It’s Been, One Week Since You Looked at Me…
Already, this blog is a lie. It has in fact been 13 days since I departed MSP International for Iceland with a lightning fast one hour layover and landed, having slept not a wink, in Belgium for my study abroad adventure. Couple things:
- I cried when I had to say goodbye to my mom. We had this weirdly emotional moment when we looked at each other through the window pane at the security area. I was crying and she was crying and I was trying to take off my Converse and she was trying to tell me there was a woman behind me that I was about to accidentally smack, and then I fell down and she began to laugh at me instead. So I whipped off my backpack and grabbed the travel size kleenex that my friend Jamie recommended I pack but my mom told me to leave behind and I mouthed to her “I told you so” while dabbing my tears because I’m a terrible daughter and would rather she have a funny story to tell about me than the comfort of one last “I love you”, and she laughed because she gets me.
2. Sleeping 13 inches from the bathroom door on a plane ensures that you will not sleep. I highly recommend it if you are trying to complete late coursework for a summer class that you never should have taken because you know full well you will leave it all up to the last week. In any other case, stay the f*ck away from it.
3. I can be awake for 28 hours straight, subsisting on only one icelandic coffee and pure fear of the unknown. This will result in falling asleep at a pizzeria with my three roommates and host mom at 9pm.
4. No one who lives in Belgium is from Belgium, even if they’ve lived here for 15 years. They will still introduce themselves as Italian (my friend Giulia), Ugandan (Sarah), Spanish (Inés), despite the fact that they speak French and Dutch in addition to English and their native tongue because who isn’t capable of that?
5. The best of friends can be made simply by asking if anyone will take a goddamn selfie with you because everyone knows we are tourists anyways and we might as well embrace it. Matt Keller keeps it positive even when all hope is lost, and that is key in a travel buddy.
6. Your host mom can very quickly become quite like your real mom, except more judgmental of your french #skillz. She will also remind you that she is “not your f*cking grandmother” when you offer to carry all the shopping bags.
7. I currently exist in the comfortable place that lies between being present and enjoying all life has to offer me here (like strangers telling me my thong is hanging out of my pants in one of the most beautiful public squares in the world) and making sure everyone at home knows how much I love them (Cath, Cass and Krista, this is for you and all the support you’ve given me in these past few weeks).
8. This post is much too long already. I’m cutting myself off. Check back in later for more. Maybe. This is pretty stream of consciousness stuff at 1:41 am on a Friday. But I’m definitely talking (bragging) about food at some point in the near future.