I'm going on an adventure!

Today has been a hectic whirlwind of phone calls, funky jazz music (the kind that gets played in elevators, in planes before they take off, while being placed on hold by an airline etc.), and chocolate digestive biscuits.*

Let me explain: I woke up this morning with a notification that I could check in online, so I did. To my surprise, my boarding pass said my flight was for 10:45pm this evening. If you remember (and if not you should go and look at my last blog post here), I had been told yesterday that my 3rd November 7pm flight had been moved to the 4th of November at 8am. So a boarding pass detailing that my flight was in fact today, for the 3rd of November, was confusing at best, incredibly frustrating and infuriating at worst. I phoned Kenya Airlines - at this point, just confused - and was put on hold. 45 minutes later, having not gotten much further, I was frustrated and infuriated. Finally, they were able to confirm that I was flying out today - my original flight had just been delayed until 10:45 - the time on my boarding pass. Which was fine. Totally fine. Then this happened: even though my flight was delayed I still had to show up at the airport as if my flight were on time. So I was going to be ridiculously early. When I showed up at the airport, I was further informed that my flight was delayed another hour so I had a total of 5 hours and 45 minutes to wait. The very lovely women at the check in desk placated me with a £10 food voucher which I took and spent on chocolate digestive biscuits. And thus our tale comes full circle.

From the above rant, you can infer that despite my hectic day, I have found myself at the aiport and so did in fact get all my packing done. I know you were waiting with baited breath for the end of that story. Packing was a struggle and I may have overpacked. This is what my suitcase looked like before I had to sit on it. (I probably overpacked).

Yes, that is a book by Mark Gatiss (a writer on Sherlock, where he also plays Sherlock's brother Mycroft - quite brillianty I might add). I've taken a ridiculous number of books and carrying this suitcase up and down the stairs in the tube is definitely an excellent argument for Kindles everywhere**. Did I mention I overpacked?

Now I have gotten that out of the way, I want to explain this blog name. So many of my friends have gone on travels and produced wonderfully written blogs and I wanted to get on board. I do think travel blogs are special; having stories of one's travels will be priceless in the years to come. However, I also feel like a walking (or at this exact point in time, sitting) cliché.

Look at the unemployed twentysomething of on a journey to find herself!

Although that may be a tad unfair, I did want to acknowledge the "travel blog" frenzy of college/post-college students. Hence the title: the travels of a wondering twentysomething. I'm trying to be a little self-aware. Now, before you think there's a typo - yes, I do know the difference between wondering and wandering. Wandering is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as "travelling aimlessly from place to place". I originally wanted to be "wandering" because I thought it sounded romantic but I don't think I am aimless at all in this personal pilgrimage.

Google tells me that wondering has the following two meanings:

1. desire to know something.

2. feel doubt.

As this is a personal pilgrimage into my family history, and a journey back to my roots in a way, the first definition works well for me. There is so much I hope to learn in the coming weeks! Moreover, as an unemployed twentysomething on a personal pilgrimage into my family history, I also feel doubt. A lot of doubt. So much doubt. I have no idea what I'm doing. I have no idea what this adventure holds. I am so excited to get on that plane but a tiny bit of me is scared, terrified - "crawl back to your bed and watch netflix", it whispers at me. So a wondering twentysomething I am.

There and back again is the title of Bilbo Baggins' book about his adventures in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein. My wonderful boyfriend Josh suggested it because I wanted a fitting title for my wondering self and he knows I am a huge nerd.

I am now off to find some food in the hope that this improves my mood and then I will settle down in a corner of the airport with one of the 930192309123812793810938 books that I packed.

Hour 1: pre-food

Hour 3: post-food

Hour 5: nope. Just nope.

See you all in Nairobi xx

*Everyone got very passionate about the oxford comma. I was sent a very persuasive buzzfeed article so I will be using it for the most part but as a good friend advised me: "you should switch back and forth so nobody can get a leg up on you". And this frankly just seems more fun.

**I have yet to actually get a Kindle because I can't decide if I want one. I know I KNOW there are so many positives but there's nothing qute like having a book in your hands: smelling that bookish smell, the satisfaction of turning the last page, or the trepidation you feel when you know you're coming to the end of a story you don't want to put down.

#Airport #london #travelday