Last night I could hardly sleep, I was so anxious and excited. Over the past couple of days, I’ve been absolutely wrecking havoc on my fingernails out of nerves, so waking up at 5AM this morning was no big difficulty—I’d woken up ten minutes beforehand. Leaving home was like trying to get Scooby (my dog, if you’re not aware) to do something when he doesn’t want to and goes into his “bear” routine—all wild-eyed and nervous. I couldn’t give mom and dad enough hugs goodbye at the airport, and in my panic to get out the door (twenty minutes late!) I forgot to pat the dogs goodbye. I hope they know how much I love them.
SFO airport security made me impatient—just wanted to shove everyone out of the way, but eventually when I got through all of my anxieties had been vanished. Finally, I felt ready to explore and not worry about the people left behind.
The first plane trip was I guess around five or six hours long, as it left at 8AM and came in around 3:35 Toronto time (I am not even going to bother figuring out this time zone crap, by the way). But I sat next to a tiny French speaking girl and her mom—she was reading a picture book in what I think was Arabic, except that Arabic makes me think of the flowy Elvish script like in Lord of the Rings, and this writing was super square and blocky (maybe she was learning Dwarvish?). I spent the entire time reading The Glass Castle, which was the most excellent book I have read in a long time—I guess I should start listening when my mother recommends books! I haven’t read something in a while that’s made me want to laugh and punch someone in the face at the same time. Hopefully I can write a book as awesome one day—maybe one based on my travels in the coming months. I would say it will be better than Eat, Pray, Love, which I’ve heard is whiney and pretentious, but I am truly excellent at being both of those things, so no promises.
However, there are a few things I want to work on during this trip: I want to be better at being by myself and being strong while alone and independent. I’ve heard it said that you can’t be happy and in a relationship within being able to be happy while single, and I wholeheartedly agree and get better at. I am also planning on just trying everything and not being a coward—though I talk a big game, I am very shy when it comes to people, and I really want to get myself out there.
Anyway, customs from Toronto was a nightmare. Canadian airport workers are quite unfriendly, and I was losing my mind because I thought the plane to Halifax departed at 4:35PM (turned out that was just when boarding started) and we arrived around 4ish. Only one of my duffel bags had a lock on it,, so I guess I hope mom forgot one of them and it didn’t get broken off or anything. I looked at it and it didn’t seem as though my beanie babies were stolen, so I should be okay.
Did I mention I have about forty to fifty beanie babies to give to children on my travels? I do! I’m so excited to give them out. J
Speaking of airports, why are my planes always at the very end of the terminal? At least I’m getting a little exercise today. I want to work on not being a fatty fat walrus fat (as some would eloquently put it) American.
Getting into Halifax felt long—I’m exhausted but refused to take a nap on the plane so I can sleep well tonight. I mostly watched Shrek 4 (Shrekily Ever After or something, I don’t know) over the people in front of me’s shoulders and making up dialogue in my head, because heck if I’m buying three dollars airplane earbuds to watch it with sound. There was a dalek-shaped flight communications tower with red guys when we touched down in Halifax, which I thought was terribly exciting. When I’d gotten off the plane and gotten all my stuff, I took at twenty dollar shuttle (D:) to the hotel, which rests somewhere between sketchy and reasonable neighborhoods. There, I discovered that they “couldn’t find” my reservation, despite the fact that I’d called to add today to the registration Julie already had, so it was definitely in the system somewhere—so that was a bit of a pain to deal with. But I do have a room now, and I heard some people talking about a sushi place while I was waiting in the lobby that was only a couple of blocks away, and it seemed as though other SASers would be there! So I slapped on some makeup and much-needed deodorant (I don’t know what is it about planes that make me smelly) and wandered over to this tiny sushi joint, which I quickly discovered had NO SASers (only locals), so I sat there like a lamer, trying to give off the impression that I frequently went out to dinner completely by myself and that yes, thank you, I very much enjoyed doing so. Though the sushi was good (can’t go wrong with tempura and lobster rolls!) they were hideously understaffed, so it took them an hour and a half to kill my other. Worse yet, the server did an apologetic “we’re soooo sorry this is taking so long” and offered to get me another drink. He said it in such a way that I assumed it was on the house (as I had been sitting there like a stood-up date for like an hour) but when the bill came, no such luck.
Halifax seems beautiful, though it’s hard to tell in the dark—it’s almost San Francisco-y, but with more trees. But I’m sure I’ll have a mental image of it tomorrow.
Sorry this is so long. I will probably (maybe?) be more concise and less rambly in the future.
I did put both locks on your luggage. I guess you'll be missing somethings - asshats (your word not mine)!
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