In a Foreign Land

It is really sticky. I am really sticky. I am in Costa Rica.

All I know is that today has been really sad, lonely, and long.  

My first flight left from Medford at 8am, so I was at the airport by 6:30. Nicole showed up and surprised me. That made the goodbyes almost harder, but it was so good to feel her support.

On the plane, I sat in the aisle seat by a pleasant old Mexican woman who talked the entire time. Also on board was an elderly couple that had brought a cat in a carrier.  It complained unendingly, mewing loudly while I yawned. 

Before the second flight left San Francisco, I stopped to grab a scone. I shoved it into my purse along with some bottled water, and ran to my terminal. This flight was the longest. Fortunately, I sat on the window seat, so I could distract myself that way. There was a woman two seats away that hardly looked at me the entire time. She paid to watch America's Next Top Model and ate the airplane food. There was an empty seat between us. That only intensified my loneliness. I had to fight really hard not to think about my family waving goodbye, or how much I would have loved to have Kenton by my side. To make things worse, the air conditioning had broken, so we were delayed 45 minutes sitting in the stale, circulating heat before take off. I was so nervous about missing my connecting flight in Houston.

I made it to Houston, obviously. I looked for the shortest food line, grabbed a bagel, and peed as quickly as I could while running towards my gate. Once I boarded, I was almost in the very back. I was the first to my row, and sat down in the aisle seat.

"Excuse me, but we are bay and say... B and C? A is the window seat, no?"

I looked up to find a tall, attractive couple who turned out to be from the Netherlands. I apologized and moved to the window, happy to be there. The couple spoke to each other in a different language and kissed a lot. I, once again, felt alone.

When we were over the ocean, we flew into a huge electrical storm.  It was super dark outside, and every time the lightning would flash, it would light up the entire purple sky. I was pretty scared. This storm caused a lot of turbulence, and delayed my flight by almost 45 minutes.

Getting to San Jose was a relief. I was very tired of traveling. It was almost a miracle that I found Tito; I practically ran into him.

Now I am at his house, ready to sleep for a long time. I can't, though, I will probably get up pretty early to find out what is going on tomorrow. I think I'm meeting the other SM girls at the San Jose bus station to go to a beach. We'll see how that goes.

Pura Vida.

(: