January 25th dawned with me anxiously throwing any items I had forgotten to pack into my giant, black purse. I had been told that purses (aka "personal items) didn't have any kind of weight limit, only a size one. It was rather bulgy as I swung it across my shoulder to walk out the door and I prayed that it would still be able to fit under the seat.
Since I was riding with a friend to the airport I said a tearful farewell to my family on our front lawn. It was with a sinking feeling that I got into the car, knowing that I would not be able to hug them again for three months.
I had never been to the San Francisco airport before and it was pretty big. I also found, as I walked through the parking garage and through the airport to check my bags, that my large suitcase didn't like to roll. It is an old, flowered thing that holds all my stuff quite nicely but it likes to fall over when I try to roll it. I had to pull it like a dog on a leash and it kept tipping over if I tried to pick up my pace at all.
After checking my suitcase in (and apparently there IS a weight limit on purses) my friend and I made it through security pretty easily. Then we met up with some other AIFS students and had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
It was around 6:45pm when we finally got to board the plane. I sighed with relief as I stuffed my over sized purse under the seat in front of me without much drama. As I sat down I surveyed the seats around me at people that might be fellow students in the study abroad program. If any of them were, then they were mostly young women with only a few dudes sprinkled in. I sighed, tried to make the really constricting seat a little more comfortable, and prepared myself for the longest plane ride of my life (so far).
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