Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Hello one and all!

Welcome to the first post of my London 2010 blog!  I have never written a blog before so bear with me while I am figuring out what I am doing!

So it is about 11:35 PM Saturday night, the 11th, and my plane leaves in about 20 hours. I could not be more excited. I'm currently sitting in my room listening to the Spice Girls on repeat (trying to get a taste for British culture) and finishing up my packing. I definitely way overpacked, but I managed to fit it all into two (extremely large) suitcases. I have an absolutely insane amount of t shirts. I had about thirty white t shirts alone. I think hoarding runs in my family. I just can't let go of a t shirt. You never know when a tie-dye t shirt from my 5th grade Hebrew school graduation may come in handy!

Anyway, I'll give you a little info about what my plans are for this next week. Tomorrow we leave from JFK at 7:30 PM and land at about 7:45 AM London time. We're heading over to my friend's house in London to drop off the bulk of our stuff and then heading out on a weeklong trip. First stop: Paris! We leave Monday night at around 8 and are staying until Thursday morning. Then we travel to Zurich for a couple days, to be followed by Oktoberfest in Munich from Saturday to Monday. Then I'll be moving into my dorm at University College London!

With only 20 hours left until my departure, I've been thinking about what I'll miss most about America. First and foremost- 24 hour grocery stores. Wawa has a very special place in my heart and the Massachusetts' version Cumberland Farms (although extremely inferior in every regard) is open 24 hours as well. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have a chex mix craving past midnight (which happens more often than I am comfortable with). Also, I will obviously miss the Housewives. Thankfully New Jersey just ended, and although I am emotionally drained from the reunion, I am so grateful I will not have to miss any episodes while I am gone (and that Danielle is leaving!). I also have my Bethenny Frankel poster so we will never really be apart. Lastly, and obviously most importantly, I will miss my friends, family, and coworkers. I already hardly see my family and friends from home and now I won't even be home for Thanksgiving! I hope to stay in contact with all throughout my travels. I will miss everyone at work as well! I hope everything in the office is going smoothly!

I just wanted to also thank everyone at the Center for a wonderful year and a half of work. I have learned so much and enjoyed my time with all of you. I will miss you while I am gone and look forward to coming back (though not quite as much as I am looking forward to going to London tomorrow!). I will do my best to post on this blog regularly and keep you all updated as to what I am doing! I also just bought a camera and am looking forward to taking an unbelievable amount of pictures.

Well I need to make sure that I have everything together for tomorrow! I hope I won't ramble too long in any future posts but if I start to go on please let me know! Miss you all!

Lucas

P.S. My next post probably will not be for another week because I am not bringing my laptop on the trip for this next week. But expect a very long one when I get back!!