Travels

Entry 1
May 18th 2010
This has certainly been a day of firsts…and the firsts have only begun to show themselves.
For starters…
• This is the first international flight that I have ever boarded (This is also the first time that I have ever used a computer on an airplane too)
• I ate my first airplane food (an experience that I could have lived without…it makes the DC look pretty good, but you cannot really expect gourmet when you are thousands of feet in the air)
• I got onto an airplane without panicking for the first time. Until today planes have been something that made me marginally more comfortable than giving blood (Something that I have never been calm enough to do) but today, it was easy. This just shows that exposure is the best cure for fear.
• I also packed my suitcase in the back of a moving vehicle for the first time today…not kidding. Let me explain…this morning when I left home, everything was fine. My 22 inch suitcase was carefully packed for my three week expedition. My family was going to drive me to the airport, and I was going to fly to Europe without any problems. Life did not go as expected. First, it rained today, so my family decided to bring our puppy, Mollie, with them so that she would not be stuck out in the rain for the day. Second, due to the large quantity of puppy hair on my clothing, I decided to dig my lint roller out of my carefully packed suitcase. Third, the zipper on my suitcase decided that my need for a lint roller presented with a perfect opportunity to break! Fourth: I do not have enough time to get home for a new suitcase and to get to the airport on time. Fourth: New plan became the purchase of a new suitcase STAT! Fifth: Meijer in Ann Arbor has no luggage (What the heck?!) Sixth: Wallmart in Ann-Arbor Selene does. Seventh: I choose the only suitcase that will work for the trip and of course there is only one left and it does not have a tag, resulting in my stealing the tag from the display and begging a poor clerk to ring the thing up for me. Seventh: I find myself moving everything that I own from one suitcase to the other in the back of my mom’s CRV as it rolls down the highway. Eighth: Mollie, the same stupid puppy, decides that she absolutely belongs in my suitcase.

All of this to say, I found myself feeling car sick in the back of a moving CRV with a puppy trying to sleep in my suitcase.

Despite all of the of the good, bad and ridiculous firsts, this has been a very good first day of my trip. Right now I am somewhere above Canada and the movie “It’s Complicated” is playing on a small screen in front of me. In a few (like three) hours, I will be landing in London (a fact that still blows my mind) and then will be hopping over to Dublin for the first day of this adventure.
I don’t think that the reality of where I am and where I am going has really sunk in yet…I will let you know when it does. For now, I am desperately going to try to catch some sleep…which is not likely considering the fact that is only 8:30 at home and somewhere around midnight here.


I will post this as soon as I find some internet.