Yasmin had applied for several internships and was beyond excited to receive an acceptance letter. She had immediately taken the offer. After, at her parent’s insistence, she did a little digging and made sure the people she was corresponding with existed and were who they said they were.

Sure enough, she found a bio for Dr. Susan Ward on the London Archeological Society website. Her main area of study was Viking pre-history and she’d conducted several important digs, unearthing information that changed the archaeological landscape forever.

Yasmin was surprised she’d never heard of the women before, since the field of archeology wasn’t a huge one and the most prominent professors in the field tended to pop up in textbooks and papers. Studying her picture, Yasmin decided the woman had a quietly intelligent look about her.

She folded up the letter and put it in her backpack. She’d been corresponding with Dr. Ward’s graduate student, Marcus Hunter, and he’d repeatedly assured her that they were excited to have her as part of the team and that everything was taken care of. There would be a car waiting for her at the airport, which would take her to a flat that she would share with two other interns.

She was excited and nervous. She felt like she hadn’t slept in days. Worry had kept her up. Did she miss packing something; did she pack too much? She’d ripped apart her suitcases so many times that Vanessa finally moved them into her room so Yasmin would stop fussing over them.

Her parents were the same; excited for her, but also nervous. They’d wanted to talk directly to the professor who would mentor her, but Yasmin managed to convince them not to hunt down the woman’s contact information. Yasmin was twenty-two; her parents had to let her fly on her own sometime.

Despite being tired from too many sleepless nights, Yasmin was too energized to fall asleep. She couldn’t wait to get to London and explore a brand new city in a brand new country before going on her first dig, which would be in Scotland at a Viking burial site discovered in the mountainous highlands region.

She was served a meal on the plane, which she ate and enjoyed more than she thought she would, having heard about generic airline food from other people. Then she chose a movie and settled back in her seat to watch.

Several hours later, the plane landed in London.

Standing, Yasmin stretched, twisting the kinks from her back before getting off the plane. She walked slowly, following the rest of the passengers through customs where she dutifully answered the questions asked by a border official before heading toward the baggage area.