Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Two days!

You guys, I leave in two days. Thursday morning I'll be at the airport decked out in things too heavy to pack- also known as my gigantic snow boots and winter coat. With my gigantic backpack that when my poor friend Val, who is probably the epitome of slender, tried to pick up yesterday and kind of failed.

Any time I have traveled on a plane since graduating High School has been a trying experience. My airport karma is not good at all, consider my latest experience: trapped in Vegas for three days during Hanukah when I wasn't old enough to gamble. Or when I studied abroad and ended up stranded in a Barcelona airport on my 18th birthday severely sleep deprived and totally alone. In short, I am not optimistic that I will roll into Philly at 7 on the 25th. But that, after much back and forth with the travel company, is the plan.

The past week has been spent trying to see everyone before I leave. I've been scheduling my time down to the hour and it's been odd to think that I'm not going to see my closest friends and family for two years. I don't think I can fully comprehend that yet, its been much easier for me to rationalize going to Philly and Istanbul, but I'm sure that once I'm in Kstan it will all come rushing to me. As such I've gone through many walks in Seattle parks, eaten a salmon burger (for free!) on the Ballard locks, figured out that all movies I see with Sarah end with the protagonist drowning, had my last ridiculous bus ride from Seattle to Kent, eaten gelato, a whole tub of Beecher's cheese curds in record time, has a last bowl of pho, and a really good cupcake. Tonight I'm having fake Seder, since when I read the religious breakdown of Kyrgyzstan it didn't lead me to believe there would be too many Jews there. So my mom has been awesome enough to make me the traditional fixings, which we all know is code for matzoh ball soup.

I am totally packed, as well. Hopefully my host family will like the gifts of honey straws, Seattle key chains, and some smoked salmon. Hopefully also my luggage doesn't get lost. But I've got a change of clothes in my carry-on, (as well as Infinite Jest, War and Peace, and Doubt by Hecht), and my bag of banana grams ready to go. I've given everyone my address and already have three letters my sister Alli gave me to read on the plane. I'm ready to go.

PS It won't last since I picked Villanova, but I'm ranked super high in my bracket right now! And my huskies are surprisingly rocking it.

1 comment:

  1. Tommie! What an adventure you have begun! I'm sending all of my best wishes to you right now!

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