November 13th, 2009 - Frankfurt Airport 1:45 am Canada time

We’re off! I can hardly believe that we are actually on our way to Chennai India. I am still kind of in denial that we are about to spend 6 weeks abroad, but I am also very excited!

I woke up yesterday morning, excited, but apprehensive. I still had a lot of packing to do, and last minute errands to run. I even had to do a last minute suitcase switcheroo, when I discovered that the suitcase I was intending to take was much too heavy (so I hastily decided to bring two, and threw some stuff into another, smaller bag). Before I knew it, my parents had arrived to take me to the airport.

I met up with my classmate Priyanka and her family at the airport, and we got in line to check in. Check in was actually smooth sailing, because there weren’t many other people waiting. In fact, I think we were the first in line. Our families (including Pippi and Hazel!) walked us to the security check in, where we said our goodbyes.

We were through security in a matter of minutes (even though I was randomly bomb sniffed!) and headed over to our gate. We had almost a full hour before our plane was to take off, so we wandered around the duty free stores, and stopped for a last minute Starbucks (mmm Peppermint Mocha) before getting in line to board.

The flight was quiet and passed surprisingly quickly! Neither of us were able to sleep very much (we took off at 5:30 pm, so it wasn’t exactly “bedtime”), but we had seat back TVs to keep us occupied. We watched “My Sister’s Keeper” together (good movie, but very depressing) and then I dozed a little bit to Harry Potter. Before we knew it we were touching down in Frankfurt, Germany!

Once we deplaned, we set about trying to change our seats (since we were unable to get seats together for the Frankfurt-Chennai leg of our journey in Toronto). Unfortunately it looks like the plane is pretty full, so we will have to try and switch seats with somebody once we are on board.

Right now we are sitting in a random gate, passing the time until our next flight (departing at 10am local time). We tried to find some free Wifi to send emails, but it appears that the good old Germans are too frugal for this J

In a matter of about 12 hours we will be landing in Chennai. I can’t wait to see what it’s like! Who knows what the next 6 weeks will bring!