The Trip Over

The two days before leaving last Friday consisted of packing, weighing, unpacking, and packing again ten times over. At the beginning of the summer I had a brilliant idea to save room in my suitcases - Space Bags. The problem with this is that while it gave me extra room, everything inside my suitcases weighed the same. And when my suitcases, empty, each weigh over 15 pounds, that's a problem. So it was my first adventure - how to get everything I need for a year into three suitcases.

However, this feat was eventually accomplished and my bags weighed in at the airport at 49.4 and 49.8 pounds - just under the 50 pound limit.

The morning of my trip over went great. I woke up refreshed and ready to take on the world. I had a breakfast of sorbet and oatmeal. Elliot gave me a shirt with one of London's famous phone booths on it and I was ready to go.

My flight from Spokane to London consisted of one flight from Spokane to Chicago in one of the tiniest United Express planes i've ever flown in. There were about 15 rows back with four seats across and I sat next to a real nice older gentleman from Spokane flying to see his children in Kentucky. My connecting flight from Chicago went straight to London. I've flown an international to Peru before in a much smaller plane than the one I was about to get on. It was sevens seats across with two aisles and individual television monitors. After I had sat down in my seat and the plane was about ready for take-off, a young British girl - Tessie - ran in swearing and sat down next to me.

She was quite friendly, giving me all kinds of advice about being an American and living in the UK (she was a dual citizen herself). We had two meals on the plane and watched several movies while talking about college, literature, and the difference between cookies, biscuits and scones. The flight was only eight hours and I was thrilled to be landing - little did I know there would be trouble around the bend.