Welcome To Filthadelphia

There is a rat in this airport.

Just when we got up to find lunch, someone spotted a rat (okay, a mouse) and we watched it scamper around under the seats in the terminal across the hall from us for a few minutes, before picking up all of our things and heading to Au Bon Pain for sandwiches.

Now we've eaten and are back in our seats, and the rat seems to be gone, but it was still not the first thing we wanted to see starting out our trip.

Other than that, things are going well. My peanut butter was confiscated in security at Pittsburgh, so I'm not too happy about that. The guard running the x-ray machine thought I had candles in my backpack, so he called some woman to come search it. She took my two jars of Jiff and returned them to my parents waiting landside. It's a sad way to start this trip.

Caitlin, Maria and I boarded our flight in Pittsburgh at 9:05 this morning (after I woke up at 4:30 and Maria and I got to the airport at 7 a.m.) and arrived in Philly around 9:40, where we met Lauren. EXCELLENT timing, considering our scheduled arrival time was 10:25.

Now we're just waiting, trying to pass the time until the rest of our group gets here. Their flight was scheduled to leave Ohio around noon, so - assuming they're on time - we should see them in about an hour and a half, I think.

There's not much to do, of course. There is only a handful of other passengers now, mostly from a group speaking German. None of us could get on the Internet before 11 a.m., but now we're all wired in. I tweeted that I would be flying to Frankfurt today and within minutes, the Frankfurt Airport tweeted back at me.

Thanks, Frankfurt! That's not creepy at all.

...

I don't know when my next chance to get online will be after we leave Philly, so this may be my sign-off until Florence.

Wish me luck! I love you all and will talk later, assuming the rats don't get me first.

One Day... This Is It

This is it.

I can't believe that after just over a year of applying and preparing and talking about it, I'm finally less than 24 hours away from boarding a plane for Firenze.

Just last week I was saying, "I'm not nervous," and it was completely true. It still felt so unreal that, to be honest, I wasn't even excited yet. But now as the sun is beginning to set on my last full day in America until May, I'm definitely feeling it.

I'm still not nervous, per se, but I have had this jittery feeling all day as I start to come to terms with the fact that I'm getting up at 5 a.m. tomorrow to move to a foreign country.

I weighed my suitcase today (which my mom and I packed yesterday) and, much to my surprise, it came to only 44 lbs., six lbs. under the allowed weight for the first bag. Which means it ships for free! Instead of the $120 it would have been if overweight. I feel very accomplished and even more relieved.

So now I am totally packed and ready to go tomorrow. It's going to be a strange experience, that's for sure, but I also trust that it will be one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I'm so excited to share it with you.

I have very little idea what to expect from here on out. I keep thinking of that scene in "The Fellowship of the Ring," when Sam stops Frodo as they head through the field at the edge of the Shire.

"This is it," Sam says as he stops beside the scarecrow.

"This is what?" Frodo asks.

"If I take one more step," Sam answers, "It will be the farthest away from home I've ever been."

Tomorrow, I'll be taking that "one more step" (but luckily I expect a much smoother trip than the one awaiting Sam and Frodo). And for a girl who's never been outside the good old U. S. of A., it's definitely going to be the farthest from home I've ever been. But that's a great thing.

If you remember the rest of that scene from LotR, Frodo reassures Sam with a great quote from Bilbo.

"You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Ciao, Italia.

Six Days

This one has really been speaking to me lately as I begin saying my good-byes to family and friends. I won't be driving away across the plain, but I will be taking off in a jet plane when this week ends, and I'll certainly be taking on a "crazy venture."


"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies."  Jack Kerouac

Twelve Days

I love this one! It's going to be a good quote to keep in mind while I begin packing and finalize planning.

"They have worries, they're counting the miles, they're thinking about where to sleep tonight, how much money for gas, the weather, how they'll get there - and all the time they'll get there anyway, you see."  Jack Kerouac

"All the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforeseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see."  

Jack Kerouac