I got my pack and my boots! They are both great. The pack is just one inch bigger than what delta allows for carry-on (bribe time? my uncle Charlie would be so proud!), but it comes with a special feature that allows you to zip a cover around the straps so they are not caught on anything or otherwise messed up during transit in checking the bag. The most awesome feature is the mini pack that unzips from the front of the pack. It's for carrying stuff around daily, which is great, if your hostel has lockers with locks that you can leave the majority of your stuff behind with. I don't anticipate there being a problem carrying this around Australia. I feel like some of my backpacks in high school and college where about as big, and they had huge text books as opposed to clothes!
My boots (yes, they are lovely aren't they?) are the BEST feeling shoes I have ever purchased. Once I return, I might only purchase shoes like this, meaning I will have to find employment in some outdoors venture, either that or resign myself to being the "eccentric" weirdo at work who wears boots when most of the women wear heels. I don't care, these are amazing and I'm not going back. It's like the shoe, once I put it on, says to my foot, "Oh, no. What have you been wearing? This is the shape you are supposed to have." and then supports my foot in the exact places that the foot has been waiting for all it's life! ...Ok, this is starting to sound like a romance novel of something. The point is- my shoes rock. My feet love them and look forward to spending 3 months in them in a foreign country (ok, that still has a romantic tone).
Ok, now for the real reason I had to write immediately, this morning. I had a very vivid dream last night. This dream was the first leg of my trip. There were admittedly a lot of inaccuracies, which I am already aware of, not even setting step one on the trip yet. The most real and potentially accurate part of the dream was the feelings I had in the country. I am going to try my best to capture them on page, but it's hard to describe to people who, well, aren't me.
The trip started out with me and Salley (first inaccuracy, she will indeed be a world traveler at the time, but will be on the opposite side of the world, helping people in Africa while I play) and we had somehow boarded a plane without going through security (inaccuracy number two) and somehow had an instantaneous flight (big whopper of inaccurate for number three). We arrived in Australia and we were trying to check in to the hostel. I commented on how cold it was (inaccuracy number four), and said I hadn't expected it, it must be due to our elevation (there was a mountain range around us- inaccuracy number five, at least for Sydney when I will be arriving). I was preoccupied with trying to plan out my month on a ridiculously large wall calendar (more symbolic of me than inaccurate) when some guys keep trying to talk to me and ask me about Australia. They were Americans, because they had no accent, so I instantly had no interest in talking with them. They were Jory's ugly American description too, they were loud frat boys there on daddy's cash (they didn't tell me, but it's my dream, so I know, ok?) There was a third guy near them though, and he asked me when we got in, and he had an accent. I asked if he was a traveler, he said no, he worked in the hostel, and could show us our room. We went upstairs to a large, open room with two levels and only 3 beds (inaccuracy number six). Our stranger roomie had claimed the first on the lower level, so Salley and I went to the second level and got each cot under each window. I suddenly realized I had no pillow or sheets, and commented to Salley. "You didn't bring a pillow?" she kinda laughed at me. "I didn't think they would let me bring one on the plane?" I said, which doesn't make sense, number one, but also, I am not planning on bringing a pillow anyway. Who wants to carry a pillow all over Australia? I began to wonder what the Australia slang word for sheets was so I could ask someone where to buy some when Salley informed me she would be departing to see the Louvre (yes, in France- she was leaving the country.) "I thought you'd at least stay a couple of days before you went off." I said. "Nope," she said, and walked back down the stairs. Then I felt my first feeling. It was a painful feeling, deep in my stomach. I was in a country, on the other side of the world, alone, and wanted to call home and tell them I got there but I didn't know how to get in contact with them (a detail I haven't worked out yet, which I guess bleeds through to my dreams.) The feeling didn't last more than a moment, when I had another feeling of jubilation. The only feeling I can describe it being close to was freshman year when I stood in the Dean Dome and closed my eyes and listened to the cheers immediately after our championship win. It was firecrackers in my stomach. I wanted to shriek and jump and explode because I was finally in Australia! BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP- my alarm ruins my journey, but I turn it off and keep my eyes closed to hold onto the feeling and the message of my dream. The conflicts I ran into in my dream are things I still need to sort out. I still need to figure out what phone plan I need, and how I will carry some sort of sheets and towels (yes, small details, but important. This dream is like dreams when I am at school in class in a test I hadn't studied for- it's not going to happen, but it's something dumb I stress about.) I think Salley was there because maybe she will be going through some of the stuff I will at the same time. She will be in another part of the world, far from home and people that she knows. Though she will be doing important work while I am just sightseeing, we will both be alone. But the biggest thing I got from the dream is that both the vivid feelings I experienced will happen to me. I will get lonely. I might feel that stabbing, sharp, hot feeling of being utterly alone so far from home that there is nothing I can do to see people if I need to. But that feeling will be short-lived, and will be replaced by the excitement and enthusiasm I feel for taking this trip, something I have been anticipating for so long.
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