Things are happening so fast!  Saturday I received the satellite phone (courtesy of Telestial).  Sunday I bought hiking boots and Teva’s style sandals (would you believe that we traveled through 9 stores to find them – I would have given up but my mom was determined not to let her little girl travel to Central America without waterproof sandals that would stay on her feet. 

Monday morning I received my GSM World Phone 2 hours before Dad drove me to Dulles Airport.  Since it was a balmy 60 degree day (so strange for January), we traveled with the windows down.  The entire car trip I had a death grip on my plane tickets as I suffered from daymares about them blowing out the window.  (So glad that they didn’t!)

Once at Dulles, Dad and I walked hand in hand to the baggage check.  Dad helped me rearrange what I had packed so that neither bag would cost $25 for going over the 50 pound limit.  In total I’ve dragged along 94 pounds of luggage (and that’s not including my carry on).  The guy at the X-ray machine teased, “Geeze, girl!  Is there anything you didn’t bring?”

To which I proudly informed him, “The kitchen sink.” 

I enjoy chatting with my fellow passengers – especially those over sixty.  The senior citizens are more fun to talk to because they seem to actually care about what you say instead of solely the stress of their next meeting or to do list. 

When I reached my departure gate everyone seemed to be engrossed in some form of literature so I sat alone.  At this point I felt tears start to well up when I realized that I didn’t give Dad a goodbye hug.  Rather than get emotional I opted for something technical like figuring out how to operate my little electronic Spanish-English Dictionary.  To my surprise I found a sealed, bumpy envelope with my name written on it.  Impulsively, I seized it and opened it.  There was a Hershey chocolate miniature, a peppermint, a photo of my family in front of a waterfall at Shenedoah, and a hand written note.  Great!  Non-emotional.  I cannot read the letter.  I fight back a few silent tears as I come to terms with the fact that this is real; I’m actually going to a foreign country, by myself, where I don’t know anybody, and I haven’t spoken the language in a month and a half.  Morbid thoughts cross my mind. What if I get hit by a car while crossing the street and I end up a vegetable?  My hazel eyes must have definitely changed to green as the third tear leaked out.  A well built African American man in an army uniform looks at me with concern but is too shy to say anything.  How embarrassing!  I chuckle to myself as I pull out the electronic dictionary and start to figure it out.  That makes me feel better.

Time for take off.  I’m happy to have a window seat and a row to myself.  I glance at the other passengers; they appear bored and disinterested in the fact that we are about to fly down the East coast of the U.S. from D.C. to Atlanta.  Me on the other hand, I’m bursting full with excitement.  I feel like a happy-go-lucky golden retriever.  I love the sound of the propellers spinning, the way the plane shakes and rattles, and I especially love watching the ground zip by below.  It’s fascinating to see the change in scale from life size, to doll house, to a toy railroad set, to an image from google earth.  The trees look like broccoli; I wonder if their similar appearance feeds my love of both.  As the plane rises away from the airport the extent of suburban sprawl is stunning.  What a waste of land!  How could little tiny mammalian bipeds have such a huge effect on the surface of the earth?  All those little driveways and sidewalks and streets and neatly trimmed lawns.  It brings major question to the American dream.  Our population has grown too large for every family to have a big house, spacious yard, white picket fence, dog, and 3.1 kids.  Inspired by Dr. Claire Welty, the director the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), I want to live in either downtown Annapolis or Baltimore City in a little historic row-home so that I may minimize my “footprint” on our Earth.  It would be ideal if I could walk to work. 

Suburban sprawl has many negative consequences.  Not only does it fragment habitat and lead to greater cumulative impervious cover, but it also leads to a decreased quality of life.  People have a greater tendency to become overweight because it is necessary to use a car to travel anywhere.  Typically, a place of work is far from home so a lot of time is spent sitting in traffic burning fossil fuels.  Thus there is a greater cumulative amount of air pollution which is bad for people who have asthma and lung cancer.  I could continue for another two pages but I don’t think that would be appropriate for a blog on studying abroad.  I’ve left on a jet plane.