After 4 months in cold Michigan and some super stressful weeks of studying and writing, the time was finally upon us: end of April, beginning of my fun filled summer.
After a great last night out with friends and lots of tears that were shed, I had to pack my bags and get ready for a new, or rather several, destinations. Packing sounds so easy, but after living 4 months in one place, things just add up and even if you think that you didn't even buy that much, somehow not even half of your stuff will fit into your backpack. IMPORTANT advice, and maybe the most important thing I have learned on my journey so far: travel light! You don't need all the things that you own, not even half of them, especially if you're a traveller! At first you may think that you're gonna miss stuff, that you will have nothing to wear or that you will be miserable without all of your make up, but that is so far from the truth. You will feel relieved because you won't be carrying unnecessary weight with you and because that way you won't to worry about doing some shopping abroad. Most of all if you travel with a backpack, like I did, your shoulders will thank you!
In the end, I threw half of my clothes and shoes away because there was no way I could carry over 18kgs on my shoulders without breaking my back and because nothing more could fit in anyways (I know if it would have, I would have tried to carry 40kgs just to get my stuff home). Although it broke my heart to leave my beloved UGG Boots and many other clothing items behind, I was ready for sunshine and the beach.
Unfortunately my bad luck continued and there were delays with my flight, so many in fact that I missed the next one in Chicago and had to sleep at the airport. Thankfully Chicago's airport is huge and prepared for delays and cancellations and so I got to sleep on a camp bed, hugging my valuable things and waking up every half hour just to check the time. That wasn't the worst part though, because I didn't really care about one more day, all I wanted to do is to arrive happily in Miami at some point, go to the beach and just enjoy! Unfortunately by the time I finally arrived there, my bag didn't, they forgot to put it on the airplane because of all the confusion and delays. At that point I couldn't take it anymore; the past days were filled with all-nighters at the library, my laptop crashed right before finals and all data was lost, I had to say good bye to all the friends I made during the past four months, I had to throw away half of my closet and now here I was ready for sunshine and happiness and what I got was tears and despair. I knew that it was only a bag and material things, but it was all I had left. I found myself in a foreign country, in a city where I knew nobody and all I had on me was a description of how to get to my hostel, my passport, my wallet, my phone and the clothes on me. Worst of all, I was wearing all of my warm stuff because I couldn't fit it in my bag and because I came from Michigan obviously. Covered in tears and sweat, I made my way to the hostel and when I finally got there I realised that the only way I could survive the heat was if I would buy me a completely new wardrobe. Needless to say that money doesn't just come to me as an international student. I won't bore you with all the details but in the end I bought some things to survive and that's what I did, I survived in Miami and waited until the very last day of my stay for my bag to arrive. When it got here all I could do was take it to the airport the next morning and hope that it wouldn't get lost on the way to my next destination. All in all, I did not enjoy Miami, I'm pretty sure that most of that comes from being in a bad mood, not having my bags and having to spend way too much money, but I have a feeling that Miami isn't my city anyways.
I was happy to leave Miami behind and go to New Orleans where a familiar face would welcome me and join me on my road trip through the United States. I will tell you all about it in the next post and believe me the journey did get better.
see you next time! xx
Cath
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