So it's now almost a whole year since I traveled to Europe. The experience will always remain unforgettable. I learned so many new ways of living, and I became really good friends with a slew of nice people. I don't want to bombard y'all, so I'll merely explain my first impressions on the days that began my adventure...
The day I left to go to Europe in the summer of 2008, I was a nervous wreck. The weeks leading up to this day were a simple nightmare. I had a few of these bad dreams, I broke down crying from worry and stress, and I scrambled my mind making a list of people I'd buy souvenirs for. This morning though, as we drove to New Orleans Airport, me and my 2-year-old brother in the backseat, I couldn't let my backpack out of sight. I was depending purely on it to give me comfort and security, as I knew the majority of everything I needed was in this lifesaver. I kept looking at my brother, knowing I'd miss him the most in the three weeks of my home absence. He was oblivious, and that made me saddest of all.
At the airport, I met with the handful of near strangers that I had become kind of acquainted with in the previous months. There was Tiffany, Sherri, Maddi, and a few of the others. I stayed close to my mom and dad. My stomach was sick, and I couldn't eat before I left. My parents sat across from me in the airport's deli with worried faces, though I ate not even a morsel of food. Then, I left. I left behind love, family, and what I'd always known. I approached the line of all the others I'd live with in the next weeks to come. They looked like professionals at this whole 'travel away from home and happiness' thing.
We gave the attendants our tickets. I walked that long way to my plane seat. I found a fellow delegate beside me who I had never talked to. I forget his name, but I'll always remember how nice he was. He told me flying was no biggie. I had a wad of gum to keep my ears from popping. Though I hogged the armrest and never ceased clenching it, my hands cold and sweaty. We lifted off, away from New Orleans, away from southern familiarity. I soon realized that flying really was nothing to be scared of. It was really fun, especially flying through clouds, which was when we had turbulence.
Afterward, we got off the plane at Newark, which is really close to New York City. It was after we got off and had to wait for the next flight, that I realized I had no real friends. What a perfect time to panic, I thought as I shifted my eyes for another loner. I found this person in a girl named Christina. She was really the nicest person I knew the entire trip, I realize now. But in Newark, we scoured the airport for lunch. It was me, Christina, and my friend Maddi that I had used to know and had only yet to find again. We ate some kind of Italian, which wasn't so good, but it sufficed. Back at the meeting spot, Maddi caught up with Claire and Clayton, more fellow travelers. It was here in Newark that I heard the line that would declare me safe for the rest of the trip. Clayton said something along the lines of me being his newest best friend. I knew he was joking and just being nice, but I stuck to this group from Picayune the rest of the trip. These were my friends now, Christina, Claire, Maddi and Clayton. And no matter what Europe threw at me, I would always have them.
The flight to London just about killed me. The week before I left, I'd had soccer camp, and the confined space of the airplane made my legs ache so badly that I had to walk to the bathroom often just to be able to move them. I remember watching 'I Love Lucy' on the TV in front of me, and I listened to my iPod most of all. I read as well, trying to get into War in Peace again. The landing was a gift from God as we hustled down the long steps of the plane and into a bus that drove us to the airport. Claire and Clayton were clearly best friends, though I didn't mind tagging along so as to not be alone. All the technical things had to be sorted out in the airport before we could leave and start our explorations. This was not the funnest part of the trip, but atleast it had started at last!
