Kathleen's As of Yet Untitled Blog About Madrid: Peace, Love and Airport Security

Greetings from a lovely London hostel! It's around one thirty here, and I'm too excited to sleep. I love this city and I cannot wait to tell everyone about it, but I feel like the events of the last week, at least when compared to my typically mundane life, are too exciting for one blog post, so I'm just going to take a few minutes to catch you up on all the shenanigans that got me to number 191 Queen's Gate, London, England.

Random Kathleen fact number 674: I love airplanes! Maybe it's the novelty, maybe it's the mystery of flight, I don't know, but I was really excited for my flight, and it did not disappoint. Getting from sunny Mt. Pleasant, SC to Leeds, UK was a 20 hour ordeal (25 if you count the time difference) that included two flights, my first-ever train and a my first experience hailing a cab. The seven hour plane ride was the most relaxing time I've had in awhile: I got to watch some thoroughly mediocre Alan Rickman movie about wine, feed my virtual fish (shut up) and fall back in love with one of my favorite singers of all time (Jenny Lewis) and one of my new favorites (Frightened Rabbit). I got in some wonderful magazine time. In the Philadelphia airport I got to drink my last sweet tea for awhile, window shop, and see some really interesting art installations. The train ride to Leeds was so pretty! I know these mundane details might not be the type of thrilling tidbits typical of a European adventure, but each of them meant the world to me, and since I left my aunt and father at the Charleston security checkpoint I have experiences countless firsts. I would much rather preserve what sense of wonder I have left than go out of my way to avoid looking stupid or naive. Sometimes, getting there is half the fun.

Anyways, I made it safely to Leeds (where Beth from USC is studying abroad) and, two days later, so did my luggage! If the rest of my semester is as much fun as my travelling, then I'm in for something serious!

This is why I had so much trouble packing - Chester seemed determined to sleep in my half-packed suitcase. At one point, I even packed a spare suitcase full of dirty clothes I wasn't going to take, but he wouldn't budge. Bye, buddy. I miss you!