It's A Small World After All

No I wasn't kidding.

12:01am. Cell phone. Facebook. One Tree Hill. McDonald's. That sounds like a pretty typical Monday night for me with two minor changes: usually I'd be eating Domino's cheesy bread and usually I'd be in North America! As I write this I am staring at the empty happy meal box next to my desk.  You may be wondering why I traveled 6,000 miles to drop kick my cholesterol and quote OTH to myself while stalking FB photos. Let's rewind the last 31.5 hours and I'll walk you through how I got to this very moment.


January 30th, 2011
8:15am - "Rise and shine and give God the glory, glory" (If you don't know that song, YouTube it - you've obviously never woken up with Chelsea Gonion)

8:30am - Finished my last home-cooked breakfast made by the best mom in the entire universe. A laundry list of girly-morning preparations followed, which included but was not limited to: brushing my teeth, washing my face, brushing my hair, applying enough make-up to make it look like I cared but not enough to make it seem like I tried, and double checking my packing list.

Over 150 lbs of luggage.

10:00am - Checked in my bags with U.S. Airways. If you're wondering how I got all of that stuff into those four bags, there was a cool $50 charge for the purple one because the weight limit is 50 pounds per bag and it weighed 65 - yikes.

10:10am - Waved good-bye to the parentals at the security check point. Mom cried rivers (you'd have thought I wasn't coming back).

11:45am - Taxied down the runway headed to Philly.

7:50pm (3 hour time difference) - Finally got off the plane so I grabbed some pizza, chips, and a magazine.

Okay so I can't read.

8:20pm - Potty break before getting on the plane to Amsterdam. The flight was to depart at 8:50 and the restroom is right next to the gate so I meandered over from the food court thinking I have plenty of time. I'm washing my hands when I hear over the loudspeaker: "Will Passengers [something], [something else], [what on earth?], Ebron, and [whatever] please report to your gate. Your flight has boarded." Oops... I missed the part of my boarding pass that reads that the flight was boarding at 8:05pm. My B.

January 31st, 2011
10:00am (6 hour time difference) - People magazine, Life As We Know It, some surprisingly good pasta, The Devil Wears Prada, a bag of Fritos, a cat nap, and an episode of Glee later, we landed. Yes it was a long flight.

10:30am - I learned that tact does not transcend all borders. While I was walking across the airport from Terminal A to Terminal B (Amsterdam International is a beast) this man walked toward me and just stared at me. He literally gawked at me; mouth open and everything. He was not even trying to act like he was looking at something else. He kind of smiled just before we passed each other so I'm choosing to believe he was just so stunned by my transcendent charm that he forgot his manners but it was supes awk-topus to say the least (credit to Niks and Ging for that vernacular).

10:45am - I realized I packed my adapter plug in a bag that I checked-in so I couldn't charge my cell or laptop. Nice one, Missy. So I read three junk magazines while waiting at the gate. I also learned two things: (1) Personal space is a luxury. So many people violate its seemingly simple concept. This man hovered right behind me for a good 20 minutes, and if there weren't three other people sitting close fear would have forced me to relocate. (2) I can't speak or read a word of Dutch but I got across that airport without talking to a single person because numbers speak volumes. B23 was all I needed to know.

Cady: I like math
Damien: Eww why?
Cady: Because it's the same in every country.
Damien: That's beautiful. This girl is deep.
[If you don't get the reference, punch yourself and then high-tail it Blockbuster... or turn on ABC Family.]

12:30pm - Taking off for the last time (until Thursday when I'm off to see the boyfriend in Spain).

2:30pm (1 hour time difference) - Plane lands in beautiful, sunny Lisbon but it doesn't pull up to a terminal. The stairs are wheeled to the plane and then the passengers are bused to baggage claim. Interesting. Baggage claim wasn't difficult to navigate (again, numbers) and a very nice man who sat next to me on the plane helped me figure out that I needed to dial 001 first to be able to call the United States. Who knew?

3:00pm - I met Bruno, one of my Triptrotting.com matches, who had thankfully offered to pick me up from the airport because the taxi cab line was bananas... B-A-N-A-N-A-S. We loaded up his VW golf and then headed to my apartment. His English is not great but it's definitely enough to survive in the U.S. and we're much better off with him trying to speak English than if I tried to speak Portuguese [Bruno taught me this: Olà (hello) and Desculpe (I'm sorry) so I'm two words farther than I was yesterday].

My room for the next 4.5 months.

3:30pm - Bruno and I park and struggle with my luggage up this inlined street to my apartment. I'd stared at the pictures online so often that I knew we were there as soon as we turned on the street. When we got there, my landlord, Adilia, expressed that her English isn't very good. So Bruno translated. I don't know what I would have done without him. After a few signatures and a quick trip to the ATM for the first month's rent, I got the keys and moved in. I met two girls that also live there, Rita and Naida, who both don't speak much English. Rita is so sweet and nice and Naida is a fireball. She is funny with her Spanglish and luckily my 3 years of high school Spanish are coming in handy for the words she doesn't know in English.

4:45pm - I walked Bruno back to his car and thanked him for driving me. I paid for his parking as a thank you which was a struggle to get him to accept it but it was nice to have to insist. Then when I got back, I tried the key to unlock the front door and it didn't work. I was getting a little nervous when this really nice guy came downstairs and offered to help. His name is Pedro and he lives in the same complex as me but on the 2nd floor which I discovered is a little nicer but more expensive.

Don't use the big long one! Go figure.

Anyway it turns out that Adilia had told Bruno in Portuguese that he can't close that door with the key because it gets stuck but he closed it on our way back to his car and didn't tell me about the no key rule. It was pretty hilarious watching us all trying to get it unstuck with vegetable oil and a spoon: Adilia in Portuguese, Naida in Spanish, me in English, and Pedro understands all three of us. I felt like I was in a remake of that  I Love Lucy episode where she accidentally gets counterfeit money in Paris and it takes 5 people to translate between her and the French speaking sergeant. Priceless. We actually laughed a lot and I could instantly tell we are all going to get along great.

5:30pm - 10:00pm - I spent the next few hours unpacking my bags, updating Facebook, listening to music, emailing the boyfriend, and any other random thing I could think of. It's nice to be settled in and know that I don't have to move anything until June.

10:30pm - I got a little hungry so I decided to go on a mission to find something edible. The grocery store, which I found earlier with Bruno, is really close to my place but it was closed by this time of night. I wasn't sure if I should expect hustle and bustle given that the boyfriend is in Spain and has had to get used to eating later than usual given that places don't open until much later. But that's not the way it is here; Portugal ≠ Spain. Things were definitely closed in my part of town. But I wasn't going home defeated and on an empty stomach. PlusI knew I'd find something so I just started walking down random streets. I have a pretty good sense of direction (and a handy iPhone GPS) so I wasn't worried. People were also really friendly, which brings me to the next thing I learned: A smile has no nationality and no language barrier that it can't break. Smiling at someone is just a nice gesture and it usually prompts the person to smile back. Try it sometime.

Cobblestone is the enemy of stilettos. 

10:45pm ish - I got to a pretty main looking street and I could see come colored lights in the distance so I decided to head up that way to scout out food. A few more steps and then I saw it - those blessed Golden Arches. It was like Andre Rieu started conducting the choir at that very instant. I had hit the mother load. Okay, maybe not the mother load. It was more like the second cousin load but it was still beautiful. On the way to ordering my cheeseburger happy meal, I did discover a cute little bistro-esque restaurant named Galeto next door to Mickey D's so I think I'll try that place for breakfast.

On the way back I did realize that the sidewalks are not as flat and smooth as any shoe connoisseur such as myself would have preferred. Tackling this turf in heels could be dangerous, but I'm up for the challenge.

February 1st
12:01am - I began writing this blog.

1:47am - I finally finished scribing the epic tale that I shall like to consider The Adventures of Missy: Episode I. If I wanted to be really clever and channel that wannabe cinema major inside me I'd name it Episode IV and it would be the first of a six blog saga and go on to be the most followed blog ever until some chick studies abroad on another planet with gigantic blue beings and... okay I'm getting carried away.

The moral of this episode would have to be that the world isn't such a big scary place. Buildings are built everywhere. Cars are driven everywhere (although it did surprise me that the cars in Portugal have the steering wheel on the left and the drive on the right side of the street, just like Americans). Food is eaten everywhere. And most importantly people are just people no matter where you go. Show someone kindness and a sincere effort and that's all they can ask of you. Over the next two days I'll be sight seeing around the campus and the city and just taking it all in. I made it, y'all; I'm finally here. Let the adventures commence!

"There is just one moon and one golden sun 
And a smile means friendship to everyone.

Though mountains divide and oceans are wide

It's a small, small world." -Disney