New York, Madison, Africa Preparations, and more...

A lot has happened in the past few weeks since I last posted. Most notably, time has flown by. I can now count on my fingertips the days until I fly out to Africa. Which is exciting and nerve wracking and overwhelming all at once. I keep glancing at my list of things to buy before I leave and am dismayed at how far behind I am with packing. Being a notorious procrastinator, I was determined to be fully packed and ready to leave well before my departure date.

That, of course, will not be happening. I fully expect to be at Wal-Mart the night before I depart hunting something that I had been putting off.

In other news, I was able to take one last trip to New York to visit my friend and generally spend lots of money. My goals with this trip were many, basically involving food and drink. I arrived in New York late Wednesday avenue, and met Eric in Harlem (M60 Bus to 125th St I had that so well memorized). He handed off his house keys so I could drop off my suitcases and headed to his class. You see, he's a Masters student at NYU and does real important things. My trip to drop off the bags turned into one of those oh wow, there's a comfy bed kind of trips, and well...before I knew it he was calling my cell and three hours and passed and I was that bad kind of groggy that you feel after napping for three hours. We had a few beers and some pizza and called it an early night because I operate on an old person's schedule. I actually wanted to wake early so that I could head to the theater district and pick up some rush tickets for a show the next evening.

Now, I feel like this is a good thing to comment on. Rush tickets are basically student tickets that the theaters offer to those willing to get to the box office when it opens and maybe wait in line for a little bit. Most people who know me know that I love theater, and try to make an effort to see several shows whenever I'm in New York (I have an embarrassingly large Playbill collection). I had all of the shows I wanted to see picked out, and headed to the appropriate theaters the next morning to get my tickets. Except...I didn't get them. Any of the days. You see, the A train from Brooklyn to 42nd St takes too damn long and I wake up too damn late, and for some obscene reason was completely unable to get tickets to any of the shows I wanted to see. Frustrated. Of course, come Saturday I realized this was my last chance to get tickets to a show, when the usual suspects weren't working for me, I happened to notice a billboard for Jesus Christ Superstar. Now, I absolutely LOVE JCS (yes I call it that). I've seen it too many times. And yes, I realize it's generally awful, but oh so good. I know all of the lyrics by heart which again, is horrible. But it sounded like fun, Eric had never seen it, which is not acceptable, and before you know it we were waiting in the long line to get tickets...and...we got some! The show was amazing! Slightly cheesy, but I loved it. I'm pretty sure Eric did too.

Now seeing as we were going to a Broadway show at 2:00 and had a few hours to kill, we chose the manliest activity possible to fill our time: New York International Auto Show! The show was a lot of fun. It was packed and so I spent most of my time ramming into people and waiting like a little schoolboy for the chance to sit in some nice sports cars. Highlights definitely include: checking out the MINIs because, well, they're just fun and I'm pretty sure I'm want one when I come back from Rwanda (I know, that sounds very superficial. But come one...just look at them!) Other fond memories include drooling over some of my favorites (Audi A6 anyone, a VEYRON?!), sitting in a Miata while Eric makes revving sounds that would embarrass a small child, and riding in some simulator from hell a la Mazda. Also, I think at one point I was so hungry I sat down on the floor and downed a doughnut. Donut. How do you spell that?



Thursday and Friday were mostly spent walking around observing the city. I've done all of the 'touristy' things there are to do in NYC, so it was nice to just have a trip to wander around and explore. I love that city. Still not sure I could ever live there (I mean...can you kayak in the East River? Would you want to?!), but it's a great visit. Some other highlights included visiting the United Nations building, which...for a political science geek is a pretty big deal! Also, while most of my lunches included trashy street food gyros, we did stumble to some cool restaurants on the lower East side that were surprisingly good. If you can see the guacamole in the picture...well, it was everything I could have wanted and more. Of course I'm sure it ended up costing a a fortune, because when our $200 bill came all I could was laugh. And then cry. Then ask for more margaritas. (Just kidding. I went elsewhere to drink. Of course...elsewhere equally as expensive).

The trip was more than I could have asked for, but all good things have to end and so Monday morning I packed up and prepared for the bus/subway/something ride to the airport to fly out. My attempt to take the A train/G train/7 train last time turned out to be incredibly stupid because apparently no one uses the green line, so we came up with a much smarter option this time around. That doesn't mean it wasn't without its difficulties. There was a point where I was chasing a bus down a city block. All the while holding a McDonald's smoothie and rolling a suitcase behind me. I should mention that Eric was banging on the side of the bus the whole time. When I got to the airport I got all checked in and prepared for my departure.

Now, I should point out that while sitting in the LaGuardia food court (don't worry, I didn't actually eat there), I knew all along what was to come. And in today's news, Ian Allen shows some emotion... I admit, I don't always channel my feelings the best. I usually have some kind of cynical remark to mask how I truly feel. But the thing is...when you know in your head that this is a good bye for two years. It was a little much. Eric was very nice and walked me right to the security line, which really was a terrible thing to do because I had no idea how to say goodbye. I mean, the whole trip I knew I would have to. And it's even worse when you're saying good bye to your best friend. I just, gave him a hug, told him I had a great trip, and wished him well in his endeavors. I mean it was all very sincere and corny. He left, and I was staring at a very long long line ahead of me, with a very crabby lady behind me (she kept shoving her rolly bag into my heel. Apparently I was waiting too slow.) And then it all kind of hit me. This was awful and embarrassing and I'm not even quite sure why I feel the need to bring it up online but I want to be honest in this blog. Basically...I started crying. Not ugly crying, not someone I love is dead crying. Just...the realization of everything hit me. At this point the lady behind me stopped shoving her bag into me, and actually looked somewhat concerned.

Saying good bye to Eric was tough, and made even more tough by knowing that this was only the beginning of the Ian Allen farewell tour. Kind of like Cher. Since being back in Wisconsin, I went down to Madison to visit some good friends as well as my grandparents. And one by one I had to say goodbye to everyone. I was discussing with a friend who's abroad the other night about how much easier it would be to just pick up and leave and not have anyone know. I mean...I feel like it happens quite often where you go months, even years, without seeing someone. It's just the knowledge of the duration of your Peace Corps service that makes things so hard. And it makes you think about what you're going to miss.

I'm going to miss the great times I've had with my friend Danielle. We've been friends for a long time, and she's someone I know who will always listen to me bitch and complain. She was very nice to let me crash on her couch for a bit. And she may like red wine more than me...you have to have friends like that! Saying goodbye to Kelsey wasn't too hard because for all I know she will be working at the embassy in Kigali next year. She's just that kind of person. When she runs for President I will probably vote for her (president of Nicaragua, obviously). Saying goodbye to my grandparents was...hard. I'm going to miss them so much. I'm hoping the whole skype situation in Rwanda works out because I'd love to be able to chat with them from Africa. The whole webcam communication thing is very impressive to my grandma. Saying goodbye to Eric was tough. I don't see much of him anymore, but we generally talk a few hours every week. We gab. Like old ladies. Of course I know that that is not going to be happening too much anymore (calling abroad is uh--spensive!). I think what I'm going to miss most are the weekend mornings when he would stumble into my room, turn my light on and call me a 'ho,' then plant his ass in my chair as we discuss a myriad of topics. We really should get our own NPR show.

This is a pretty long post, so to summarize: trips to NYC good. Trips to Madison very very good (of course that may just be the old fashioneds speaking). Saying good bye...sucks.

I leave you with this picture, a shot of Manhattan I took while walking back to Brooklyn.