The Pilot Episode: School's Out for Summer!

I would like to begin this blog by apologizing for the poor grammar, punctuation, and overall terrible structure that I'm sure this will end up having.

Almost exactly a year ago Nick and I were driving back to Madison after a weekend in Minnesota when the talk of traveling the world consumed the entire four hours it takes to get from Saint Paul to Madison. I think I remember us talking about either going to South America (back to Chile, where Nick studied abroad) or Hawaii (Nick's friend had plans to move there for Teach for America and we would visit him). After not that long of thinking, we decided on Central America for a few reasons: 1) The countries are smaller, so we would be able to really immerse ourselves in the culture while still being able to travel to a few different countries. 2) It is waaaaaay cheaper than Hawaii. This summer was the perfect choice to carry out a long trip. I have just successfully (more or less) finished my first year of teaching, and Nick finally graduated and has a couple months before becoming a "real person". As a matter of fact, Nick begins his job five days after we return!

And so we jumped into the exciting months and months of planning. Planning included reading through Lonely Planet books on our Christmas breaks (we actually had days of our break blocked off for this specific task), looking into and eventually purchasing plane tickets (back to the plane tickets later), and multiple trips to REI (my new favorite store). It also included waiting. A lot of waiting.

That brings us to today. The day before the day I have been waiting for. Today was filled with packing, unpacking to make sure I had everything packed, packing again, trying to adjust the straps to my backpack so that it would fit just right, cleaning, printing off boarding passes, and Skyping with Nick to once again confirm that he WILL be at the Honduras airport at midnight tomorrow to pick me up.

Nick arrived in Honduras late last night/early this morning. He has had the day to get situated and will have the day tomorrow to make sure he is at the airport to pick me up... After four long weeks (but actually kind of fast weeks, due to it being the end of my first year of teaching) , we will finally be able to talk in person again!

When Nick and I initially booked our individual tickets to Honduras, the total traveling time for both of us from our respective starting points to San Pedro Sula should have been about 6 or 7 hours. Thanks to Spirit Airlines experiencing unexplainable "mechanical issues" three months before takeoff, each of our trips turned into a 13 - 20 hour ordeal. We both ended up with about a 10 hour layover in Fort Lauderdale. Nick, after having been traveling a lot in the past couple of days, waited it out in the airport. Fortunately he found himself a beer and the basketball game and was able to pass 1/5 of that time. Since I haven't been traveling recently, I do not think I would do well sitting in an airport, by myself, for 10 hours. So I've done some research and have decided to catch a train-ish thing out of the airport into the city of Fort Lauderdale. I will be spending my "trip before the trip" at the Science Museum and will attend a showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 4, 3-D, in the IMAX theater within the museum. I called the museum today to purchase a ticket for the movie, worried they would sell out and aware that I have no backup plan. The lady said I should be fine just purchasing the ticket when I arrive, as no tickets have yet been purchased... After the movie, I will still have five hours to spare until my plane actually leaves. It should be an interesting day, to say the least, and don't be surprised if you receive a call from me during the day tomorrow.

We have been waiting for this day for so long. I can't believe tomorrow is it! My plan is to update this regularly, although I'm not making any promises. If you don't hear from either of us for awhile, it is most likely because we ran across a snake and both had panic attacks.