Pre-flight

May 15, 2014
Sitting here on the tarmac waiting for takeoff I am filled with many emotions.  You see, I am actually leaving a week earlier than most of classmates.  My itinerary includes stops in both Paris, France and Venice, Italy before I will finally arrive in Ireland.  This first week is my vacation that has been postponed multiple times due to unforeseen circumstances and I cannot believe that today has finally arrived!  It seems that I have been waiting on this moment for such a long time, and actually it has been almost a year since my initial plans to visit Europe.  I am lucky that I am able to combine it into my study abroad program.  The sweetener to the deal is that this week of vacation will also be spent with my girlfriend who will meet up with me in Paris shortly after my arrival.  But after our week of vacation together it will be time to get back into full work/school mode.  Just yesterday I finished up my second semester of grad school and what a relief it was to finish up late last night and then finish up preparations for the trip today.  The sense I would hope you would gain from what little I have described is the reason for all the emotions.  Right now I feel so happy to be going on this vacation and very happy to be seeing my girlfriend soon.  Also I feel grateful for this opportunity to be abroad again.  Also, I feel very tired from a lack of sleep last night, ha!  Only 4 hours, but I did this so that I might sleep on the plane and start the adjustment to the new time zone.  Not sure if this approach will work well, but heck, it is worth a shot.  Soon I will be with my girlfriend and I cannot wait for that moment when I will see her at the airport in less than 24 hours!

For the plane ride I am well prepared with snacks, water, and movies.  Writing this blog and doing some reading are the few items on my list of things to do on the plane that are not mindless.  I do enjoy getting on planes, but 8 hours will be a long time to be on one, even though I have done it a thousand times.  I think I like plane rides so much because I know I will be heading to somewhere fun and exciting.  I love the adventure of going somewhere new!  I have not been to France or Ireland, only Italy.  So this should be an amazing time filled with new experiences!  This first post is a warm up, so I promise it will get better and have photos soon too.  Thanks!