Today...

was fun, but not postworthy. Except for that I met a couple really cool kids from my college. Also, I have a major migrane right now, so I'm not up for blogging. Tomorrow, I move in, and will post some stuff then. Another adventure awaits!

Northampton, MA

I'd forgotten how much I loved this town. It's so...bohemian. Driving here was a trip, though. As soon as we got in the car, my mom started freaking out because the GPS didn't talk fast enough...'she' (the GPS) was an 'old school marm', giving us directions to our hotel. The trip altogether took about 2 hours....I was asleep for part of it. Until my mom woke me up to inform me that the GPS had stopped 'talking'. (Which reminds me of something Sherry Turkle wrote, but we'll get to that in a later post.
Finally we reached the Penrose Victorian Inn, a luxurious B&B in Haydenville, MA. It's so beautiful here. The 1st and 2nd floors are all decorated in the style of the Victorian era (No Duh). We have the top floor - the Mesa Verde room - all to ourselves.







I wish I could live here forever. After we had settled in, we decided to go explore Northampton, better known to the locals as 'NoHo'. *snicker*

Anyways, in 2 days I move into my dorm, and since I didn't have everything I needed, I figured I could use a stop at FACES. If you're ever in Northampton, MA, and need anything....at all, go to this store. They have great prices for great stuff. Among my purchases today were:

• An Elmo mug, pictured here: ---->-->
• A Breakfast Club poster
• A Johnny Depp poster
• A hippo hot water bottle
• A 'come to the dark side...we have cookies' shirt
• A magnet that says 'Hippies Welcome', in honor of my college
• Fro-Yo...that was consumed immediately
• BRIGHT RED rain boots
• A vintage photo booth sesh with my mom and I making silly faces. I love photo booths.

All in all, today was a really great day. After FACES and Fro-Yo, we went to an Asian restau called 'Zen' for dinner. They have great prices for great food. We had shrimp and chicken dumplings, Mom got the Asian Salad, and I got the sesame chicken (I prefer cashew, but oh well). All of this plus wine (for mom) and iced tea cost us about $50. Try finding that in Kinshasa! After dinner we were so tired we drove home and went right to bed...well, not right to bed. I had to blog first! So that's it. It's midnight now and I can finally go to sleep. Goodnight everyone! Tomorrow is another adventure.

Let's backtrack

Everyone knows that leaving for college is stressful. Even if you're not moving to a different country. Even if you're living at home and going to college down the street...you're growing up. And whether we like it or not, some part of us doesn't want to do that.
When I left for college, I had sort of a rough week. In the days leading up to my departure, I went through a break-up, contracted malaria for the first time (and I've lived in Africa for the past 12 years!), and realized that I knew no one in the area in which I would be going to college. So, needless to say, I freaked out, because everything I knew was changing and I felt like I didn't know anything at all anymore. I spent countless hours crying, telling my mom and my friends that I didn't want to go...hey, everyone deals with it differently! Anyways, by the end of it, I felt pathetic for being so down and not knowing why I felt that way. So, looking for a bit of insight, I picked up The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition, a book for TCK's that my mom had given me earlier in the year, but I had never bothered to read.
As I perused the pages, I came across a section labeled: "The 5 Stages of Transition", which went like this:

The 5 stages of transition as Dr. Pollock outlines them are:

1. Involvement Stage
2. Leaving Stage
3. Transition Stage
4. Entering Stage
5. Re-involvement Stage

And as I kept reading, I realized how much sense it made...

The 5 Stages

Stage 1 - Involvement

• This is the state of normalcy as you know it. It may be whare you are right now. You are settled, involved in your community, school, etc. This stage is characterized by a sense of belonging and participation. It's really the last place you can call "home".

Stage 2 - Leaving

• Leaving begins the moment you are aware of an upcoming change. It can begin as early as 3-6 months before actually leaving. This is a time characterized by a loosening of emotional ties, distancing from others, and relinquishing responsibilities.

Stage 3 - Transition

• The transition stage begins the moment you leave one place and ends once you decide, consciously or unconsciously, to settle and truly become part of your new place. This stage is characterized by chaos and ambiguity.

Stage 4 - Entering

• Things are no longer chaotic, but you are still feeling marginal and uncertain during entering. You are looking for mentors and friends in this stage to help fulfill your desire to settle in and connect with others.

Stage 5 - Re-involvement

• Re-involvement is a position of feeling settled again. You feel a sense of belonging and participation in your new surroundings. You can now call this new place "home."

Reading this put my mind at ease. Knowing that what I was feeling was completely normal. That doesn't mean that I didn't cry a few more times, but I didn't feel so bad about it. The last time cried about it was the night before I got on the plane from South Africa to leave for the U.S. Once I got on the plane, though, I was fine.
So, all in all, here I am, in Cambridge, MA. We leave for Northampton today, and orientation starts on Thursday. I'm still uncertain about it, but I know that I have to make the best of it. Back in Kinshasa is a life that I am not a part of anymore, and whether or not I like it, I have to start taking some steps by myself. It's gonna be hard, but that doesn't mean it won't be worth the struggle.