Week 1:
My awesome friends took me to the airport, we had a sad and tearful goodbye, and then a random army guy walked up to them as I was in the security line, yelled "I can't believe she's doing it!!", followed by, "Don't go!!!", then proceeded to get down on one knee and propose to me from across the way. I still went.
Arrive late Monday afternoon due to a 4 hour plane delay (2 hours on plane waiting for broken door thingy #1 to get fixed, move to runway, turn around and come back due to broken valve item #2. Decide we need the valve. Everyone off the plane. New plane. New terminal. 9pm, still in the airport, wondering why I got here at 2:30pm.)
Clearly this will take forever if I go day by day. Advance to super fast recap mode:
I cried every day, never got a chance to catch up on sleep due to late nights and early mornings working & apartment searching, felt like an idiot at work getting a fire hydrant rate of information to memorize, had several "Not in Kansas anymore" moments (like realizing that I'm used to southern gentlemen and that is now a phenomenon rather than a natural occurrence--i.e. the guy I just met cut me off, ignored me, walked in front of me rather than next to me, blew smoke in my face, and then spit on the ground for me to step on), felt alone and out of place, re-wore all my clothes 3 times as I continued living out of a suitcase, packed up and moved to different rooms nearly every day because of lack of availability, no end in sight w/ the unfruitful apartment search, and meanwhile watching the money disappear from savings at an unbelievable rate (that part is still happening because we don't get paid for another two weeks).
There's too much detail to go into here, but yes, I've already had my super dramatic "What am I doing here??!" moment while crying walking alone past the Eiffel Tower. It was very movie-appropriate. This had a lot to do w/ jet lag, no sleep, long work days, everything new x10, mounting hotel bill, no apartment, no options, a bully agent, and the fact that I'm almost 30 and my job involves cleaning toilets. Means to an end, right?
RIGHT??
Okay let's take a moment to all feel better about what's going on here.
This was my breakfast yesterday. And it was glorious.
It's 3:30am, I guess I should go to bed. Genuinely thanks for all the messages, prayers, and encouragement in the first couple weeks. Things are much better now, but it was rough at first, and I almost got back on a plane and came back. So thanks for the love.
More soon.
Love
J
