 10:15 pm local time. After checking out the car from National car rental, I put on the GPS I brought from home and drove straight to my cousin's house, which was only 15 minutes away. I only booked the Economy rate car, but because they ran out of them they gave me a very nice Volkswagen. That thing drives fast on the highway and how I enjoy it.

My cousin had been waiting for me. By the time I arrived at her house, it was almost midnight local time, which was almost 3 am in Pittsburgh. I was too tired to have any long conversation with her, so I went to bed after talking to her for a short while. Her two children had gone to college, so I had one of their rooms for myself for the weekend.

I left St. Vincent Seminary at 2 pm. Here I was, Orange County, California, only after 12 hours. What do you expect for a cheap trip, $230 round-trip from Pitt to Orange County.