This morning I embarked on my yearlong adventure away from Whitman to study abroad in Nantes, France and then Mérida, México. It’s nine thirty am and I am already chilling in the Pasco airport, which was not an originally planned stop in my trip. I decided that I should leave Whitman at 5:50am for a 6:45am flight, because I always cut it really close in Walla Walla cause it’s so tiny. But when I got to the parking lot I couldn’t find my friend who was supposed to drive me and then I apparently had one digit wrong in her phone number and my upperclassmen swipe didn’t work in Douglas at 6am to go knock on her door. So eventually at like 6:05 I was getting worried so I called a cab and he was like I’ll come as fast as I can but I don’t think you’re going to make it if you’re checking bags. But then my friend called me back and showed up at the same time as the cab and I was like, awkward! Which car do I get into? I got into my friends car and the cab driver said he was supposed to charge me a $8 fee for showing up even if I didn’t get into the cab but he was going to take pity on me and not charge me, but I gave him five dollars anyway.
So we got to the Walla Walla airport and I ran in while my friend brought the bags but the counter was already closed and I kept begging the TSA agent to let me check my bags but he said he had no control over it because he didn’t work for Alaska airlines and my only option was to throw out all my liquids and gels and take the bags through and then gate check them. Since I just spent like a hundred dollars stocking up on a years supply of all the toiletries I needed I was like umm, no thanks. So I called some 800 number and asked if they had any flights out of Pasco that could still get me to Seattle to make my 12:30 connection, and they had a 10:30 flight! So we hopped back in the car and drove to Pasco and got me here at 7:30 with all my bags that they checked all the way through to Paris for free!!!
In my free time in the Pasco airport I have done lots of important stuff like call my phone company to try and figure out what I should do with my contract while I’m abroad, and call my bank to tell them I am leaving the country, and call my summer job to try and figure out where they sent my most recent paycheck, and now:
IT FEELS REAL
Like really really real. I was living in Walla Walla all summer working at a Day Camp which didn’t end until August 31st, so I’ve just been chilling at school while everyone else goes to class. And when everyone around me keeps talking about “Oh I’m so excited for recruitment next weekend,” “Oh it’s so good to be back,” “Oh, I have to do homework,” It’s really hard to remember that none of that applies to me. I’ve been walking around campus and people are like “you’re still here?” Because I think they’ve just gotten used to me. People probably don’t believe I even have a real abroad program at this point. Guess what though? I’m really gone now. As soon as I left campus it has started sinking in that I am actually studying abroad RIGHT NOW. By this time tomorrow, it will be 10 am on Wednesday for everyone at school, and they’ll be going to class and stuff, and it will be 7pm on Wednesday for me and I will have just arrived at my host family’s house. I have a host family! They are a couple that has been married 29 years and have an 18-year-old daughter and a dog and a cat. They also have three older kids but none of them live at home. And they already emailed me to say that they barely eat any meat in their house and they have a garden with vegetables. I’m so glad that I will have a host sister so I can have someone my own age to hang out with at home!! Anyways, I shouldn’t spend too much time telling you about my host family now because 1. My flight is boarding soon, and 2. I can just tell you about them tomorrow after I meet them!! So, until then, thanks for reading my blog!
sidenote: when i boarded the plane from pasco to seattle, they didn’t make me take out my boarding pass, they just let me right on. weird.
