We've arrived

We’re finally here. The day started at 3:37 A.M. when I woke from the four nightmares about not making it to the airport on time. I was anxious about leaving, mostly because I don’t enjoy the act of traveling. I don’t mind going away, but the preparation can be overwhelming for me.
Last night, I finally pack my clothes and repacked and repacked. After the third time, I finally got the big suitcase closed and then I worked on the second suitcase. I was dead set against taking two suitcases, but it was inevitable. After packing the second time, I look over at my TV and saw the gift that I bought for my mama. It was sitting in the gift bag on the floor. So I reopened the already jam-packed bag and rearranged the toiletries and shoes and managed to get the gift in the bag. At 6:00, I left for Columbia (30 minutes later than I wanted) to go our final orientation.

Just as an aside… I bought a set of bright yellow luggage tags for my suitcases, but I didn’t put one on the smaller of the two. When it came time to situate the bags, I couldn’t find the second tag. So I filled out the one that comes with the luggage and hoped for the best.

So at 5:00 a.m. this morning, I arrived at Cheryl’s house ready to take that trip to the airport. We swapped stories of minutes of sleep we collectively got and joked about not being able to sleep on the plane. We arrived at 5:45 at BWI and waited for the rest of the students to arrive. Now in this part of the story you’ll begin to see the pattern of what became a really, really long day.

First, I left my wallet the at ticket counter. Another student saw it and brought it over to me.
Next, we get to security and the guy tells me to take off my shoes before going though the scanner. I did so and there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. But when they scanned my backpack, I think they messed it up. Last night, I had games. After it was scanned, I did not. Hmmm….

When we arrived in Houston, I got some lunch and everything seemed fine. But when we got to Mexico City, one of my suitcases was missing. The folks at the airport said that they should be able to find the suitcase in a day or so, I don't think that all is lost. Now, not to worry, I have all my clothes and money. But I don't have most of my toiletries. Our mama took us to the Supermercado, which is owned by Walmart, and I picked up a few things. And no, there was no $5.50 bin in the Supermecado.

My roommate, Jami, and I settled into our room and couldn't really decide whether to sleep or unpack. We decided to unpack and write in our journals for a bit. I fell asleep with my headphones on and had a one of the best night's sleep that I've had in a long time. I was better than sleeping in my bed at home, not too hot, not too cold.

Today, Saturday, we came to school to take our placement exams. I did alright on the written and oral, but I still need to work on the preterite and imperfect tense. So I was placed in an intermediate level class. That is where I expected to be placed and it flows nicely with where we left off in Claudia's class.

Later, we'll head down town for the walking tour and hopefully we'll get to go to a bookstore.