And we're off...

Okay, not literally. The flight doesn't leave for several more hours, but all of my packing is done and now that I got a haircut (yay), I'm ready to go. :) Here's hoping I packed everything but not too much...

Every time I fly, I'm always reminded of one trip I made with my sister from Memphis, TN to Orlando. On that leg of our journey, the captain was pretty cheesy with singing, jokes, and quotes as we waited to take off and then throughout the flight. He kept quoting (repeating) one poem in particular by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. that unfortunately, thanks to his continuous repetition, now always comes to mind whenever I fly anywhere. So, to borrow from Mr. Magee's "High Flight," in a couple of hours, we will have "slipped the surly bonds of earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings..."It's still very unreal to me, but today begins my trip of a lifetime. :)
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Getting ready with Peep

It's still very unreal to me that we actually leave tomorrow evening—less than 24 hours from now—for England. Nonetheless, my belated packing is virtually done thanks to some extra help, and I think I'm ready to go. I took a few pictures (behind the cut) of the final packing process and Peep's contribution to getting ready for London. :)

Peep surveys a small assortment of random supplies to be packed

To help identify my potentially generic luggage, Peep suggests a fetching ribbon color

Ready to go...

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The packing begins!

With a whole two days to go before my flight to London, my packing fun has finally begun, thanks largely to some help from my sister while she was visiting FL this past week/weekend. It's amazing how much there is to do, particularly the little last-minute details that seem to keep multiplying...

I think most of my to-dos are actually done, like finding my walking shoe options and finally getting a (temporary) international plan for my cell phone. Still, it feels unreal that I'll be leaving the country in two days, and I'm glad it won't be a solo flight for me since it's a super long one. Robin, a friend of mine from middle school onward, will be flying with me to England and will be in London while my FSU program is there. I'm sure we'll have several packing and departure-related pictures to post in the near future too, but as of now, Peep (who still needs a final name) and most of the rest of my supplies await packing.
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One week and counting

The countdown has officially begun until our departure next week! (It's hard to believe it's already the middle of June and the LN85 program will start in London basically a week from now.) We had our second online class meeting this last Monday night and now I've got to start gathering up all of the miscellaneous supplies I've been collecting for several weeks now. The packing definitely has not yet begun, but at least more of my random to-dos are getting done, including finally posting a pseudo profile for this blog and planning the trip free time...

My must-see destinations list has honed more to a likely four destinations in England, and I have actual tentative plans for the free weekend, which is a nice change.

Destinations (in no particular order):
1. Canterbury—there's a really cute B&B in Canterbury with "beamy" rooms, but I'm thinking any trip there would be short-term
2. Chagford—a more unusual choice, but it also has a really cute, very old (16th century) B&B and ancestor appeal
3. Hampshire—the JA places (Winchester Cathedral and Chawton Cottage) would be neat to see, although again, likely a day trip
4. Hadrian's Wall—this is the odd/nerdy choice, I know, but interesting from the historical angle

None of those plans are official yet, although logically, the Hampshire and Chagford pair together since they're en route. Otherwise, I found a really cute kite to take (a class requirement), and I've gotten a lot of helpful hints from others about what to bring/not to bring along with me. Poor Peep still has no name, but perhaps I'll get inspired (or someone else will suggest one). :)
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And the winner is...

I now officially have a cute, highly portable photo mascot for my trip! (Look behind the cut for pics of my new traveling companion.)

To make sure there weren't any kind of trademark or copyright infringement issues with taking along a recognizable character/item as a photo mascot, I sent out some email inquiries. This afternoon, I heard back from the contact lady, so now I can go to London with my peeps. :)

It's Peep! (He needs a better name, but I haven't come up with one yet.)

Here, Peep gets the good news via email clearance that he's going to London.

(As an added bonus, my shoes just came too, so at least one of my orders is no longer lost in Amazon!) :)

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Lost in Amazon

I ordered all of the textbooks for this program several months ago, and within a week, three of the four arrived. The fourth, however, was supposedly temporarily backordered, but came with the promise via email that it would be shipped shortly. Fastforward two months and still, my book is lost somewhere at Amazon, only now, they're also holding out on the shoes I ordered too. (I know, most people prefer Zappos for ordering shoes online, but Amazon was less expensive in this case.) My shoe hunt would be at least half over if the shoes would actually arrive—I wanted them to come early for some pre-trip testing and brekaing in—but who knows when that will happen.

On the plus side, though...I have actually made some progress in my trip preparations. None of the plans are finalized for my free weekend while in England, but I have sent out some email inquiries—"enquiries" according to the B&B websites—about availabilities, so hopefully there will be some good news to report on that front soon. I still haven't decided what if any mascot to take on my journey either, but given the fun times I've had recently working on assignments for my non-LN85 summer course, the mascot and freetime planning haven't been priorities. With just over two weeks until we leave, though, I'm running out of time with my procrastination planning. :)

My short(er) list of freetime destinations is as follows (in no particular order):
1. Chagford in Devon
2. Canterbury (and possibly Dover)
3. Stratford-upon-Avon——How can I go to England as an English major and not visit the Bard's house?)
4. Hadrian's Wall——Another kind of nerdy choice, I know, but unique in its own way too

I have no real ideas for my free day in France; some other group members had talked about going to Mont Saint-Michel, but it's not a definite thing yet. If they do end up going, I think I'd like to go along. The appeal might be lost on some, but as perhaps only my sister can attest, it would be neat to see the "Abbey on a Rock." :)

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The start of June, the start of classes

Technically, it's still another three weeks or so until we'll be in London, but the start of June also ushered in the start of summer classes. Monday night was the first official online meeting of the LN85 summer program participants, and it was nice to be able to meet the group, even if the meeting aspect was limited to brief self-introductions online. It's both a little scary and exciting to think that in just a few weeks, we'll all be meeting in person in England and living--at least temporarily--in London.

In the meantime, though, assignment due dates and work at the "e" make it seem like any other semester of school on a day-to-day basis. My fun planning continues, especially trying to determine where to go/what to see on my free weekend there. I think my want-to-see list is much longer than the free time we will have, but at least the class destinations while in London cover a lot of must-sees there. However, there are still oodles of details to take care of, and, of course, the shoe hunt continues...

Also, I'm debating whether to take a mascot of sorts—some kind of emblem or item to chronicle through pictures during my trip. Having a 'mascot' is optional, of course, but provides a cohesive element for the photobook we each will be creating at the end of the program. I had trouble coming up with a prospective item to serve as a mascot, mostly because I don't know if there are any trademark issues if I were to select a recognizable character. I'd thought of a taking a stuffed Peep, but that fits in with the trademark questions. Any suggestions are welcome. :)
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