Leavin' on a Jet Plane

I am taking an early morning flight to San Diego tomorrow morning. We are boarding the ship in less than three days, and I'm so excited! I am currently in New York City after my fun long weekend in New England. We ended up going to Maine and Vermont like I talked about in my last post. I put almost 700 miles on our rental car in just four days. The hot air balloon festival was a lot of fun, as was the tour of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory.

Anyway, I bought my Japan Rail pass today in NYC. It always helps to be in New York when you need to get something done because all major offices are headquartered here. I just love this city! I went in person to get my pass so I didn't have to spend any extra money on shipping. I don't think I would have been able to get it shipped anyway since I am leaving tomorrow morning. I am so glad to have this done because apparently this pass is something you cannot buy in Japan. Since Japan is the first country on our itinerary, I would have been screwed if I didn't buy it today. The pass is only for tourists, and you can only buy it from your home country.

I would not have known that I needed to buy the Japan Rail pass ASAP if it weren't for my chance meeting with a fellow voyager on my flight from New Hampshire to Philly. My life has been full of coicidences lately, that being one of them. Being the eavesdropper I am, I overheard a girl sitting a few seats behind me on the plane talking about leaving for Semester at Sea in a few days. I told her that I was also going on the voyage, and then she decided to come have a seat next to me. We talked about Semester at Sea the entire flight back. This is the first person I have met so far that will be on the ship with me. I don't know a single soul on the ship other than her! Our conversation made me realize how unprepared I am compared to her, which worried me, but then I realized that everyone has a different style of going about things. My style is more of a spur-of-the-moment, spontaneous style. I like to go with the flow. I know if you plan out everything, you're asking for trouble because things don't always go as planned. Like one of my Facebook quotes says, "Life is what happens while you are busy planning something else."

I know I will meet some amazing people on the ship who will make great travel buddies and lifelong friends. Get ready, San Diego and my fellow SASers, here I come!