The Fruit of the Loom and Other Short Stories, 29Aug, Day 16

A new guy moved into the apartment on Saturday after Rosa left. My first impression was that he was polite, and well educated – he claims a PhD in physics although he now works in a bank. He’s also appeared rather finicky and effeminate. I did not think his arrival was significant enough to merit a mention until more recently.

However, since his arrival 4 days ago I don’t think he’s worn anything more than underwear indoors for more than an hour. It’s honestly all that this guy wears. If this was college, someone would’ve surely pantsed him by now, and he’d probably have a few welts from a towel/rat-tail. Seriously, who walks around in their underwear all day?! This guy will come back from work, and within 5 minutes he’s walking around in his underwear! (And I’m sharing the apartment with 2 girls.) I’m sort of reminded of Sir William from WT12 though I won’t make any speculations about what happens in his room. I’ve been careful to lock my door and sleep with my back to the wall….

But it gets worse. He’s moving into my room after I move out, but the girl moving into the room where he has been staying until I move out has begun to move some of her things in, so he’s been displaced into the living room and is quite huffed about it. So the living room is pretty much off limits, and now they’ve asked me to agree to let him move into my room a day early and live in the living room my last night in the apt. Maybe if I can find a new apartment tomorrow I can get out of here out a day earlier than planned and curtail this standoff.

It looks like we ran out of toilet paper today. I’m not really fazed by this because living in 23K conditioned me pretty well to this situation. (I always keep a spare roll in my room for situations of this type, but I’m curious to see what the others will do.) Will they just rely on the bidet, continue using the napkins from the kitchen until they to are depleted, will we begin to see newspaper left in the bathroom, or maybe there’s some other European cleansing medium unbeknownst to me? Only time will tell…

The refrigerator now smells like a burp after someone went to an all-you-can-eat buffet of pickles and Chinese food. I don’t understand where this stink comes from, but when you open the door -for even a second, the whole kitchen needs to be aired out!

Speaking of Chinese, we reshuffled language classes this week. I was promoted to the next level, but the class time is not as rich. The class is now pretty big at 11 people, and it’s dominated by Asians. I like Asians, in fact one of my best friends is Japanese, but some of these kinds are pretty hard to understand with their accent.

I made 2 trips to Monza today to look at potential apartments. Yes, I know that’s 4 hours spent traveling back and forth, but the second trip was last minute. I’m starting to run out of time, and I certainly don’t want to stay in this place any longer with fruit-boy walking around nearly naked, our burping refrigerator, and an impending TP crisis. I’d say 1 of the places I saw today could be acceptable, though a bit more than I was hoping to pay. Tomorrow I will see 3 more, and then it is time to start the paperwork.

I’ll be up before 7 tomorrow to get a train to Monza, so had better call it a night…

'Adjustment Issues’, 27Aug, Day 14

I woke early to go to the cathedral for mass, as I had planned the night before. The city was barren of any activity except for an occasional tourist until I reached the plaza del duomo. Here the asian tourists were lined up taking pictures. I wish I could’ve captured the moment, four or five men in that funny half knee-bend posture, making squinty faces while trying to fit the towering cathedral into their camera lenses. But they didn’t enter the cathedral with me. I found the church to be mostly empty with service already in progress (because I was about 10 minutes late.) The service was in Italian so I had a bit of trouble following, but I was pleased nonetheless.

I exited the church to find the piazza much more alive. The pigeons and their feeders created a backdrop for the street vendors, performers, preachers, beggars, and waves of tourists all mulling around the square. I sat on the steps for a few minutes to watch the commotion and try to decide what to do today. I had planned to climb to the roof of the cathedral if it was a clear day in hope of seeing the white peaks of the Alps on the horizon. But it was not exceptionally clear, and the Alps would have to wait for another day. My backup plan was to go to lake Como today, but again the clouds made me reconsider my plans. I hadn’t thought of a third option, and now I sat bewildered on the steps of the duomo wondering what I could possibly do today?!? In the end I decided to break my protocol of avoiding museums and visit the Pinoteca of Brera.

I’d heard that aside from the Cenacolo, this museum houses some of the most famous paintings in Milan. So I paid my student admission, (I’m a student of Italian), picked up an audioguide -in Italian of course, and wandered the 20-some auditoriums of the museum. Most of the art turned out to be religious in nature, which is not my favorite style because after the 7th painting of the Madonna, they begin to look the same. I was on the tram back to the apartment by 2, but paused to check another monument or two off the list.

After lunch I walked down to the phone booth to try to call home again, but missed them once again. Now I was pretty much at a loss for what to do next, and was feeling quite unsettled about it. I always get antsy when I feel like I’m missing out on something fun for no reason. I believe trying to adjust from gradschool where I always had list of 20+ items that I should’ve finished last week to having nearly nothing that I have to do has been harder to adjust to than the language, environment, etc, of Italy. I probably shouldn’t worry too much because I can make a list of apartments to try to visit tomorrow.

Today Rosella helped me call a few apartments, and I’ve concluded that mentally stable potential-roommates in Monza are a commodity. For instance, one guy we talked to has a place with 5 or 6 people sharing one bathroom, but it’s no problem because he only allows 8-minute showers. I think I’ll probably opt for a single…

I saw a movie tonight in an open-air thearter. The movie was very artsy, and hard to follow, but I enjoyed the atmosphere. I met a guy who studied at UCon on my walk back.

End of the List, 26Aug, Day 13

With the help of my earplugs I slept in until almost 11, ate some cheeros for breakfast, threw some laundry in the machine, and then hit the road. Today I wore my new shoes instead of the old black nikes because my left foot has been hurting a bit and I don’t know if it’s because the shoes are old, or if it’s protesting to walking so much.

I worked my way out to the northwest quadrant of Milan to see the cemeteria monumental: a somber collection of monuments behind an impressive marble façade tribute to Milan’s deceased. In a way it reminded me of the cemetery in Buenos Aires, but the monuments appeared more ornate, and the large trees planted in gravel cast shadows making me glad I was there in broad daylight. After a brisk walk to the end and back I was ready for a new genre of sightseeing and headed for the other main park in the city.

The Giardini Pubblici is a large wooded area with a few duck-ponds, a playground, and various other delights -including pony rides, the museum of natural history, and a planetarium. However, by now I was more interested in finding a gelato than watching the carp swim aimlessly around the pond or the teens kick a soccer ball back and forth. I headed south and found myself in the marrow of the fashion district for the second time. I discovered via della spiga last Friday on a different promenade which began with the questura office.

Della Spiga is a street closed off to traffic and lined with the most in vogue. Here one can find shoes priced over 350€ and garments carrying tags approaching 1000€, and I don’t think they would respond positively to an attempt at bargaining for a lower price... It’s amazing to think that someone will buy a pair of shoes for more than I could sell my car for. Man those kids got one heck of a deal on the car!

I scratched the museum of archeology and a few more churches off my list while enjoying a chocolate and coconut gelato. I have promoted coconut gelato to my new favorite flavor, displacing straticcheli and tiramisu. Meanwhile, my list of tourist attractions and historical monuments is getting short unless you include museums and other indoor activities. However, I’ve been reserving the museums for winter, or a rainy day.

Finally I returned to the Duomo to check the schedule of Sunday masses because it would be downright sinful to miss a service there when I’m living within walking distance. I entered the cathedral to find a mass in progress, but I’m going to try to return tomorrow morning when there should be less tourists taking photos as they roam the periphery.

I bought another sirloin to cook in my frying pan, threw some noodles, salad, bread, and called it a dinner. I thought I might be able to season the meat with pesto, but it didn’t really work out.

I went to bed gazing at the flashes from lightning illuminate the city.

Farewells and a New Staple, 25Aug, Day 12

I cooked some pasta with pesto for lunch, but added a new element. Sardines! All these years eating sardines on crackers, I don’t know why I never tried pasta instead of crackers. It was remarkable!

After lunch I headed for the Castello Sforzesco and adjoining Parco Sempione. To my delight entrance to the castle museum was free, and I had an hour to look at some artifacts, paintings, and furniture. At 17:30 I was ushered out, and headed towards the park. They were having a festival of sorts out back, with a bunch of old people doing some form of Italian line-dancing under a large white tent. They appeared to be having quite a time, but I soon lot interest and began to meander the many paths of the park. This is a pretty large patch of green near the center of the city, and you can hardly hear the external traffic from the center. Eventually I reached the arch at piazza sempion, and headed back by a different way stopping briefly at the comic exposition in a municipal museum.

Friday night I went to the Navigli with four of the girls from the scuola –three of which would be returning home and wanted to go out on their last night in Milan. Katerina, would be going to class a bit more before beginning at NABA here in Milan. We started off with an apertivo at a place that reminded me a bit of Miami playing some of our local favorites like Ricky Martin and Shakira. After the mosquitoes chased us inside and I’d had 4 plates of food we decided to go for a walk. Before long the girls were feeling ready to go, and I was getting a bit tired so we exchanged emails, said our farewells, and went our separate ways.

On the way back I stopped at the lemon truck to try their spiked lemonade. It must’ve been good because I talked to one of the bartenders for about a half hour. When his dad/boss heard I was from the US he excused Fabio to practice his English. It turns out he spent 2 months last summer in White Plains, NY. –A nice kid.

Dinner at the Brazilian’s (in Vercelli), 24Aug, Day 11

After class I went with Leonardo and his wife Fernanda to eat a pizza before meeting Vicente and Tetsuo at the central station to go to their apartment in Vercelli. Vercelli is a smaller city/town in piedmonte, about half way to Torino, and an hour by train. We arrived, got a gelato, and began exploring the city. The city center is a quaint square, and the tree-lined streets leading up to it where old people crowded cafes made for memorable images. We looked at some photos and drank some matè, (a regional south American tradition) while fernanda prepared a delicious dinner.

I really enjoyed this dinner with my classmates because I’ve mostly been eating alone. I hope that we can make this a more common occurrence, maybe alternating between venues.

Tomatoes, 23Aug, Day 10

I purchased a tomato today. Those who know me well should recognize that this was a revolutionary event in my culinary history because I have abhorred raw tomatoes for the last 24 years. However, I found the salad last night to be quite edible despite the presence of some tomato wedges. And lacking of my usual baby carrot salad-garnish, I felt obliged to settle for the local fare, -the tomato.

I have little else to report today. It appears that some of the real estate agencies will open on Monday, so my apartment search has been stalled until then.

The Mosquitoes: 5
Mark: 3

Organ Concert, 22Aug, Day 9

After class I went to the grocery store to buy a loaf of bread, meat, and cheese to make lunch. There are so many different cheeses, and I don’t recognize many of them, but provolone dulce is a pretty good one. (Not very stinky.) I also picked up the cheapest bottle of wine, 750ml for 1.09€. I figure I could work my way up from the bottom.

After lunch I went back to school to look at some apartment listings online. Several hours, and 6 websites later I had my list of options and it was time to go for dinner before the organ concert later that day.

I went to Da Willy, -home of the enormous pizza, where I ordered a respectably colossal calzone and insalada mista before rushing off to the metro to meet the other students going to the concerto. The concert was in a beautifully decorated baroque-style cathedral, but the music was pretty heavy to listen to for an hour. I think that organs can play too may notes at once, and it can cause it to sound dissonant.

After the concert we went to Valintina’s house for some pasta. The linguini with wine homemade by her uncle was superb, and the conversation that followed equally enjoyable. Her home is decorated by many art peaces made by her boyfriend, and has the feeling of home rather than a transient/student residence. I wonder when will be the next time I live in a place that also feels like home….

A couple of pictures of the concert, dinner, and the apartment I've been staying in

Found a New Sport, 21Aug, Day 8

After class I went to lunch with 3 of my Brazilian classmates. We didn’t have to look far to find an open café today. The city is really starting to come back to life! For 8€ I had a nice lunch of pasta al ragu (meat sauce) a cutlet, salad, and water.

After lunch I went back to school to answer some emails and begin to look for an apartment listing online. By 4:30 I felt tired of the computer lab, and decided to accept an invitation from a few of my classmates to go with them to watch Garfield 2 in the theater near the duomo. Of course it’s a kids movie, but I was pleased by how much I found to be understandable.

I watched the setting sun’s rays paint the eastern side of the Duomo salmon-pink while enjoying a vanilla/strawberry gelato before beginning the walk home. I walked home via a more westerly route today and discovered a park behind two churches called the parche delle basilliche where some of the locals were out walking their dogs in the shaded grass. I popped out near the plaz. 24 Maggio where there was an old timer in a grey suite with an orange tie and a Yankees cap playing the guitar. It was quite comical, but charming at the same time.

I returned to the apt and chatted with Rosella and her friend for a while before retiring to my room. I ha planned to do some studying but was being hit pretty hard by the mosquitoes and decided to fight back. I think I killed more than a dozen in my room. Tomorrow I will begin to keep score. How many bits I have vs how many mosquitoes I kill. I’d say right not it is a draw.

The Hinterland Part 1, 20Aug, Day 7

Today I put some laundry in the machine her, packed a lunch, and walked to the train station to begin exploring the area north of Milan, near work. Since Italians like to vacation in August, the busses and trains have rather limited service, and it ended up taking quite a while to get to Vimercate. However, I enjoyed talking to the buss driver for the entire half hour bus ride from the metro station to torre bianche. He even offered me his phone number. However, once in Vimercate I realized I had forgot my printout, and after walking around for a bit I decided to go back to the bust stop to wait continue on to explore Monza as a possible place to live. On the way though the torre bianche mall, I was distracted by a bookstore and bought an English-italian diccionary.

I waited a while for the bus next to an Egyptian guy with rotting front teeth who didn’t know where Miami was, but thought it was a country. Monza is a smaller city with a cute and pretty well preserved center. I think it could be a nice place, but Emiliano’s advice seemed true- That it is a city of old people. I would imagine the median age was about 71. But this brings me to question if all the younger people are still away on vacation. –Especially since everything but the cathedral and gelaterias were closed.

I took another bust to Sesto, where I could pick up the red metro back to Milan. Sesto feels more like Milan. –More like an extension of the city than a separate tow. Compared to Monza, it doesn’t have a traffic-free center, has less old people, and I would guess is about 15 minutes closer to Milan, and 15 minutes farther from work. I’ve also heard that it’s cheaper. (And it’s believable.)

I took the red line back pretty tired after my gita today and crashed an apertivo buffet for a 6€ dinner of pasta, ham, and salad.

A couple other pictures of Arona

Arona, 19Aug, Day 6

I woke about 8 to go to the central station to meet some of my classmates to catch a train to Arona, on the shore of Lago Maggiore.

We spent the day exploring the little city, enjoying views of the lake, and spent about an hour in a museum featuring Picasso and other pieces of abstract art. From this I’ve concluded that you don’t necessarily have to be good at art to be considered good at art….

It was a nice trip. Here’s a few pictures.







When I got home, I pulled my wash from the machine to find it looking dingier than when I put it in. There are now mysterious brown stains on my towel, and a few other items. All the white socks have turned grey. The cloths that were already grey fared pretty well.

Arona, 19Aug, Day 6

I woke about 8 to go to the central station to meet some of my classmates to catch a train to Arona, on the shore of Lago Maggiore.

We spent the day exploring the little city, enjoying views of the lake, and spent about an hour in a museum featuring Picasso and other pieces of abstract art. From this I’ve concluded that you don’t necessarily have to be good at art to be considered good at art….

It was a nice trip. Here’s a few pictures.

The Pizza and the Mafia, 17Aug, Day 4

I decided to continue the tradition of getting up well before my alarm and stopped counting salmon around 6. I think that this habit could lead to a very productive future if it didn’t leave me tired in the afternoon when there are things that are more worthwhile to be done…

On the way to school I tried to withdraw some cash from the Bank of Sicily bancomat to pay my rent, and it told me in greasy green text, “sorry you have no more funds today.” I believe that the time reference “today” on this statement certainly suggests an element of temporal ambiguity alluding to the fact that there were indeed funds at some point, and that although I evidently have no more today, they may return tomorrow by an act of God or otherwise natural process. If not, I should probably call the godfather to see if the mafia has taken over the bank. My adventure will certainly take an unexpected twist if I can’t extract cash from the machine.

After class I walked towards the centro with one of the girls in search of some lunch. We came upon a pizza restaurant newly opened after the vacations, and decided to give it a try. Their heavenly pie with mozzarella, tomato, olive, artichoke hearts, and ham, was the uncontested best pizza I’ve ever had.

Then I walked back to the apt to drop off my books before going exploring, but decided that there wasn’t enough time before the afternoon’s apertivo activity.

The apertivo is like a happy hour, but with the purchase of one drink one can graze from various mini sandwiches and other snack foods. Although the food could not compare to the pizza from lunch, this was a great environment for the graduate student left in me to try to have dinner for 5€. Depending where one establishes the minimum quota to qualify as dinner, this could be a contender.

They actually have a pretty nice setup along the river because at 8:00 they close off the street and pull the tables beyond the sidewalk. But unfortunately there’s a steady stream of street vendors trying to sell flowers, lights, other junk, or just asking for money. And then once it gets dark the mosquitoes also come looking for victims. None the less, the conversation was good, my Italian is improving, and with a tender eye I could accept the charm of this place.

Rain, 16Aug, Day 3

Despite going to bed after 2AM, I gave up trying to sleep about an hour before my alarm was supposed to wake me at 7:45. It felt good to stop tossing around in bed and do some kind of yoga-esque stretches to loosen up my back and neck before studying Italian and having some cereal for breakfast.

Today was cold and raining like a winter day at Stanford. I countered it with jeans and the black fleece and nylon shell jacket that I used to wear in the winter back in CA. I kept the top of my head dry with a little umbrella that was stashed in my suitcase. I don’t know why I didn’t take something a little more resistant to blowing rain like a poncho instead. So I guess going for 3 days before noticing I forgot something says something pretty good about my packing job.

After class I went on a computer at school to publish this journal as a blog for the family to read because I haven’t found an open internet café yet, and I’ve had an awful time finding a phone card and conveniently located payphone as most of the phones seem to be near loud and busy streets. After class I walked out to the Duomo with a Columbian student (who’s name has escaped me) in search of a panini or something appropriate for lunch. The rain had stopped but with the breeze, it was cool enough to wear my jacket half open. The walk was quite pleasant albeit lengthy as practically all of the shops away from the tourist area are still closed.

I returned via the metro to Romolo, the stop nearest the scuola, but then spent a while trying to figure out which direction I was facing when I popped out of the underground. I eventually had to walk for a while via a somewhat circumventious route before finding the scuola in time for a supplemental session about public transportation in Milan at 5PM.

Afterwards I went for a beer with the 4 girls that came to the session. They seem to be a friendly bunch, and it’s good Italian practice. I’m surprised that English appears to be the most common shared language at the school although I’ve only met 1 other American. But of course we also know Italian -to a greater or lesser extent. I think my level of understanding is starting to approach a level that I would consider ‘usable’ in an everyday setting. I should be in decent shape after 12 more days of this.

I had vegetable soup and a salami sandwich for dinner before retiring to study verbs but by then I felt too tired and decided to give up on studying tonight a try again in the morning.

I like this place. I’ve been pleased with the people I’ve met and the environments that we interact in. But in the coming days I need to become more focused on finding an apartment from which my job is more accessible. If I leave the city center, things are sure to change. I wonder how different the so-called hinterland outside of the city is compared to here. I also need to find from where, and how frequently the public transportation goes to Vimercate. I’ve had little success looking online or asking various people. It seems there is no master plan showing the routes of the busses on a map with the stops and their respective times. Instead they just post a timetable with the names of the stop, and it’s up to the discretion of the user to decide where they are. However, I think trying to drive here would be a perpetual fiasco, and really hope to avoid entangling myself in it if possible.

Comatose, Day 2, 15Aug2006

Tuesday was a national holiday, the Ferragosto, so I decided not to set my alarm, sleep in, and then do some solid studying since I’d been told most things would be closed. I went to bed on Monday night/Tuesday morning around 1AM, and to my dismay I woke up some 18 hours later on Tuesday evening. At first I was really confused because I thought the sun was rising when it was actually setting. But Rosa confirmed it. She’d spent the day exploring the city whereas I was dead to the world.

So I ate 2 omelets for breakfast-dinner I bought the day before and we went to find the Lanza metro station where the scuola organized some sort of dancing spectacle of the taranta. We didn’t find any other students at the metro station, but by some coincidence ran into someone wandering the streets outside that told us she saw a flyer elsewhere in the city saying the spetaccolo was at a villa away from the station. She left, but Rosa and I decided to walk the “3 blocks” for the next hour or so until we found the villa. On the way, we passed an impressive cemetery with an imposing façade. It would’ve been worth a picture if I was carrying my camera. Maybe I’ll return one day to get a foto for the readers back home.

The neurotic tarantella dances were especially amusing as more and more of the people sitting near the stage got up and danced with the performers, but after an hour or so they began to look the same and we decided it was getting time to go. It started raining so we took a cab to the park near the metro station and got out because traffic here was at a standstill and I think our cab driver might have been “coceando”, or under the influence of some other substance. We paused under a tree to watch some fireworks in the park in observance of the Ferragosto before catching the metro back to our neighborhood.

Monday, Day 1, 14Aug2006

Jetlag caused me to wake at 4AM, but sometime later that morning I fell back to sleep until my gallo-alarm clock started crowing at 7:30. I took a hot shower hoping that my sore throat would go away. It didn’t’, but Rosella my landlord walked in on me in the bathroom. I’m sure it was embarrassing for her, but was really no big deal because I already had my towel on. Then I had the leftover part of my veal cutlet and bread for breakfast before heading off to school with Rosa, the other student sharing my apartment. Only she’s a bit older than me and is a professor of physical chemistry in Spain. Last night’s thunderstorms left a beautiful, but chilly, morning in their wake.

The scuola is in a nice building that is part of the art institute of Milan. I took a placement test and was put into level 3b taught by Anna. There are 7 other students in the class. We’re a diverse group with 2 Brazilians, 1 Japanese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Korean, 1 Peruvian, 1 Turkish, and myself. We spent most of the hour going around the room, introducing ourselves, and then talking about usanzas (customs) or our respective cultures. Since returning from Argentina, I’m still having some trouble speaking Italian, opposed to Spanish, but I hope to have this out of my system after a few more days. By the end of class I was dying of thirst! -I forgot that they don’t have public water fountains in Europe.

After class we had a little mixer with all the new and old students. I may still be recovering from my stint in the Stanford Engineering School, but I was surprised by the number of girls in attendance. The ratio has flipped from the norm I had become accustomed to. By the end of the afternoon I met people from Sweden, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Columbia, South Africa, and an American from Ganesville studying at Harvard.

That afternoon I went shopping for some groceries and then took a short nap that turned into a 3 hour dozing. I woke around 8 and went looking for diner. Tonight was pizza, but with a salad and ¼ of wine it still came to 15€. There’s something weird about the red wine here. It’s mild tasting, but has a micro-carbonation. I think I like it.

13Aug2006m,Day 0,Arrival

I flew Swiss airlines though Zurich and was reminded of some pleasant memories of my coaching the POLE project in Zurich. However, I didn’t sleep very well. It seems that I sleep better on transcontinental flights if I stay up the whole night before leaving. However, I got a bit of sleep the night before this trip.

The flight from Zurich appeared to be nearly full of Italians. I passed the 40 or so minutes talking to the guy next to me. Alessandro was returning from a holiday in Prague, and was happy to explain how to get from the Malpensa airport to the city center by bus or train. I opted for the train although it cost 5€ more. The train was mostly empty, but I noticed something nostalgic from last spring break. It seems Italian trains mostly sound and smell the same. Both are hard to put to words, but unmistakable.

I arrived at my apartment with little trouble and Elenora, one of my landlords greeted me in the foyer after I struggled to fit my enormous bags into the elevator. Elanora showed me around the apartment, asked if I had any questions, and volunteered some dry posta that I could cook for dinner because I would likely have trouble finding anything open on the Sunday before Ferragosto. I asked for a phone, to call the home front and notify them that I had arrived safe and sound, but there was no phone to be found. So she offered her cellular for a short call.

After showering I went looking for dinner, and ended up walking the 20 minutes to the Catherdral in the center of the city before finding anything open aside from an Indian restaurant that I opted to pass on. I boxed half my dinner to have for breakfast and began the trek home. Only it started to thunder and rain within a few minutes, so I took the tram.

12Aug2006, Day -1, A Rapid Departure

I feel like finally leaving for Italy was some sort of a culmination of events that started back in February, but during my departure from Florida I actually felt more morose than excitement. I believe the sources of this were from self inflicted stress of getting everything done before going and the signals of distress from others that all was not well with my seemingly sudden departure.

Not that this was really a surprise, only that it seemed to come more rapidly than any of us had planned on. Between returning from Argentina and trying to get everything in order – both the important things and a lot of lesser distractions that were somehow magnified into a state of inflated importance, my last two weeks home passed in a snap. --For example, we belabored all day over packing my 2 oversize suitcases debating what to bring, the order of placing the clothes, how to arrange them, whether I should carry the medicines, or stow them, and how to make 130lbs of luggage somehow etherealize down to 99 pounds for the sake of avoiding the $25 fee for overweight luggage.

So I said my goodbyes to the family and neighbors at Leaha’s birthday party and was on the road to the airport. I felt as soon as I got in the car away from all the commotion I began to simmer down a bit, and once I was checked in (without any fines for overweight luggage) and though security I began to feel at ease and began to enjoy the magnitude of the opportunity I have created.

I think I am most turned on, yet most afraid of the unknown that is yet to come.