Monday, October 22, 2012

I Get My Care Packages Hand-Delivered!

Yesterday, I got a care package, delivered by my very own Father!  He had some other business too I suppose, but he really just came to see me. :)  Sunday morning, I kept hearing the planes overhead and thinking, "My papa's on one of those!"  I waited anxiously to hear from him.  I checked that his flight had landed, but I still hadn't heard anything from him.  A few hours later, my phone rings and it was Dad telling me he was at the main reception in front of my school, and that his phone wasn't working.  So that explains the lack in communication.  So I made my way across campus to find him and gave him a BIG hug (I miss my Daddy hugs).  We took his luggage back to my dorm and tried to figure out why his phone wasn't working.  I ended up finding out that I can call US numbers from my computer via Google voice (a nice feature) and we were able to get customer service on the line to see what the problem was.  Turns out that the representative he talked to before leaving had put down the wrong date for his traveling, so his international plan was not supposed to turn on until Tuesday!  So we got that sorted out and got his phone working.  By then it was far past lunch time (and Dad had slept through the in-flight meals and was starving) so we headed in to Twickenham to grab some grub.  We went to the Three Kings and had a beer and some traditional British pub food.  Then we went to Starbucks to have coffee (Papa was tired), chat a bit, and get out of the rain.  After that we ventured down to the Thames to try and scope out the house that my Mom, sister, and cousins are renting when they come to visit over Thanksgiving.  We couldn't figure out how to get back to it (the path was very covered and confusing) but we got a picture of it!  It was getting a little chilly and it was "misting" a bit, so we walked back to campus.  I opened my care package to find lots of goodies, including peanut butter, Easy Mac, Great Harvest pumpkin chocolate chip bread, mini muffins, fruit snacks, popcorn, hot apple cider, soup, whales, new jeans, my wool coat, shoes, cold medicine, and a few others.  Yay! Dad had a look at my computer (since it's been acting up) and tried to fix it (sadly, it is still acting up).  We hung out a bit longer and then had to go meet his car that would take him to his hotel.  But I get to see him again for dinner before he leaves on Thursday! :)

And now, I have a lot to do to prepare for my big 10-day, 3-country tour in Europe that I leave for on Friday!  We are going to Pisa, Florence, Bologna, Salzburg, Rothenburg, and Munich (Italy, Austria, and Germany!).  It's going to be crazy, but I am excited!  I've been busy all day making hostel reservations and trying to figure out schedules and trains.  I have been avoiding my homework (which I need to get ahead on so I'm not swamped when I get back), but hopefully I can be more productive tomorrow.  My room was just sweltering today, and I didn't feel good, so it was not a good homework environment.  But in the afternoon, a few friends and I went to Richmond and had Tea Time Tuesday on Monday at the Tea Box!  I had Ms. Saigon tea, which is a black tea with passion fruit and ginger.  It was very good, and made me feel a little better! But I got a lot of planning done for my trip tonight, so I feel good about that.  I also found this awesome website called TripIt, which searches your email and automatically puts all of your confirmations and reservations on to one convenient itinerary! Very cool.  For now I should probably get to bed so I can get some work done tomorrow!!
On a random note, I almost went to Switzerland last week... My friend was going to visit a friend and invited me to come with... free room and food. I was sooo tempted, but it ended up being to late to book the flight after we got back from Paris. It's too bad! But now I've got a travel bug, and I may have been looking up flights for the next few weekends... oops. 

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