Monday, March 23, 2009

Back in Volos...


I've spent my last days in London. They were lovely. Filled with more art, more sightseeing (Royal Ballet Academy!!!), and lots of time with my good friends. David and I spent the last night together drinking beer and playing guitar. We harmonized as we played Ben Folds, Coldplay, Death Cab, Sufjan Stevens, and more. It was the perfect way to finish off our two weeks getting closer as friends. I'm gonna miss that guy.

So yes, I'm back in Volos. But only after the worst day of traveling ever.

I almost missed my flight, which made me almost have a panic attack and made me almost want to jump in front of the train.

I had allotted myself two and a half hours to leave for the airport, a one hour journey. My flight was at 2:05, so I left at 11:30. Firstly, I got on the subway going in the wrong direction on accident. So I got off and got on the right subway. No big deal. A five or so minute delay.

Then when I got to the train station and bought my ticket to Luton, I found out the train was cancelled. So I had to wait another 45 minutes until the next train. By this point, I'm freaking out.

I get on the train, 45 minutes late, and I'm shaking. By the time I make it to the airport, it's 1:35. I've already checked in online, so I sprint to the check-in place, get my boarding pass and head to security. They tell me I've got to check my bag (why, I don't know), so I sprint back down to boarding and they check my bag. Then, once again, I sprint back to the security guys. I wait in line for an eternity (tick tick tick), get my shoes and belt back on (tick tick tick), and run with every ounce (milliliter?) of strength I have left to gate 14. I made it right when the airport lady had closed the door, which she re-opened for me and I got on the plane. I was sweating, panting, and shaking, but I made it. At 2:00. Lesson learned.

From the flight, I had a tough time finding the correct bus station in Athens to get back to Volos. I've been working at it for two months now, but the language barrier is still substantial. I made it to A bus station (the wrong one) and was so tired and frustrated that I just took a short taxi ride with a nice bilingual driver to the correct station. I got on the bus and made it back to Volos at 2:00am. What a day!

I miss London. I miss my friends there and feeling completely at ease in an English speaking country. It feels weird to say that, but I made some really good friends in the nine days I was there, especially with the three who were in Greece with me the week before. Great people. It'll be nice to see them again someday (not all of them go to Drury with me).

And now I find myself conflicted. I love Greece. So much. And I love the people here. Dimitri and I had a great conversation today about life and about how interesting it is that we find ourselves in each others' lives for such a short period of time. What does it all mean? I don't know, but I love it. Still, I have to leave in six weeks. How do I handle this?

I know I'll miss Dimitri, all of his friends, walks down the jetty, the bells that wake me up at 7:30 every morning, and dancing tango until five in the morning. Still, I don't know that I could live without my friends and family back in the States. I already find that I miss it there. I wonder daily what the weather is like in Springfield, how my friends are doing, whether the trees have started to bud yet, how the ballet production is going without me, etc. It's just a terrible conflict of interest.

But that's life, isn't it? We're always confronted with these choices and we have to deal with them. Maturity, I believe, is learning how to do that. For me, it's already heart-wrenching.

1 comment:

The Pain of Blossoming said...

...the trees have started to bud. :)