So I woke up at the Quality Inn and made my way downstairs to check out and board the shuttle to the airport. I can easily say that hands down the shuttle ride from the hotel to the Dallas Airport was the scariest part of my travels. My diver was a sweet guy but I was not prepared for "the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" style of driving that this gentleman had up his sleeve. There was only one other passenger in the shuttle. The whole ride I became more and more happy that I had opted to wait to eat breakfast at the airport. The entire ride me and the other passenger just held on to the "oh shit" handle and said a silent prayer. The shuttle dropped me off first and as I jumped out I turned back and told the other passenger to have a safe and smooth flight. He told me that I should also have a safe flight but after that shuttle ride, that everything else would be smoother in comparison.
Okay so my parents got my TSA PreCheck (it's $85 US dollars for a 5-year membership) and I highly recommend to get if you flight often! I walked into Dallas airport and from the time I walked through the door until I got to my airport terminal, took me 10-12 minutes!! Now, I need to express that if I had gone through the normal line, it would have easily been 50mins. There were tons of people at 04:30.
Once I got to my gate I decided it was time to scout out some breakfast. I saw a small little shop and I went in to investigate what kind of goodie they might have. I was in shock when I saw that a single (kind of on the smaller size) banana was $2 US dollars. Umm, I don't need potasimum that badly! geez
I got something for breakfast (not their pricey bananas) and headed back to my terminal. As I eat my breakfast the flight desk stated that you could check your carry-on bag and it would arrive with you at your final destination. Since I was planned to reach St.kitts by that afternoon, I thought it was a good idea. Plus, there was that issue I ran into on my Wichita to Dallas flight, of it not fitting in the overhead bin. So I decided to go ahead and check it. So I just had my huge backpack and boarded the flight.
So as I boarded the flight and one of my zippers on my smaller pockets on my backpack caught on the dividing curtain, you know that tissue paper thin that separates the first class from the common folk. When it pulled my zipper open, all my 50 fruit roll-ups shattered all over the aisle of the plane. My first thought was "maybe no one noticed" and as I turned around I realized that was completely incorrect! I actually had a thought like "just keep going and they won't know those are your 50 fruit roll-ups". I was embarrassed but leave no man or fruit roll-up behind so, with the help of some other kind passengers I picked them and shoved them into my empty see-through waterbottle. I clipped my water bottle to my backpack and tried to just get to my seat without giving anyone else another funny show!
I got to my seat, which was the middle seat ( the universal favorite seat on airplanes, right?), between. an older couple. I spent the flight to Miami chatting with the couple. They were going to the Bahamas to go sailing on their sailboat for two weeks together. I asked if they would like to switch seats so they could sit together and the wife told me "we have been sitting next to each other for the past 37 years, we enjoy the change" and then she gave me a warm smile. The rest of the flight was very calm and went a lot smoother than the shuttle ride.
Once I got to Miami I only had to walk 5 gates to the south of where my plane had docked. Once I got to the gate area, I began looking around thinking that some of these passengers are going to be my future study buddies and such! I met a family that was traveling with their daughter to Ross for Vet School. The girl's mother was slightly concerned that I didn't have anyone traveling with me but I assured her that it didn't bother me at all.
As I boarded the final leg of my journey to RUSVM (Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine) and found my seat, I had a clear moment of utter panic! What am I doing? This is craziness! I'm leaving all my friends, family and pets and going off on my own to ANOTHER COUNTRY!?!? But I had to remind myself that it was going to be okay and all the love and support from the people at home. Remembering how much they believed in me and supported me, calmed me down just as fast as I had freaked out.
This was not going to be easy but I was not going for easy. I was going for those three letters after my name, DVM, and to reach something I had been dreaming about since I was a little girl. About that time the girl who had the seat next to me sat down. Thinking that she may be one of my new classmates, I asked her if she was excited and followed it up with asking if she was in Ross. She looked at me like I had just suggested we fly to St.Kitts on a pegasus! She informed me that she was with her family, on vacation. But we kept chatting through the flight.
Our plane finally landed and I had butterflies in my stomach and was so nervous and excited! I got off the plane and had to walk across the tarmac to get to the airport, kinda felt like an old-time movie. After making it through customs without any real problems, I went downstairs and got my luggage. All three of my bags were there but my pink suitcase had huge cracks all over on the corners but the fabric liner had kept everything inside. So there was a silver lining.
Well, this is a good place to stop, for now, I promise that I will get you all catch up to speed with my travels and Vet School Adventure.
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