32 pounds and counting... of luggage.

I'm starting to feel a little less nervous and more excited every day. Things are coming together. Plane tickets are purchased to get us to London and Rome, train tickets for Birmingham, classes almost in order, and I've put together a giant binder of information to make sure it's all in one place. My mind was getting a little full of "things I'm supposed to remember," so I made sure I printed all email receipts and schedules!

I also did some very important things like look up food in Rome and find a Dublin recommended pub crawl. :)

Yes please!

Last night I started trying to pack. To say this is going to be difficult would be like saying there are a few crickets around Wichita right now. NO! This is going to be VERY difficult and there are hundreds of thousands of crickets around Wichita right now. You can thank the drought for the plague of insects.

I decided to not bring the biggest suitcase I have and instead take a medium size one. The weight restrictions for Europe are a little tighter and I know how easy it is to over-pack the giant piece. That being said, it's really hard to pack four months in a medium size suitcase, carry-on, and personal item! My first attempt yielded 32 pounds of checked luggage (and that included four pairs of shoes), so I'm actually quite impressed with that.

The catch? My suitcase is full and I still have a lot to pack. Where, pray tell, am I going to fit my leather coat, running shoes, hair dryer, straightener, and all the clothes that need washed before packed? I keep reminding myself that I lived in Guatemala for two months with a lot less!

Raymond comes home tomorrow before our big day of Troubadour Retreat on Tuesday. His train ride will be about 11 hours long (Amtrack doesn't travel even a 1/4 of the speed of Euro trains).