It’s been 15 months since I last took an international trip, and I almost forgot I needed to grab my passport. I was packing this afternoon for a few days in New York followed by a New Years week trip to Guadeloupe, and I was going through my wallet thinking “Work ID… check… MetroCard… check… Oh, I should grab my debit card that doesn’t charge foreign fees, check, got that… do I need my passport card or is my driver’s license enough OH WAIT I NEED MY ACTUAL PASSPORT!” And then I had to go find it, which took a minute because it was buried under a bunch of old phone chargers at the back of a random drawer, instead of sitting in my important-documents drawer where it belonged. I mean, that turned out to be not such a big deal, because one of those phone chargers was my international-plug-compatible-with-two-usb-ports charger that I need anyway, but still. Passports really do belong in the important documents drawer…

But this is all just prequel to the important fact, which is that I’m finally getting to Guadeloupe, eleven and a half months after a New York Times article made me want to jump on a plane immediately. I already knew it was beautiful, because Guadeloupe is where they film Death in Paradise, one of my favorite British detective shows. But this article pointed out that there are ultra cheap nonstop flights from New York, and that the food is a unique (and spectacularly delicious) blend of Creole and French haute cuisine. In fact, the flights from JFK to Point-à-Pitre on Norwegian Air are so cheap that a round trip costs only about $100 more than the round trip between DC and NYC. And we’re AirBnB-ing two bedroom apartments, four nights on one coast and five nights on the other, for something crazy like €130/night.

I am going to eat ALL THE SEAFOOD. And I am going to scuba dive and see ALL THE FISH. And although it may be a bit rusty at this point, I am going to speak ALL THE FRENCH. I can’t wait!