Sunday, August 12, 2012

Let the packing shenanigans/stress commence

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With a little over a week left until I depart (I am internally screaming!!), the time has finally come to figure out what will make its way into my suitcase and what will sadly stay behind. Do you know how hard that is to accomplish when you have a 50 lb weight limit hanging over your head? It looked like a hurricane destroyed my room once I threw everything on my bed in an attempt to see how much I could fit into my suitcase. It's apparent that my love for shoes will not allow me to follow the packing "advice" (using that term loosely) that was given to us by the study abroad advisors, which was "don't pack too many shoes." You can never have too many shoes. My goal is to take one giant suitcase, a carry on, and my backpack. So far, I've been able to fit all the clothes I want to take, a few pairs of shoes (lol yeah right), and two of my books and my total weight came out to 35ish lbs. So far, so good! If my toiletries and other personal items bring it above 50 lbs, I'll transfer some things over to my carry on. Adding another bag is the last resort and I'm hoping I won't have to do that.

Along with packing, I realized I'll have to make sure I have room for anything that I may bring back with me. And there's a pretty long list of souvenirs I need to get...oh boy. I, for one, am not a huge fan of this 50 lb rule. Girls should be given an exception and have a 70 lb limit instead. How much better would the world be? Cramming four months worth of things into one giant suitcase so you don't have to take another, so you can avoid paying a useless fee, while having it weigh 50 lbs or less? Get out of town.

Just seeing all of my clothes and shoes inside of the suitcase was a roller coaster of emotions, though. I was excited, anxious, and restless all at the same time. I'm having a hard time grasping that I won't be living at home, but will be living in an apartment. In Italy. And this is all going to happen in about a week. Who would have thought I'd ever reach this point? This entire journey has been my biggest accomplishment. None of my other awards or scholarships can measure up to the drive, perseverance, and hard work that came along with making this childhood dream a reality. Moving along from my touching monologue, I still have a million things I need to take care of regarding my departure, along with trying to fit in time to see all of my friends and family. I slept over at Theresa's (old co-worker from my summer job) new place on Friday night, have a dinner with the girls from my Italian class on Thursday night, and my Dad's trying to fit in breakfast the morning I leave. Speaking of my Dad, he came up to me today and had this huge smile on his face and went, "It's coming! My baby's going to Italy! Buongiorno! (insert words he made up that he thinks are Italian)!" It threw me completely off guard, because he usually stresses out about things being in order instead of getting excited. My heart melted at the sight of it all. See how easily I can get off topic and just go on these tirades?

Anyways, crunch time has arrived and hopefully I don't drown in stress!

4 comments:

Darianne said...

Omg, I couldn't deal with 50lbs or less. I'd cry lol, and beg for a little more.

Princess Helen said...

I definitely feel your pain. Having a 50 lb limit is like picking your favourite children :( You have a wonderful blog!! Adding you to my daily reads, although, I can't find a follow button :(

http://helenrickelle.blogspot.com/

Tqa London said...

Ugh! That 50lb limit thing.. I hate it!
Gorgeous shoes, lovely blogs. I followed. ^_^

Tqa London said...

Wait, where's the follow button? lol!

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