Phew!!! I'm sitting at my gate at the airport and am ready to go! It has been a whirlwind 3 days trying to get everything both work and personally situated. At least this year I wasn't in Connecticut the day before I left and am not settling on a house the day I get back! It always is a little crazy preparing to leave the office for 2 weeks, every time it seems like those weird situations that I need to handhold occur the day or two before.
You would think having done this a number of times I'd have the packing routine down but not so much, I was still up until 2:30am. However, I will say I was definitely more organized this year than in years past. The hardest thing is figuring out what all to bring - I have to pack all my hockey equipment and corresponding under armour, dress clothes, normal clothes and workout clothes. To try to fit that into two bags continues to be a challenge, especially when you are a notorious overpacker like I am. The victory this year though was I was able to not have to expand my one large suitcase and was able to take the smaller motherload ebags ref bag (all my referee friends will know what I'm referencing). However we'll see what I forgot, I already realized forgot my neck pillow and had to buy a new one at the airport
My dad picked me up from my house at 4:00 and we had an uneventful ride to the airport. After dumping my luggage I went to go through security. Unfortunately the international terminal at PHL does not have a pre-tsa line so I was definitely a little annoyed that I had to take off my shoes, coat, etc. It is amazing how quickly I forgot what a pain that was! For anyone that travels more than once or twice a year, pre-tsa is the best $100 you could ever spend. After going through security I actually walked over to the B terminal and caught up with my mom whose flight had just arrived from Colorado. When we were in Colorado together last month she turned me on to the mega m&m's, which I quickly became addicted to. Wouldn't you know she put her half open bag in my purse for me to finish! The goal is to not eat the entire thing before arriving in Malmo, we'll see how much self control I have.
After my mom left I went back to my gate where I am now waiting to board. I'm flying Lufthansa. Similar to Southwest, you can't pick a seat until 24 hours before unless you have a certain fair class. Last night I logged in exactly 24 hours before to make sure I got a window seat. There were a ton of empty seats so I was thinking the flight might be relatively empty but when I got to the airport they offered me a free ticket to wait a day since the flight was oversold. Unfortunately I don't have that option because I certainly would have loved another free flight to Europe! And so much for my hope that I'd get an empty row that I could stretch out in, now I just have to hope I get a nice small skinny person next to me! Alright we are getting ready to board and I'm going to pass out immediately after only getting a few hours of sleep. Next post will be from Europe!
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