And it begins! Elliott's drawing summarizes out first 7 hours.At 7:45 we took off headed South from Sea-Tac with the Islands and Olympics mostly shrouded in cloud to our right (our side), then swooped East to cross the snow-peaked Cascades bound for Canada. After a couple morning granola bars and the initial excitement of really leaving on this trip, identifying missing items (Liz's sunglasses, that little travel toothpaste I bought yesterday), practicing with the money belt ("Oh, this is a really comfy money belt!") and realizing that Air Canada is a (today, critically useful) subsidiary of United, we headed off to dreamland in the air. Neither of us slept particularly well last night despite reading Uncle Elephant in bed. We had gone out for a goodbye pizza dinner with a big group of friends -- KP and Tobias of Ithaca fame, Matt, Nancy, Kevin, Bielak from Swedish (and so much more) and Brita, Amos, Aditieh, and Stevenson, Elliott's wonderful old buddies -- and then it took me until 11 to feel comfortably packed. We were up at 3 (in Elliott's case) and 5:10 for the alarm to make coffee, finalize the carry-on bag allocations (Barbara's fig cookies, spearmint gum, 100 Years of Solitude, My Left Foot on loan from Al, sleeping pills, ant-acids, fresh socks and undies, laptop, headphones, etc.), and hit the road.
Our roommate, Matt Schlough cordially dropped us at the Mount Baker Lightrail station before heading in to work at 6 at the hospital. Thanks, Schlough! The night before I worked a blissfully quiet overnight with six total patients, one simple admission, and a comfy pillow on the call bed so got 3 1/2 hours of sleep which, coupled with my previous afternoon's 3-hour nap, got me through a sunny day of packing, washing clothes, adding stuff to our registry with Elliott, reserving wedding port-a-potties and dance floor sections, having a dress fitting in my mom's wedding dress, getting a hair cut, and picking up tuberculosis masks and gloves for me and Sonal.
So finally on the plane, my sweetie's cheek resting on a travel pillow in front of me and the cloud bank obscuring all topography, my Seattle to-do lists faded away. My patient with mystery trans-aminitis, my overdue obstetric patient, the scheduling responsibilities for next year's residents: these are no longer my responsibilities (go, BaiVal!).I am going to Rome, Cairo, Addis Ababa, and Gondar to explore, to feel, to learn, to teach, to be humbled, to cook, to sniff, to climb in the mountains (when we get used to the altitude), to make friends, and to be far, far away from daily life with my Love. I feel so, so lucky. Let's see if I still do in 30 hours when, wearing my back-up socks and undies, sick of Barbara's fig bars, dehydrated, unshowered (brought baby wipes!), and walking on swollen feet in Addis as we find Sonal (hopefully) and anticipate boarding a mini turbo-prop puddle jumper to Gondar. I bet I will. That sounds awesome.
Meanwhile, here in the Toronto airport we found a Best Buy vending machine and bought a snazzy camera so you won't have to put up with this iPhone nonsense for 5 weeks. More exciting updates to come! I hear Rome's even more beautiful than the Toronto airport.
xo, liz
2 comments:
Oh hunny, will your feet be swollen! I couldn't believe it after I arrived in Addis, how much mine could grow in size ;) You'll be glad to arrive -- I'll be even more glad to see your tired faces -- thanks for keeping this blog. Can't wait to see you! -sonal
On your way! I think we will show the girls the entries at dinner, and then maybe they can ask questions/write a note after that. In the meantime, get settled and enjoy the adventure unfolding around you.
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