This is what I wrote on the plane:

Things started off not badly. I met two other BVAR students, both from California, as soon as I got on the plane. We started out sitting together, but then split up when we realized the huge plane was going to be less than half full and we could all have window seats.

I then filled out my Belize entry forms, which was scary. I’ve now left the US four times, which means I’ve gone through customs/immigration seven times in five different countries, and I don’t think it’s ever going to not freak me out.

For ten bucks I could have had WiFi in-flight. It was almost worth it just for the sake of saying I updated Facebook from the air.

Flying over the place where land meets water, and looking down on endless blue and occasional islands, is really neat. I’ve never flown overseas except at night before. I saw the shores of Ireland and England and France in the early morning, but I’ve never seen North America fall away behind me. I almost missed it, and then I realized we were flying over water and I looked back and saw the coast. I tried without success to figure out what part of the coast I was seeing. I would assume based on geography and time in the air that it was some part of northern Florida and we were over the Gulf of Mexico, but I couldn’t really tell what direction we were headed, so I can’t say entirely for sure.*

Time zones are so neat. In two hours, I’m going to land in Belize at the time it is right now.

* Shortly after I typed that, the pilot came on the intercom and confirmed that yes, we were over the Gulf. I love that unlike so many Americans, I know where things are.