Countdown: 2 days

While John is either in or on his way to the airport, I'm still admiring the formidable pile of stuff on the other side of my room which is questioning me as to how it's going to fit in just two bags. But I'm not overly worried about it. That's what space bags were invented for. My list of things to do is getting ever shorter, which is good since I'll be rolling out of the house at around 3am to make my 6am flight to Chicago.

Sadly that is going to be just the beginning of a marathon travel day. I have about a 2 hour layover there, which will only be stressful if I can't get American Airlines to check my bag all the way to London (I had to book the first leg separately from my ORD-LHR trip). Then it's a long flight to London. I'm not actually sure how much time it's going to take, since I'll be flying forward in time 6 hours plus travel time, but I'll be landing in London around 10:45pm. Then I get to wait. And wait. And wait. Till sometime after the 6:20am landing of the rest of the study group. My only other option of landing was after they arrived, and I certainly don't want to find a way for me and my luggage to Cardiff alone. I don't know the exact time of the bus trip either, but we'll be arriving in our home for the next 5 months sometime around lunchtime. In theory they will have a luncheon waiting for us as soon as we drop our stuff in our room, and a very busy day ahead. Not particularly looking forward to all of this, as I'm pretty sure I'm going to be exhausted at that over 24 hours of travel mark.

It's been a long break, but I still can't believe that I'm leaving in two days. I'll certainly be missing everyone immensely.