Still a Go

Despite canceled flights and lost passports.

Last week someone called for "Mr. Erin Murphy" to say that my flight from Paris to Nairobi was canceled and did I want a refund? I could barely understand much else he said but did get a customer service number to call. After 2 hours on the phone and the same song on repeat (incredibly painful), I finally had a flight to Nairobi again. The lady helping me kept trying to give me layovers with only 25 minutes but I made sure I was given something more reasonable! So now I will be flying to New York to Amsterdam and then to Nairobi. Two days of travel.

I needed to renew my passport and went in person to the regional office (it is here in downtown Seattle!). However, they Fedexed it to the wrong address. A typo on their part. So when I called yesterday to check the status, I was told it had been sent back. The options given to me were wait until it was returned to the sender, which would take three days, or wait for a new passport book to be made--also three days. Well, I panicked as I was leaving in less than 48 hours. After a lot of phone calls between the passport agency and Fedex, I managed to locate it in Tacoma and convince them to let me pick it up at a loading site. I was so incredibly grateful to have it in my hand at the end of the ordeal! On the way home, my mom suggested a stop at the Almond Roca shop and chocolate did help makes things better. :)

Within the last week I finished my first year of grad school, took over the RA position, moved out of my house (or bedroom at least), threw a birthday/goodbye dance party complete with a macaroni necklace craft station set up in our front yard, said goodbye to good friends who moved away, went to my first Sounders soccer game and am currently packing. Taking that first malaria pill before I travel is my first big realization that I am actually leaving!