I loved airplanes.

I love the excitement of arriving at O’Hare, doing some prime people watching, and using those crazy fast jet hand dryers in the bathroom (I’m not the only one…right?) Here I am standing somewhat under the UK flag, extremely giddy about my trip ahead.

Then it was time to say a final goodbye to the loving family; this part is no fun, of course, but I knew that in a mere five weeks, we will be reunited in that same place of constant comings and goings.

After a little bit of waiting, I got that magnificent first glance at the machine that was about to carry me four thousand miles in less than eight hours. I always find it fascinating how such a big thing with a couple of wings just goes up in the air and travels so far in so little time. After a brief reading of some of Emerson’s thoughts on traveling, it was time to board the plane. I truly did enjoy those first few hours of soaring and becoming closer to the destination.

However, please note the past tense verb usage in the title. Airplanes and I are kind of hitting a rough patch at the moment. Charter buses are in on the action as well. Let me explain. I attempted to get a little bit of sleeping done on the plane, but when the flight attendants began serving breakfast and I sat up, I could feel that something was not right with me.

I will spare the general public the details of what happened next, but let’s just say the flight attendant near the bathroom and I did not hit it off so well. Oh gosh, that makes it sound like I threw up on the lady! Not quite, but close enough. It was a terribly embarrassing occurrence. I thought I was feeling alright once the plane landed and we passed through customs, but the stomach troubles restarted and continued throughout the entire two hour charter bus ride to the manor.

Luckily there are some incredibly kind people on this trip that put up with me and even helped me out as I went through this awful sickness. Because I was flat out miserable. No fun at all. I never thought I could be more grateful to see the following sight and take my first steps upon the gorgeous Harlaxton grounds.

It has been a rough couple of traveling days; my emotions have been experiencing drastic highs and lows, and my body and mind are simply exhausted. But now that I have started settling into my dorm room, I can relax for a little. For now I am going to cuddle up, complete some reading for our first class meeting tomorrow, and finally, finally! get a good night’s sleep.

But before I do that, I am going to enjoy this remarkable view out our castle window.

TEN DAYS.

In that incredibly small number of days, I am going to board the plane at O’Hare to embark upon my journey to England. It is there where I will spend five weeks on an EIU faculty-led study abroad trip, living at Harlaxton College in Grantham, about an hour north of London. Essentially we will be reading, traveling, adventuring, and learning, all of which happen to be a few of my favorite things.

In my wee high school days, I remember perusing through Eastern’s website and stumbling upon the page for this trip [ http://castle.eiu.edu/~edabroad/programs/facultyled/englishharl.php ]. As I read through the description and itinerary, I realized how perfectly this program fit my personal and professional interests (I am an English Education major), and I couldn’t help but imagine myself living inside that gorgeous manor.

Seriously, is this not a shot right out of Downton Abbey, or what? I can just picture Mr. Carson in there ironing the morning newspaper, awaiting my arrival…

However, at that time, I never thought the trip would ever actually happen, and I simply continued to dream about it from the comforts of my good ole’ pumpkin capital hometown. It wasn’t until I began my freshman year at Eastern that I realized how feasible of a reality studying abroad really was. I went to countless fairs and information sessions before deciding that I really couldn’t let this amazing opportunity wait any longer. With the encouragement of one of my great friends and future roomie, Danielle, we basically decided “I’ll go if you go!” and thus we are going. It is nearly impossible to wrap my head around the fact that the countdown we started back in the fall is already down to my mere fingers.

Only ten days!

I am creating this blog fulfill the requirements for both my Honors Experience (one of the provisions of being a Presidential Scholar) and service hours for the Office of Study Abroad (through which I was graciously awarded a bit of scholarship). However, I am also hoping this blog will serve as a way to record the adventures I anticipate having and to keep my family and friends updated on my whereabouts. I owe an immense amount of gratitude to those people and others for making this trip possible. Thanks go out to…

• the ladies in the Office of Study Abroad for helping me through the preliminary steps of planning and making it as simple as possible.
• Dr. Hanlon and Dr. McGregor for leading us, as well as the other EIU English faculty who have undertaken this trip in the past.
• my former teachers and mentors for inspiring me to this point in my life and for composing several letters of recommendation as I planned for the adventure.
• my friends, who I already know will get sick of my thousands of photo uploads on Facebook and my future inability to say anything other than, “This one time in England…”, and especially to my boyfriend, who will have to endure yet another five weeks without my face (although I’m sure he can’t wait for a break from my crazy self).
• and finally, my amazing parents for their continual source of inspiration, love, encouragement, and support (both emotionally and, of course, financially).

In my mind, I am so ready for this journey to begin, although packing-wise…that’s another story. I cannot wait to fill this blog with my own traveling stories during my trip to England this summer.