51 lbs x 2 and On the Plane!

Currently sitting on the plane and departure day has been a whirlwind! I woke up early (though not to my mother’s standards) and had breakfast with my Grandma at her assisted living home near our house. It was a great time and she is clearly so excited for me to meet her cousins tomorrow! Saying goodbye to her was hard and she cried, as many of the women on my mother’s side of the family often do. Then I took a brief nap as my mom ran to Sam’s Club to pick up pics of the family to take and once my dad arrived and my sisters were home (they took a half day!) we headed to meet Nunnie, Pap, Aunt Cindy, Dena and Sam for lunch in Robinson. It was great to see everyone and say goodbye.
My family took me to the airport to see me off after lunch and my bags came in at 51 and 53 lbs. We transferred a few things into my carry on bag and the bag came in at 51 lbs the second time. Kudos goes out to my mom and her expert packing abilities. Just ask Jena Viviano, when she managed to fit all of our stuff into Jena’s car for the ride back after Christmas break last year. I swear, that woman should win some kind of award. Our refrigerator on any given day is a case in point. As a child I worried about a family where you could see the back of the fridge… I didn’t think that was normal. I guess having multiple refrigerators/freezers that are packed full runs in my family. Now, getting back on track… saying goodbye was not as hard as I thought. My mom cried a lot but that’s not unusual. I didn’t cry which was surprising but the nervousness is trumping the sadness of being gone for 5 months I think.
Then, at the airport, I ran into Jackie Ogden from Lehigh who coincidentally I flew with the last time I flew internationally when we went to Ghana with Global Citizenship. What luck! Then, in the security line I run into Brendan Hannon who is on his way to NYC for an externship. Turns out our gates were next to each other so we got a snack and then chatted. I boarded the plane to find that there was no one else in my row so I have all three seats to myself. 
Now I think I’ll try to get some sleep…

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 1: Kicking Off and Digging In

Image
I know I’m behind on my blogging, and this is the start of my effort to catch up! Week 1 was relatively insane, busy, exciting, difficult, and challenging. The biggest question in my mind is always “how can we provide the maximum amount of value to our client, and the startup ecosystem, in Budapest?” There are so many opportunities… how do we identify the ones that our client in uniquely suited to successfully tackle? Some background: BEA, our client, is a government (city) agency that focuses on supporting startups with 1) relevant programming, 2) connections, and 3) small loans, e.g. micro finance. On #3, we know that this is important but likely not going to solve many of the “big problems” because the scale of these loans is relatively limited (I will spare you the statistical explanation). #s 1 and 2 are where the real opportunity lies. During our first week we had many meetings with our client and conducted eight individual client team member interviews. ...
Read more

Deploying to Budapest

Our deployment starts in just 2 days! Despite some travel issues (hello, Philly, for an extra 24 hours), I am shortly en route from PHL to BUD. We received our clients and   SOWs about a month ago, at which point we dove into true research and project preparation. My team also had a virtual kickoff 2 weeks ago with our client, where we presented some initial content we developed to refine the overall objectives and scope of the project. I am a little apprehensive about the current scope (we have 3 FT resources for 4 weeks) but during the first week we have the opportunity to further refine the SOW, which I think will be necessary.   Here are some fast facts: Client: Budapest Enterprise Agency (BEA) Client Mission : “… to contribute to the development and expansion of viable, new and existing entrepreneurs based on the market needs, thus contributing to the creation and preservation of workplaces in Budapest and to the facilitation of the economic growth of th...
Read more

Visiting Coltura! FINALLY!

Image
Folks, I've seen the one-legged stool! Or sort of. The problem is that the house fell in on itself 2 years ago, so I didn't actually "see" it! I was little upset about this when I first heard that you couldn't go inside but after putting the whole experience in perspective I've come up with this general conclusion. The stool was object to focus on, obviously. It embodied all the amazing places I had heard about for so many years and wanted to see for myself. The house where the stool was - I saw that and being there was simply amazing. As we drove to it I was just overwhelmed with thinking of my Nonno, walking this path in 1925 with his siblings and how different life must have been for them here. Seeing the house where my Nonno grew up was mind-boggling as well. Seeing the graves of my great-great-grandfather and mother made me speechless. I am beyond blessed that my family still keeps in touch with these relatives and I am able to see all these amazing thi...
Read more