Airplanes, Goodbyes, and Free Advice

This is going to be a quick post because I am incredibly tired, but things are happening, so I must tell you all about them! This morning I said goodbye to my hometown and to my state for the next ten months. The already emotional situation was amplified by the fact that I've had only two and a half hours of sleep.

 I stayed up until 2 last night and had to wake up at 4:30 in order to leave for the airport at 5:30. My wonderful boyfriend Zac got up early too so that he could see me off. I rode with him to the airport. The whole ride, I was ricocheting madly back and forth between crying and laughing. As each place we passed receded into the distance, my brain thought "Goodbye, neighborhood! Goodbye, Earth Fare where I always get sandwiches! Goodbye this road and that road and everything that wasn't important but is!" in a way that uncannily resembled the monologue I performed earlier this year when I played Emily Webb in Our Town. And on that ride to the airport, everything looked different, because I'm not used to the eerie lighting that hangs in the sky just before sunrise. So, by saying goodbye, I quite literally was seeing it all in a "new light." I really think that leaving for an extended period of time has given me a new appreciation for where I'm from. I realized, but never fully appreciated the beauty of the Carolinas before I had to leave them.

Saying goodbye to my boyfriend was honestly one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. The whole ride to the airport, he was holding my hand and I hated not wanting to let go, but having to anyway. And when we finally got to security in the airport, and I had to go through, but he couldn't come with me, I cried and sniffled uncontrollably. Zac and I have been dating for six months and I'm completely, totally in love. Ten months of separate-ness, while made easier by Skype, is going to be tough, but we're going to try with everything we've got.

I finally calmed down a bit when I got my hands on a Starbucks, and I was able to remind myself that I AM GOING TO FREAKING ITALY WHICH IS FREAKING COOL. So that helped.  From that point on I focused on getting myself to New York. My family and I were once again flying space-available, and after failing to get on a couple of really full flights to Lagaurdia, we got on one to Washington DC, where the Laguardia flights had much more readily available seats. On the plane ride I napped, which was much-needed and much-enjoyed. During our interlude in DC, we ate at the Five Guys in the airport and it was by far the best not-grilled-by-my-daddy cheeseburger I have ever eaten. I had the realization that food tastes ten zillion times better when you have an emotional experience, cry your eyes out, nap it off, and THEN eat when you wake up. I napped again, but less soundly on our flight to New York, and then we came in a taxi to the Scotts' apartment where we're staying. It felt like 8 pm, but it was really only 3, which was bizarre.

The afternoon turned out to be incredibly fun. We walked all around the area where they live. I smelled fresh lavender, ate homemade pretzels and champagne grapes, discovered a new band, and received a free hug in Union Square Park. At Washington Square Park, I watched a man jump over a row of six people and I sat down for a chat with a few NYU students who had a sign offering "Free Advice." Usually, being the shy, reserved sort of person I am, I'd never sit down with strangers and chat about anything, let alone all my hopes and fears and crazy emotions regarding Italy, but I did. I think my exchange will be wasted if I don't open myself up to experiences like that, conversations with people. And I'm so glad I decided to go ahead and start approaching the world that way NOW, because it turned out to be really refreshing to talk about it all with some sincere, uninvolved strangers. Because the perspective of my mom and dad, family and friends, while extremely important to me, can become so stale. Hearing the same thoughts and perspective over and over starts to not help anymore. The advice and words of new people that I'll probably never see again managed to help a bunch with sorting through how I'm going to handle leaving my family, and maintaining this long-distance relationship, and adjusting to a new country and life and language.

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and I can't remember what it was called. I'll edit this when I remember. I had Rigatoni in vodka sauce. Afterwards we went across the street for some gelato and I had a small cup of the tiramisu flavor which was absolutely, breathtakingly delicious. I'm trying to keep these flavors all alive in my mind as well as possible so I can do a good comparison later between Italian food in the United States and Italian food in Italy. So, be on the lookout for that post in the future. For now, I really must go to sleep, because I'm about to collapse from exhaustion. Good night!!!

(Me at the Italian restaurant. I still can't remember its name.)

(The view from the restaurant. On the left is Grom, where we had the amazing gelato.)