Flights, airports, lines, and idiots.

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Airports are both my favorite place and my least favorite. Went through some terrible lines today. It is so much less frustrating to have my friends tapping their toes along with me, along with the occasional drunk falling into our group for a laugh. My friends supply some respite from frustration as we can laugh and talk rather than being so focused on the lines going nowhere and the people not thinking.

The usual excitement that comes with travel seems dull this time around. I am excited to be here with literally ALL the friends I am closest to but the actual travel doesn’t give me the usual feeling of nerves and excitement. Perhaps they go hand in hand. My past trips I have been so much more alone going into it.

In 2008 I was stepping into the unknown for a whole semester in Rome with only two friends and 10 strangers. I had no idea what to expect. In 2009 I was flying to Lima Peru, completely on my own. That is the darkest unknown I have ever entered. I would be living with a host family that I had never even spoken to nor did I even know if we would be able to communicate. I was interning at a human rights organization that I knew nothing about. I was inwardly confident of my Spanish but fearful of how I would hold up in a real situation.

This time its 2011 and I feel like a pro traveler. Plus with a gang of my best friends by my side I have no fear. Maybe that’s why the excitement is a little lackluster standing in the line waiting for people to remove metal and slowly make their way through the security lines. Maybe its because I have done this before and I know exactly what to expect from Rome, Castel, and the Casa. I hope this melancholy doesn’t follow me to other cities I have visited or sites I have already come to know if only basically in Rome.

I am, however, excited to SING! I think the music will rejuvinate my traveling soul.

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