December 28? I’m not actually sure what time it is.

Well, this feels kinda surreal to be honest with you. We’re currently some hundreds of thousands of miles above the sky and I think we might be somewhere over Reykjavik. Our adventure to a different land obviously had to begin with a plane ride. According to my computer it’s approximately a little after 6pm but with time zones and planes, I couldn’t tell you exactly what time it’s supposed to be where I am. I suppose it might do some justice to actually start from the beginning yeah?

Waking up before the crack of dawn is super creepy in the WB. Just damp roads and creepy fog everywhere. My friend and I made it a little bit out from our apartment when we managed to get spotted by campus security who graciously escorted us (and by escorted, I TOTALLY am just referring to driving us the little bit of the distance) to where we had to meet up with the rest of the group. Just transferring the bags from one vehicle to the shuttle was probably the most wintery experience I felt because I’m 90% sure that the excess of layers I decided to cover myself in prevented me from truly experiencing that wind that just makes the weather so distasteful. The wait wasn’t too long at least.

The group of 7 of us managed to all arrive right on time and we were on the road to JFK shortly after 5am. That ride I just couldn’t sleep for the life of me. The small talk between the group about the most random things really helped the time move along a little bit faster (also bonus points for taking my attention away from the fact we were driving in some grade A creepy fog) It was kinda funny how the road we took ended up going past a few personally notable things in Queens. Since I had forgotten that a lot of my old stomping grounds were along the way to JFK it was oddly nostalgic for me to see the exit for my high school, the place where I spent WAY too many hours in that lovely void that is known as the DMV and a playground that was off the major road that I had a date at 5ish years ago.

But soon enough, that part ended and we ended up getting out and into the departure terminal. I’m still a little bitter about the whole only one carry on thing and our backpacks counting as that one bag, but at least it’s less for us to lug around during this first leg of traveling. But anyway, our group of 9 was finally all ready for the monstrosity that no one likes to deal with – security checkpoint. I understand it’s all about safety and all that, but there is a fair amount of exhaustion that is just experienced in that small transition from checking in to getting to your gate. We ran into our first taste of slight concern when traveling with a group when we kept misplacing random group members throughout the lines. We ended up making a decent system that we’d wait a little bit for the rest of the group regularly if we noticed our group wasn’t at its entire capacity. Thanking the airline gods, we somehow got out of there in record time. Like it was incredible. Not even ten or 15 minutes for us to get through. (And yet somehow it took possibly FOREVER for us to get overpriced airport bagels since we were hungry. I never thought I’d see the day it takes forever to get a bagel than deal with TSA)

After a bit of walking, we exchanged some money because duh and then ended up at our gate. We probably had a little bit over a half hour to spare and it was pretty nice to finally sit down after all that standing aimlessly waiting for others. Nothing too significant happened at the gate. Just sending out last minute texts of location and all that to family. A bit more bonding between the group happened and that was pretty entertaining. It’s odd to see how the group seemed to just bypass the long awkward phase and we’re getting along pretty nicely with jokes and obligatory groaning on my part. Soon enough we got onto the plane and this plane is pretty sweet.

I ended up sitting across the aisle from one of my friends. I mean we’re all pretty much sitting together along the aisle so we don’t have to do that whole awkward climbing over people thing when nature calls during this 12ish hour flight. The inflight entertainment service is pretty extensive actually. There’s a great selection of movies (after this I’m gonna try to decide whether I should continue with WallE or watch something more up to date), music that isn’t half bad and variety of games you can play against other passengers (so naturally my friend and I played some of these games for what could have been an hour and change. Who knew battleship could be so entertaining?) After a little bit of groaning and getting work done, I’ve finally got my tv thing working. 

Now Katie and I are finishing up Wreck It Ralph and it’s pretty entertaining because we made sure we started watching at the same time. That’s the one nice thing about being a senior on this trip. We get to be slightly appropriately nostalgic about our time in college together. About half of the group are seniors so our adventure at Kings are almost over, but one pretty epic one still just beginning. I’m not just happy because this is a great movie to watch but also because Katie and I actually ended up watching this movie when we were freshman in our Fall Semester. It’s really nice to have friends along with me for this trip. And it’s really nice to look back at a fantastic movie with a solid friend who actually is still a part of your life. Remembering and rambling is happening, so I’m just going to end it here. 

It’s still a long ways from New Delhi and I’ll upload this soon enough I guess. I hope that the next plane doesn’t act up for me because that’s four hours long as well. I wonder how the next food will be. That’s all for now. Adventure ahead! ~KA