'Do you have your passport?'
'Yes'
'Tickets?'
'All your documents?'
'Yes'
'Are you taking your *insert useless item here* with you?
'Yes Mum, I have my glow in the dark goldfish bowl with me, it's right beside my chocolate flavoured disco ball and my extendable trumpet.'
This has been the conversation between my parents and I for the last few days. Packing and unpacking over and over again and making sure I'm under the weight restriction with not one, but three different weighing scales, just to be sure. But now it's all done and I'm sitting at my departure gate, I passed immagration with flying colours and you'll be glad to know that I'm not a terrorist nor do I have any root vegetables that I intend to sell during the day, so America can rest easy now. I still can't believe I'm actually here, just waiting to board my plane and head to Boston College for the year. It's strange even saying that, I think it's the same feeling as when I went to college for the first time. I suppose it's about entering the unknown and all that, but at least I know something about American culture, the American documentary channel called MTV has been a great resource, and by the looks of things house parties are full of girls dancing while a man wearing a lot of furry clothes sings and does some strange kind of shuffle and waves in a strange manner. Bit different to playing Kings and singing the same Coronas songs over and over again.
But being serious, I have to thank Lynette for telling me not to go back and study during the Christmas exams, but sit and chat with her while she got coffee, where she told me about this international exchange that she was going on. My parents shoud probably skip this next statement, because I'm pretty sure that was the most productive day I've had in the library, as I researched all the places I could go from the USA to Canada and even to Hong Kong! That seems like a long time ago, and I don't think I fully grasped what I was getting myself, or my family into and I'm not sure it's really hit me yet either! I know I'm coming home at Christmas, which is only four months away, but it's the longest I'll have been away from home and I know that when I unpack my waterproof lampsahde, I'll miss home and especially the people that helped me pack it.
