Friday, April 17, 2009

Here we go!

“So what are you doing this weekend Alexander?”

“Why I, madame, am moving to Africa!”

There are only so many times in one’s life (read:never) that one gets to say this and it is pretty cool. In a big way it also just reaffirms the present to me, sort of an interal “yes you are doing this.” The problem is I don’t feel nervous yet. I don’t feel scared, I don’t feel trepidatious, in all honesty, I don’t even know if I feel entirely excited. This is not to say I do not have any enthusiasm over this endeavor, just that I don’t feel the excitement yet. I think that this will all change the moment I land in Johannesburg and realize what the heck is going on. We shall see…

 

At this moment here I sit on the Chinatown bus going from New York to Philadelphia. I had what could be perceived as a terrible time getting here. I left my mom’s house in CA at 4am and then flew to Denver, Chicago and finally DC. Upon arrival I hoofed it to Chinatown to catch a 4.5 hour bus up to NYC…I got in at 3am…But it wasn’t all that bad, I slept most of the way. And besides, at this moment the sun is shining, the tunes are good, and I am content, with eyes fixed on my concrete oasis. New York lies out my window. I miss New York a lot and believe everyone should be required to live within one of the 5 boroughs for at least a year.  Her siren song will enter your head and call you back to relive your affair. She is a place where magic happens and the future is just a block away. Though, it is no longer my home, it will always hold a grip around my heart and a certain twitter in my __________.

 

Moving away from the reminiscent, I have decided that I have packed too much.  I have my backpack and my little backpack – not like an 80’s little backpack, mind you. A proper, manly, safari, camelback with beer spout…and football screen…yeah….yeah…- (notice the dash after the elipses? This would be called improper use of grammatical symbols, also denoted by use of the paranthesis after the dash. But enough, we shall return to the conversation at hand). So I got the backpack, the little backpack and a duffle. They are heavy and I am little. I forgot that I was actually going to exercise a bit before leaving so that I could muscle through…but I seemed to have misplaced my muscles.

 

Note: A svedka ad is on the bus next to me…svedka is from Sweden…GO Sweden!!!!

 

Ready! Time to play a game…it’s called hold your breath through the Holland Tunnel! Oh no! Traffic, minus five points. Uh oh, you drowned while fording the river. There is no way anyone could hold his breath for the dursiation of the trip through this tunnel, so it’s kind of an un-winnable game…

 

Bye New York! Everyone, wave bye to th is marvel of American wonderment…no? No one’s interested. Oh well. Then this will be my private show,  the city all dressed up in her Monday best to wave me goodbye from across the Hudson. Sometimes I feel like an adventurer, conquering the American highways via the low-budget wonders of the Chinatown bus system. How far could one get and how much would it cost? That might be an adventure when I get back.

Here comes the statue of liberty, well at least her derriere and backside. Does anyone else find that funny? The statue of liberty turns her backside on New Jersey. “Sorry New Jersey, you get to just see the bum.” 

OOO, my favorite site on the drive south on the New Jersey turnpike. The wonders of the Newark airport sattelite parking lot. This thing is huge and now that I pass it, think it may not be a parking lot. It looks like new cars…definitely new cars….a lot of new cars sitting. They must be product which isn’t moving from the port. That isn’t a good sign. There were a lot of cars.

 

STAGING

 

So, I went to Philly and saw my friends Bradley and Clintonious the brave, who were just as amazing as they always are. In fact they were so amazing, that my meal last night was ruined due to the lingering side effects of alcohol. But now I’m here, staging complete, sitting in a hotel room in Arlington, Virginia. Tomorrow it’s off to South Africa, where the adventure really begins!

1 comment:

  1. Hey Kiddo,
    I'm a nursing student at LSU, also from central California, looking at the Tulane program for next year. You should keep writing. I'm curious.

    Marci Kay Livingston
    mlivin@lsuhsc.edu

    ReplyDelete