Day 1: Thursday

Entry 1
We're leaving today! Sure it's 1:00 am and I'm exhausted because I couldn't nap, but I'm excited to be off! My parents are going to drop me off at the airport around 3:00 am, bless them. I really didn't want to have to drive back to Columbus just to hop on the shuttle with everyone else. That would have sucked. But I'm packed, I'm ready to go, and I'm really excited. I'm sure that will wear off once we get jammed into the plane...but for now? I don't think anything could get rid of the smile on my face.

Entry 2
I take that back. I definitely take that back. My parents dropped me off about an hour ago and I'm already completely ready to keel over. My smile has disappeared (at least for now). It's hot, there's a lot of people, and my nerves are finally catching up with my excitement. My stomach is in knots. But it's all good. We just have to get our boarding passes and I can be free of this oppressive heat. It probably didn't help that I kept my jacket on for the first thirty minutes, but hey: sometimes I'm just an idiot, it's fine. And everybody else is hot too, so we can at least commiserate in our misery together. In any case, it looks like the lady manning the check-in desk is here, so hopefully this will expedite the process of getting me out of this crowd!

Entry 3
We're on the plane to DC now, and it's exciting. I haven't been to Dulles in ages, and mom said it's changed a lot. I'm realizing as I write that I'm starting to feel like Mark Watney in my writing. I think about Sol 61 a lot. Anyway! To add extra irony, The Martian is the book that I packed for the trip. I find this endlessly amusing...probably just my exhaustion catching up with me. But it's still funny to me.

Entry 4
And would you look at that...guess what movie I'm gonna watch on this flight (insert cackling here). We're on the Ethiopian Airlines flight now, by the way. And they not only have The Martian, but they have Ad Astra too. Score!

Entry 5
I'm not sure if it's technically "Day 1" anymore, but I'm keeping this here until we land because I have no idea how long it's been. We had dinner - it was like a green chicken curry? The lady on the phone said it was safe and I haven't died yet so that's a win - and it was pretty good. The plane is just as cramped as Ashley and I assumed it would be, and poor Mason got stuck between me and Trevion (forgot to mention that earlier in all of my sci-fi excitement). I'm kind of jealous of Dominika, she's out like a light in front of me and I wish falling asleep was that easy. But every time I almost get there a baby starts screaming or someone walks by and bumps my shoulder. This is pretty standard, not gonna lie, but I still just want to sleep. Oh well, c'est la vie. Hopefully I'll be able to get

a little bit of sleep before we get there.

Entry 6
We hit some turbulence over the Mediterranean. That was not fun.

Entry 7
LOOK AT THOSE VIEWS. We got woken up for a quick breakfast - side note: they have ridiculously good orange juice - and all of us have been taking pictures.