And Away I Go

I left from the Philadelphia airport, so naturally my parents and I left our house super early so I wouldn't be late.  Well apparently we were the only ones eager to go, because we arrived before the employees of the airlines were there to check bags.  I ended up being the first in line, which will probably never again happen in my life.  It was kind of nice having four hours to relax and prepare mentally for the trip.  There was  group of older people all flying on a trip together, and I was immediately reminded of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, if any of you have seen the movie.  

I had never seen a flight as empty as mine from Philly to Frankfurt, Germany.  I got 4 seats in a row to myself, which was awesome, but I was too wired to sleep at all.  Takeoff was when it really hit me that this was happening.  It's all been such a whirlwind until I had time to sit and think.  I really think everyone should go abroad for a while, and if you can't just tell everyone that you are, if for no other reason than to see how much the people in your life care about you.  The outpouring of love and support of all those around me was unreal.  So to my family, friends, and pretty much anyone I've come in contact with, thank you so much.  I would be 6 thousand times as nervous about going if it wasn't for your excitement and love you sent my way.  I just hope I can repay you one day when you go off on an adventure!

The view from my window during takeoff.  I wanted

   to print it for my moms art room because it was the 

  perfect example of ROY G BIV and monochromatics

I arrived at Frankfurt where I met up with some more USAC students.  In case you didn't know, USAC is the study abroad program I'm on.  Everyone was really nice, but you could tell most of us were dead from not having slept for a full day.  But we had another eleven hour flight ahead of us, which unfortunately was more crowded than the previous one.  I sat next to a grad student from Northwestern (holla Kate) who was going to an engineering convention in Bangalore.  Apparently there was a big one in which some Harvard fancy people were speaking and doing demonstrations, so that was cool to meet someone from the states.  Also, I refer to the US as the states now, which is kind of weird.  Also, Germany has incredibly beautiful people.  And everything in Europe I think is much cooler than America.  Including the bathroom signs: