...and "hello" to a new home.
Well everyone, it's been a couple of days but as most of you know I took a short trip over to visit Lennart, an old friend from the Buenos Aires days. Thus, I've been chilling out in and exploring the Netherlands since Thursday evening and I've had quite the lovely time with Lennart and his family.
There will most certainly be a more detailed post with thoughts on our various adventures, pictures. etc. But for now, I'm just sitting alone upstairs while Lennart is unwinding with a bath (the crazy man ran a 16k race yesterday!), and I'm reflecting on my thoughts on returning to Dublin tomorrow.
I've always balked a bit at being thrown into situations where I have to meet a bunch of new people. Even a party where I have to meet and coexist for a couple hours can be intimidating, and these are people that I have to be with for 3 months!! I still have no idea who my roommates are, or where they come from, or even if they'll be there when I move into my room tomorrow, and of the 18 other CIEE students I've only met Ali and Rebecca from Northeastern, and then only briefly. The next week of orientation and the following week of beginning classes will certainly be intimidating, but then interesting and exciting as well. It's been far too long since I've been taking classes and I will very nerdily say that I am looking forward to it quite a bit.
More than anything else, though, I am looking forward to getting settled in my own apartment. With my own room. And my own bed. I realize now that it has been over a month since I was at "home" in my Gainsborough apartment, before I got swept into the bustle of packing and moving and preparation. Then it was a 10 days or so back in CT, which was just a rush of seeing people and getting things done, with no time to rest, then back up to Boston for 9 days of sleeping on couches and living out of suitcases, then 8 days of hostel beds, noise, and strangers in Dublin, and now 4 more of living out of a backpack in a house that's not my own (not that the de Lange family hasn't been entirely lovely-they've been exquisite). A new friend that I met in the hostel put it quite well - after backpacking around Europe for quite some time, she said that thing she was looking forward to the most was to have her own designated place where she could set down her tooth brush, and leave it there. I felt exhausted before I even left Boston - now I feel like nothing in the world could fill me with more joy than the prospect of unpacking my suitcases, stocking the fridge, setting down my toothbrush, and settling in for a good night of sleep in my own bed. It will be a temporary home, but a home nonetheless, and I am absolutely thrilled at the thought of it.
So as far as all that goes - don't be surprised if for the next few days I don't want to do anything except cuddle with a pillow in my new room under my own comforter. I can't say if that means there will be new posts sooner or later. But I'm sure all of you will forgive me if I say I really don't care.
All I can think about is my bed.
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Weird, I could have sworn I just posted this but it's not showing up.
ReplyDeleteSo, I thought I would get an email whenever you posted if I followed your blog, which I THINK I said I'd do, but I didn't get any reminders so consequently I just read all of your posts now. And I'm so jealous that you have thus far gone to the two places in Western Europe that I most closely associate with my past/heritage. Just imagine all the O'Donnells you can meet there, you lucky girl!
I hope your roommate apartment situation goes swimmingly. And how do the Irish say "eight" so that it DOESN'T sound like the past tense of "eat"? Is it more like the gangsta "aight"?
Haha thanks for the comment Jacquie!!
ReplyDeleteAnd that's the thing. They'd say "eight" and I'd say "eight" and it would sound like the same fucking thing. I still don't get it.
Hope everything's well in Rochester!!