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Soaring above the Clouds and Day 1 at Hippocrates

So up until Sunday morning, I was unbelievably calm, serene and OK with the thought of flying.  About 20 minutes from the airport, I started freaking out, had trouble breathing and in general, wishing that I was taking the train from Penn Station to West Palm Beach.  But we got to the airport and pretty much everything was a blur: checked in, said farewells to Dad and BF, went through Security and boarded the plane. In case anyone needs to know, titanium plates and screws in the skull do not trigger airport security alarms!

Then after the boarding the plane and preparing for take-off, the pilot informed us that there was a delay since the mechanic found that the engines were leaking fluid and since he made note of this in his logbook, a supervisor had to come out and investigate. So we waited and waited and waited.  Two hours during which time, I was devising a way to get off the plane and hop on a train. But I'm so glad I didn't do that.  Yes, take-off was terrifying but at least I provided comic relief to my fellow passengers who were laughing at my quite visible shaking and crazed look of terror. But once the plane leveled out and went above the clouds, I was simply amazed at the pure beauty of the clouds from up above. Just pure white clouds as far as the eye could see and sometimes a little rainbow among them too. The clouds looked three dimensional like meringue. Incredible to me. Not that I will ever become a first class traveler but this trip wasn't bad at all!

So landing in West Palm Beach, I saw palm trees in real life for the first time ever, some with coconuts way up high. I wonder, don't they ever fall down on top of someone's head? And everywhere you go there are the cutest little lizards scampering about.  So cute!  Definitely tropical weather here (yuck). When I left Connecticut / New York, it was 43 degrees; it was 82 degrees at 9:00PM that night and incredibly humid.

So the purpose of this trip, Hippocrates Health Institute is everything I could have hoped for and more. I even got to see Viktoras Kulvinskas in person in the dining room. Met some really neat people from around the world who all have one goal in mind: to reach optimal health. Everyone has a story, you know? Some very heart-wrenching and all with an incredible source of strength and will to live, get well and stay well. Everyone of us has been brought to this place at this time for a reason. I can tell this place takes caring for people very seriously and am so grateful for the opportunity to be here myself.

Not much to report for Day 1.  Basically got here late because of the mechanical problem with the plane, but I was able to have a quick lunch before orientation. The food was delicious, but I like eating that way anyhow. Everything was raw, organic, fresh, created with love and did I mention, delicious? Funny how food tastes delicious when someone else makes it, right? Anyway, our meals consist of sprouts because they're live, full of life-giving nutrients, vitamins, amino acids and minerals protein. The sprouts included: sunflower, pea, buckwheat, aduki, mung, lentil, radish, baby beet sprouts; and salads: spring mix, romaine, all kinds of veggies (cucumbers, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, and some mixture of zucchini and walnut salad that was out of this world good! The rule of thumb is that sprouts are the main dish and everything else is considered a side dish.

Tomorrow blood work, blood pressure and weight check gets done to create a baseline, then more orientation and some lectures, qigong and dinner.

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