Greetings from San Diego!

*Quick note- This was written Sunday morning, but because of internet problems, I could not post it until now.

San Diego:

Since I last posted, things have been pretty crazy—lots of last minute things to do and people to see. My mom put together a little Bon Voyage party for me with some family, friends, and neighbors on Thursday night, which was really nice. It was funny because people were saying their final goodbyes and I still hadn’t even packed. It probably wasn’t so funny to the rest of my family who knew I’d be rearranging luggage on the way to the airport….and they were right. Luckily I made the weight limit!

I arrived in San Diego on Friday night. I successfully made it through my first time flying alone and managed to get to my hotel with my two huge bags. The hotel was recommended by Semester at Sea so many of the people staying there were students going on the trip, I even requested to have a roommate from SAS. However, I wasn’t sure that I would see my roommate because I was just planning on dropping my stuff off and going to meet Eliakim (my roommate from St. Joes who is spending the week in LA), her boyfriend Adam (who lives in LA) and our friend Anne (who is spending her winter break in San Francisco). However, as I was leaving our room, my assigned roommate walked in, so I introduced myself and decided to invite her out. I hadn’t known her more than 5 minutes and we were already sharing a cab downtown and talking about how crazy it is that we will be spending the next four months together sailing around the world. Her name is Jane and she goes to USC. I know that she probably won’t be my roommate on the boat, but I’m really excited to have met someone from SAS that I get along with so well.

On Saturday Eliakim, Adam, Anne and I went to the Zoo. It was a lot of fun! We spent the rest of the day in downtown San Diego and at night we went out for dinner (Jane joined us again). At dinner we celebrated Eliakim’s birthday since none of us will be with her on her real birthday, January 18th. (Happy Birthday Eliakim!)
As the weekend comes to a close, I cannot believe that the day is finally here! After all the immunizations, the visas, the planning, the packing, etc… I cannot believe I’m actually leaving today!

One last thing, my family informed me yesterday that there is now a large map in our kitchen titled, “Where in the World is Kelly?” with a picture of my face, which they will move around so they can follow me where ever I go. I bet a lot of families think of this idea or joke about it, but my family actually would do it, which is why I know I have the best family—and that’s one thing I don’t need to travel around the world to realize. (Aw, don’t cry Mom. Or at least remember statements like this when you are paying my credit card bills... Just kidding! ...But seriously).