JFK: New York

The first leg of travel is complete!

We arrived at JFK around 6 this morning and have been wandering around ever since.
I'm exhausted; attempts to sleep on the plane were only moderately successful.
We now have neck pillows, which aren't actual pillows, but perhaps they'll do the trick.
We do not, however, have the Excedrin PM, which may affect my ability to sleep on the flight. I'm going to be doing the patented Katie-Barry-sleeps-on-planes technique, which involves me putting my face on the tray and praying for sleep to come. It will. I will wake up with Tim Burton eyelashes, bending every which way, and while I will regret not sleeping upright, I will also be thankful that I've not drooled everywhere or be caught in some awkward open-mouthed position for the better part of ten hours.

Mike does not want pre-flight blog photos. 

I can't say I'm excited yet. Right now all I have on my mind are flights, baggage and entertainment for the next twenty five or so hours.
I can't say I'm nervous or afraid. I have no expectations. I mean, obviously there are a few, but I honestly feel as though I won't suffer from the oppression that pre-conceived notions can provide. Hopefully my trip can be shaped solely by experiences and sensations, rather than ideas of accomplishment.

As for myself? I expect to remain intact (both in body and mind) and I hope to strengthen the areas of my life that most sorely need discovery: my spirituality needs to be shaped from the odd collection of superstitions and attempts at belief systems into something at least halfway legitimate (although I happen to enjoy my collection of superstitions and things borrowed); my physical shape - I wish to be stronger and more capable (I brought Jillian Michaels yoga with me, don't judge, and I'm hoping to acquire a bike while I'm there to ride around on. I also have my hiking boots, which will hopefully serve me well); peace and quiet for my own mind through organization, relaxation, work, meditation. I hope that Mike and I enjoy our time together. I hope to pick up at bit of another language - that way I can be proficient in English and a reader and writer but not speaker of Spanish and then have conversational something else to add to my limited ability to globally communicate.
That is all I wish. That and wonderful memories of beautiful places and interesting people.

nothing says "excited travelers" like the self-photograph

I packed too much. That's not surprising, if you know me. But it's frustrating. I've done so much traveling in the past four years and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could pack lightly and intelligently without having to worry about not lacking anything that I might need. Instead, I started packing at about 8pm last night and was doing very well. I had my rolling duffel bag packed (complete with shoes!) and thought I was pretty well finished.
But of course there were all those little extra things, and I did insist that I bring one of my comforters (I find I sleep much better when I'm surrounded by my own blankets...more on this later), which, coupled with an extra, empty backpack nearly filled the second suitcase.
And thus I'm carrying the mountain backpack with me, and my purse, and a smaller purse (over the shoulder with passport and wallet and necessary documents) and I'm overwhelmed already. But I think I may have done better than I had expected, so hopefully that's all going to go smoothly.
And of course Mike only has one suitcase and a nearly empty backpack.

Another thing I look forward to in South Africa is sleep. Summer has never been a good time for sleep for me; I'm always doing something. Even this summer, I hardly slept but I have no idea what I did with all of my time. So hopefully this flight will bring sleep and so will this trip. Perhaps with my curfew (10pm on weekdays, midnight on the weekends, ugh) I'll be able to do a good bit of sleeping.

Once we arrive in Cape Town (13:50 local time on September 1st), we will find our Projects Abroad driver, who will take us directly to our host families. Then we will stay there until the next day, when we will be found by Projects Abroad staff and shown how to use public transportation and oriented. Hopefully this orientation will include the procurement of a cell phone for inter-country communication. I guess I should be nervous about my internship, but since they can't seem to get that settled, I can't be bothered to stress. I'm taking this as a good sign, but twenty hours on a flight may leave me with a lot of time to conjure up worries and hazardous work situations that I might find myself in.

Keep the Cat in your prayers, or thoughts, or good wishes, whatever. He went in to the vet yesterday for a check up and because I found a lump and thought he had cancer again. Well, good news: turns out it's not cancer. Bad news: hernia. So he'll be in surgery any moment now and will be recovering for the rest of the week. I'm brokenhearted that I can't be there to snuggle him during recovery, but I hope he understands that he has the worst timing ever and that, like mother, like cat, we are Murphy's Law incarnate. 

This is a weird idea, but it's my romantic self coming through: I've always wanted to fly with a boyfriend. I see the cutest couples who seem to enjoy traveling with each other every time I fly and I want someday to be that. If you can travel together, maybe you'll be able to stay together, right? (That's obviously a lie, I've traveled with boyfriends before and sometimes it ends horribly.)

Mike wishes to express that he is a "fantastic fireball of fascinating fun," and also that he only did that for the alliteration.

Love from both of us to all of you.

Countdown, Stress

The days have dwindled from over one hundred down to just four. Not even four real days left, either.
And we stand in the middle of tying up all of the loose ends only to find that there are so many more left that will lie that way, undone and entangled, waiting or not for us to return.
And that's the way every great move is. The belongings left in dark rooms, the emptiness of it all, the attempts to squeeze just one more item into an already overcrowded suitcase.

Shirtspantsunderwearsocksshampoojacketscoatstightsbookscomputerendlessamountsofcordsmedicinemakeupmoneycreditcardspaperspens....
quite frankly, it's overwhelming.

There are all the small things that suddenly seem larger than anything manageable and there are the softest of whispers of things forgotten already lingering in my mind.

At the last minute, my internship was changed due to "unforeseen circumstances." While this means I won't be getting to do corporate work, it was an email that allowed me to take an unexpected deep breath filled with relief. Non-profit. It's nearly social work; the job description mirrors almost exactly (as things that mirror tend to do) a job that I was hoping to volunteer for in Chicago during my last semester of college. I will be helping high school graduates attempt to find jobs through a program called "Fit for Life/Fit for Work." More details to come as they find themselves to my inbox.

As I attempt to fit my last nights of freedom before curfew-infused adventure, I find myself burning the candle at both ends, mixing late nights with earlier mornings and finding myself coming up short. Can it all be done?

Of course it can.

Great Expectations

I'm sure that everyone will ask, if they haven't already, what I expect from Cape Town.

Mike today reminded me to have no expectations. 

I really am not sure that I have any. 

I have this odd mental image of me in a suit, but that may be projections of my fears that I won't look like I belong. 

But other than that, I have the image of a porch, perhaps screened in and a small dark room with wooden shutters in which I will live. Neither of these things will turn out to be correct, I'm sure. Perhaps I'm grateful that those things will not be.

I've neglected to expect anything because I've been too busy with trying to survive my daily routine. It seems as though every summer I become entangled in a myriad of projects, duties, and adventures. By the time September comes, I've lost all track of time and I've accomplished nothing.

This summer has been about treading water, maintaining whatever it is I've got to call my own. It's been a long few months, but they've flown by, if that's possible. Of course it's possible; time is a funny, fickle creature. But that funny, fickle creature controls our every intake of breath and guards our exhalation with its very life.

By the time I remember to breathe, I've lost three months. Living in Chicago until the beginning of July seems as though it was years ago. Moving to Denver seems as though it's been forever. Six weeks, that's all. Six weeks of fast-paced, fast food servitude and a feet-first love affair.

I've got so little time, and so many things to accomplish, to complete, loose ends to tie up.
Will it happen?
I have a sneaking suspicion that sometime during the night before the plane heads away, I will be running around, frantic, probably tearing up, most likely already incapacitated by grief and fear and then eventually, the sense of loss that pulls at me when I feel the sky surround me and the wheels of planes pull up. Every time.
Up, up, and away.

Cape Town Truth #1: I haven't started packing.

Truth #2: I have no intention of starting until I feel like I'm leaving.

Truth #3: It hasn't yet registered that I have less than two weeks in the United States before I'm off for three months. Ninety days. Twelve weeks. A long time.

I'm pretending this isn't real. I mean, it's very real, but it seems distant and intangible. I need to realize that some things are about to change. I do believe that for now it's better that I have yet to establish expectations.

Accommodation and Placement Details Divulged

The placement has been announced: I'll be doing my marketing internship with a company called "Simply Asia." 
This presents a multitude of problems, but equally as much excitement. First up: I keep wanting to call the company Asia SF, which is the name of a restaurant in San Francisco, California that serves asian cuisine while also featuring transgendered performers lip-synching. Secondly: I was rather hoping that my life would wind me away from food, particularly the moderately-paced-although-technically-termed-fast-food-industry.
However, marketing and food might find a way into my life and a place in my heart. I am excited. The shopping for suitable business attire begins tomorrow afternoon.

The sleeping arrangements have also been announced, and those I am slightly trepidatious about. I'm going to be living by myself or with another female volunteer, not Mike. I'm going to be living with a single mother who has two children and three grandchildren. Her name is Priscilla and she's a smoker.
This bothers me. If she smokes in the house (I've sent an email to Projects Abroad to find out if that's the case), then I won't be able to live there. While I am open to different cultures and practices, I find the smell of stale cigarette smoke to be unprofessional and nauseating. Also, I do not want to be in an environment where I am around cigarettes. Simply put, I will be tempted to pick up smoking again and it's just not something I wish to do.

We have two weeks left in the United States. Prescriptions for malaria pills and antibiotics (should we need them) have been written and need to be filled.
Shopping and packing, obviously.
I'm feeling overwhelmed and underprepared, a situation which will hopefully be remedied as the days draw a little nearer.

I'm hoping to pick up a little bit of Afrikaans while I'm down in Cape Town, but am also hoping I don't develop any sort of strange accent. The Chicago-awkward Midwest thing has taken its toll on my ability to communicate effectively (that's a lie, but I do sound like a goon sometimes) so hopefully the speech patterns in Cape Town will help get rid of that and will return me to my wonderful Colorado English.

Wikipedia Information

Because where would we be without Wikipedia?

For those of you who need a little bit of refreshment about Cape Town itself, click here.
There are better articles, obviously, but this is everything compacted down into something quite readable.

Why?

It's the first question everyone asks; it's the one I feel the most unable to answer: Why?

Why are you going to Cape Town?

I don't know, really.

I mean, I do, of course, or I wouldn't be going. But do I really know what I expect to find there? No. Of course not, that's why I'm going. Exploration, adventure, life practice. (Not that everyday living isn't life practice, but this is the kind of life practice you'll look back on in the future with that nostalgic heart, remembering the days of youth that somehow slipped away from you.)
I'm a recent college graduate with little to no business experience and a lust for travel that will soon be merely an unfulfilled wish because eventually I'll be mired in work (provided I find reasonable employment at some point in the future) and my family (again, provided I eventually find someone suitable for marriage)  and I'll never have time to go anywhere.
This is the time, they'll tell you. Go. Live your dreams.
I'm not sure that my dreams were ever to end up spending three months in Cape Town, but they certainly are now.
Mike and I leave the United States on August 31st at 12:45AM (yes, AM) and will arrive in Cape Town around noon the next day. From there, we begin our separate assignments. I'll be doing a marketing internship and he'll be doing school sports. Neither of us have any idea what to expect and I rather like it that way.
Both of us expect to find out certain things about ourselves along the way, not only strengthening our sibling relationship but also figuring out what the future might hold for each of us, who are both teetering on the edge of adulthood and independence but who both seem to need a nudge in the right direction.
At the end of this, I'll be more aware of myself and the potential that marketing might hold for a graduate degree and he'll have a sense of accomplishment and self-satisfaction.

Why?

Honestly, I need something crazy on my resume. And by something crazy, I mean anything.
We wanted to get away; we've been talking about going to Africa for years. With nothing but time ahead of us, we decided that now would be the time to take that leap into the unknown and the wonderful.


Why not?