adventures in lost luggage

well i am here! and what a trip. my flight left at 1 a.m. from LAX this morning. i met two other students before we boarded. we arrived in houston at around 5:30 am, which is definitely my prime time. we dazedly ate some breakfast and avoided meeting up with the rest of the group, because in all honesty, we were not prepared to take such a step in the frame of mind that we were in. eventually we did meet them, and it was... interesting. it´s very strange to meet people that you know you will be pretty close to in the future, but who are strangers to you now. i think there are about 20 or 25 of us here, which is fun. the flight to honduras was smooth (the landing was quite the opposite) but at the baggage claim, 5 of us discovered that we had no luggage. i was unconcerned, though, perhaps due to my lack of sleep, or to the overwhelming distraction of the idea that i was in a new place which would be my home for a while. the professors (who i am already in love with) took us from the airport to the university to give us a bit of an orientation. then my family picked me up! they are charming. there are two daughters, 2 and 11, two parents (not altogether unusual) and two grandparents. they are all very sweet and cute and welcoming. we went to the supermercado and i was laughing the whole time at my own spanish skills. but they are already improving. this month we are having spanish class every school day for 3 hours, so they definitely will. well, i am going to get some sleep finally. hopefully my bags will decide to join me here soon. they are missing out.

a favorite poem

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost

[from Mountain Interval, 1920]