notes from today
around 2 pm EST:
if i knew where i'd be sleeping tonight (and had a change of clothes and some hot chocolate waiting), i'd want to be outside now, revelling, getting bruised and beaten by nature. my first real storm in way, way too long. sheets of pounding sideways rain, shaking the plane. fierce rattling hail. thunder and lightning. god, it's beautiful. it began literally right after we landed, so we must wait until it calms down to leave as it is too dangerous for the ramp people. thank you, New England, for welcoming me home. (it's still one of my homes... i don't know that that will ever truly go away.)
... a sudden calm, as things subside to pitter-patter. to the right, puddling tarmac with shifting dots of steady, gentle rain. to the left, green green grass. i think i will like it in Vermont.
i am sitting in the San Francisco airport, trying to decide whether or not i feel like paying $10 for 24 hours of T-Mobile HotSpot wi-fi access. a quick look at locations says no -- it exists not at all in Vermont, and it's only available in the club rooms at Newark. alas. perhaps i'll pay $6 for an hour, though it seems rather scandalously high to me. or maybe i'll just wait until i can find a good cafe in Burlington to post this.
today was very long, very stressful, very difficult, and caused me to realize anew how absolutely amazing the people i know are. for one thing, i'm pretty convinced it's still Sunday, so "today" began about 38 hours ago. i got about an hour and a half of sleep in there, sometime between 10 am and noon.
in that time, i was assisted by iridium, Silvain, bluepapercup, Esther, punkosopher, weaverj, fyfer, Lulu, Jinac, ywong, and tonapah. i put in over 40 hours of work between Friday night and tonight, they collectively (if you include the over 10 hours of driving) put in nearly 50. i had no idea when i began on Friday that it would take so many man-hours. clearly, i should've paid more attention last time, as it might've helped with calibration. as it was, if i had realized might've made more of an effort to pack on Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday during the day, though much of that time was either spent at very real social commitments or performing the many and extensive administrative tasks i had been putting off for the past few weeks -- including such things as the acquisition of boxes. and it would've been exceedingly difficult, as my roommate had to be moved out by Friday (though she slipped into Saturday) so her efforts monopolized much of the apartment for all of Thursday and Friday. in any case, my box is all happy and packed (i wish i had gotten a photo -- Silvain played the most impressive tetris game ever) and i am (at least if my delayed plane would ever show up -- why couldn't my original flight have been delayed so that i wouldn't've just barely missed it due to a combination of a roundabout search for food and miscommunication about flight time? and why, oh why, do the newsstands at SFO not stay open late?) on my way to Vermont.
i am infinitely grateful to everyone who helped, both to those who deliberately scheduled the time well in advance and to those who generously pitched in at the last minute when it became clear what dire straits i had found myself in. apparently the look on my face held a certain level of base desperation by this afternoon, for punkosopher was just stopping by to pick up the perfect laptop he and his parents were so wonderful as to lend me when my hard drive died (feels like so long ago), but was compelled by my obvious distress (despite my attempt to mask it with politeness) to bring Esther and help for a few hours, even though he hadn't gotten any sleep. they were an enormous help at the eleventh hour. the night before, Robin had a brainwave about asking weaverj to bring some more boxes from the apartment he shares; together he and Robin worked a super-productive few hours to dismantle the futon and line the sides of my Box with futon mattress, the many boxes of books that had already been filled, and shelves, leaving a big open center space to fill in later. and then tonight, Lulu and Jinac, despite their own considerable stresses, stopped by to say goodbye and ended up helping with cleanup in order to let me attempt to make it to the airport in time, and ywong and tonapah cheerfully drove me from SJC to SFO when i failed in that attempt. between them, through many hours of work each, iridium and bluepapercup successively boxed up all of my books and quite a lot of other things, with fyfer stopping by and pitching in for a while as well. and Silvain was, when i needed it most, unfailingly optimistic and supportive (as well as incredibly useful) for several hours in the face of my increasing desperation as the final hours zipped past -- and believe me, it began at a pretty darn high level.
i was very sorry to have missed seeing pekmez and gljiva this afternoon, but i was very glad that liberateanimum, 2_ragged_claws, and zero_the_fool managed to stop by; zero_the_fool even kept me company for a while as i was sorting clothes; it is much more pleasant to pack in the presence of others.
wish i hadn't forgotten my toothbrush and toothpaste... and, i highly suspect, my laundry bag with some of my favorite underwear in it. ah well, i was bound to forget something. it could've been worse.
i let myself into my dorm room around 7 pm. it is a great relief to be here, as there was much bussing and walking for a woman dragging along at least 120 lbs of 4 bags + purse, though the journey was nice. lots of waiting = lots of reading and relaxing. Burlington is adorable -- i look forward to seeing a more of it besides Uncommon Grounds, though i did really like the place. more anticipation for August. in the meantime, Middlebury is also cute, but considerably more small-townish. and i'm unlikely to have much time for exploration, from what i hear.
i am trying to make the most of my last evening with free usage of English. i wish this night were longer, though. alas, i have to be up early and it would be good to get a real night's sleep for the first time in forever.
Important Bit:
i will not be reading Livejournal until August 18th. if anything important comes up, please email me instead, though i cannot guarantee replies to anything but the most immediately dire situations. i'll miss you all, but hopefully this whole immersion thing will straighten out and improve my messed-up Chinese.
i'll post my address here in a separate friends-locked post, for those of you who want it.
it totally hasn't sunk in yet that i no longer live in the Bay Area. it might not, really, until the fall. which seems both very far away and very near...
if i knew where i'd be sleeping tonight (and had a change of clothes and some hot chocolate waiting), i'd want to be outside now, revelling, getting bruised and beaten by nature. my first real storm in way, way too long. sheets of pounding sideways rain, shaking the plane. fierce rattling hail. thunder and lightning. god, it's beautiful. it began literally right after we landed, so we must wait until it calms down to leave as it is too dangerous for the ramp people. thank you, New England, for welcoming me home. (it's still one of my homes... i don't know that that will ever truly go away.)
... a sudden calm, as things subside to pitter-patter. to the right, puddling tarmac with shifting dots of steady, gentle rain. to the left, green green grass. i think i will like it in Vermont.
i am sitting in the San Francisco airport, trying to decide whether or not i feel like paying $10 for 24 hours of T-Mobile HotSpot wi-fi access. a quick look at locations says no -- it exists not at all in Vermont, and it's only available in the club rooms at Newark. alas. perhaps i'll pay $6 for an hour, though it seems rather scandalously high to me. or maybe i'll just wait until i can find a good cafe in Burlington to post this.
today was very long, very stressful, very difficult, and caused me to realize anew how absolutely amazing the people i know are. for one thing, i'm pretty convinced it's still Sunday, so "today" began about 38 hours ago. i got about an hour and a half of sleep in there, sometime between 10 am and noon.
in that time, i was assisted by iridium, Silvain, bluepapercup, Esther, punkosopher, weaverj, fyfer, Lulu, Jinac, ywong, and tonapah. i put in over 40 hours of work between Friday night and tonight, they collectively (if you include the over 10 hours of driving) put in nearly 50. i had no idea when i began on Friday that it would take so many man-hours. clearly, i should've paid more attention last time, as it might've helped with calibration. as it was, if i had realized might've made more of an effort to pack on Wednesday night, Thursday, and Friday during the day, though much of that time was either spent at very real social commitments or performing the many and extensive administrative tasks i had been putting off for the past few weeks -- including such things as the acquisition of boxes. and it would've been exceedingly difficult, as my roommate had to be moved out by Friday (though she slipped into Saturday) so her efforts monopolized much of the apartment for all of Thursday and Friday. in any case, my box is all happy and packed (i wish i had gotten a photo -- Silvain played the most impressive tetris game ever) and i am (at least if my delayed plane would ever show up -- why couldn't my original flight have been delayed so that i wouldn't've just barely missed it due to a combination of a roundabout search for food and miscommunication about flight time? and why, oh why, do the newsstands at SFO not stay open late?) on my way to Vermont.
i am infinitely grateful to everyone who helped, both to those who deliberately scheduled the time well in advance and to those who generously pitched in at the last minute when it became clear what dire straits i had found myself in. apparently the look on my face held a certain level of base desperation by this afternoon, for punkosopher was just stopping by to pick up the perfect laptop he and his parents were so wonderful as to lend me when my hard drive died (feels like so long ago), but was compelled by my obvious distress (despite my attempt to mask it with politeness) to bring Esther and help for a few hours, even though he hadn't gotten any sleep. they were an enormous help at the eleventh hour. the night before, Robin had a brainwave about asking weaverj to bring some more boxes from the apartment he shares; together he and Robin worked a super-productive few hours to dismantle the futon and line the sides of my Box with futon mattress, the many boxes of books that had already been filled, and shelves, leaving a big open center space to fill in later. and then tonight, Lulu and Jinac, despite their own considerable stresses, stopped by to say goodbye and ended up helping with cleanup in order to let me attempt to make it to the airport in time, and ywong and tonapah cheerfully drove me from SJC to SFO when i failed in that attempt. between them, through many hours of work each, iridium and bluepapercup successively boxed up all of my books and quite a lot of other things, with fyfer stopping by and pitching in for a while as well. and Silvain was, when i needed it most, unfailingly optimistic and supportive (as well as incredibly useful) for several hours in the face of my increasing desperation as the final hours zipped past -- and believe me, it began at a pretty darn high level.
i was very sorry to have missed seeing pekmez and gljiva this afternoon, but i was very glad that liberateanimum, 2_ragged_claws, and zero_the_fool managed to stop by; zero_the_fool even kept me company for a while as i was sorting clothes; it is much more pleasant to pack in the presence of others.
wish i hadn't forgotten my toothbrush and toothpaste... and, i highly suspect, my laundry bag with some of my favorite underwear in it. ah well, i was bound to forget something. it could've been worse.
i let myself into my dorm room around 7 pm. it is a great relief to be here, as there was much bussing and walking for a woman dragging along at least 120 lbs of 4 bags + purse, though the journey was nice. lots of waiting = lots of reading and relaxing. Burlington is adorable -- i look forward to seeing a more of it besides Uncommon Grounds, though i did really like the place. more anticipation for August. in the meantime, Middlebury is also cute, but considerably more small-townish. and i'm unlikely to have much time for exploration, from what i hear.
i am trying to make the most of my last evening with free usage of English. i wish this night were longer, though. alas, i have to be up early and it would be good to get a real night's sleep for the first time in forever.
Important Bit:
i will not be reading Livejournal until August 18th. if anything important comes up, please email me instead, though i cannot guarantee replies to anything but the most immediately dire situations. i'll miss you all, but hopefully this whole immersion thing will straighten out and improve my messed-up Chinese.
i'll post my address here in a separate friends-locked post, for those of you who want it.
it totally hasn't sunk in yet that i no longer live in the Bay Area. it might not, really, until the fall. which seems both very far away and very near...