Catherine’s Excellent Adventure

Our 2016 is off to a bang, as Catherine left yesterday for a three-week study abroad in London, where she’ll take a literature class, see several plays, and do some exploring on her own.

The experience has her way out of her comfort zone: It’s the first time she’s traveling abroad, the first time she’s a long way from home without one of us, and she met her 14 traveling companions — all students at Hofstra, too — just a few weeks ago.

Needless to say, her emotional IQ this past week has been equal parts excitement and anxiety, both of which you can glimpse in this picture of her wending her way through airport security last night.

Heading through airport security.

So far, all is well. The students arrived safely in the the UK this morning despite an hourlong flight delay and a very bumpy ride.

Sunrise somewhere over Ireland.

Catherine and her roommate settled in quickly and — miracle of miracles —  the chef in the hotel restaurant where the group dined tonight went out of his way to address her food-allergy concerns. (If you have food allergies, you know this is a huge comfort!)

She’s blogging her adventures, so I’ll let you read about the rest of her first day here while Basil and I try to enjoy the way-too-quiet home front.