I am writing this blog from the Chicago O’Hare International airport which means that by the time most of you read this we will be in an airplane headed to Dublin Ireland. That also means that the waiting is over and we are officially on our European vacation! my stomach did flips (excited flips) when the fact that I was going to be riding on an airplane today really hit me. I can’t even imagine what my stomach is going to when I land in Paris and I truly realize that I’m no longer on U.S soil. Truth be told, I am a little nervous. I have never been out of the country before and I only speak a teeny tiny bit of French and no Italian. I can’t decided whether or not I’m expecting the language barrier to be worse than it is or if Im going to be whacked up side the head by how little of the native tongue I know. In many ways this is an adventure with totally unknown factors. But as I board this great metal bird I can’t help but think about how luxurious it is to travel in the twenty first century. my travel time today will be 24 hours, how spoiled of me to want to complain about my five hour layover. may I also add that I hope the meal they serve me on the plane is delicious and satisfying. of course those can be legit complaints, but I’m to grateful to complain (at this moment anyway). I had a random thought; in the olden days when people would travel internationally by large wooden boat did they get boat lag like we get jet lag. there was till a time difference even if they didn’t have our modern day clocks.

The two main things that my friends and family would say to me when I was preparing for this trip was of course the old “can I come in your suit case” and “take tons of pictures”! I’ll start by saying that I did not check my suit case this morning before I left so it is possible that I have a stow away but my suit case is a carry-on size so you needn’t be worry about missing any family members or friends unless they are the size of my teddy bear. secondly, I’m going to Europe so of course I’m going to take loads of pictures. I take pictures when I see something out of the ordinary at the grocery store, I’m a teenage girl for goodnesses sakes. but even if I didn’t take any pictures you can rest assured that my photographer sister will take more than enough for the both of us. and then there is my mother, need I say more? so we will be taking hundreds of pictures and sharing them all with you (and when I say all I just mean the ones that turn out interesting, and not kokomo grocery store interesting.)

so many questions hang in the air as we wait at our gate. “what is Europe like?” “will I like Baguettes?” “how can I be stupid enough to think that I wouldn’t like a baguette?” ” will we ever want to come home?” I really don’t know but one thing I know with out a doubt is that this will be the adventure of a lifetime and I can’t wait to share it with all my loved ones back home. so buckle up everybody, the traveling twins are about to take flight!