I think it's starting to sink in. I'd been told that the worst part about travelling alone is that when you see something beautiful and amazing, you have nobody to share it with. This is also apparently one of the advantages. When the first in-flight movie ended I slid the cover up from the window, and was blinded by the purest, brightest sunlight I've ever seen. Once I'd become used to it, I was able to make out broken ice floes beyond the clouds. This is something I'd seen once before and been taken aback by, and two days ago I was describing it to someone, with whom I now wish I could share it. But there's where the realisation starts - more than likely I won't see her for a year. And that's a lot, lot longer than the two days it's been so far.
I'd been wondering how to feel about it all, before I got going. Everything I'd accumulated throughout my entire life - a job, a place to live, security, friends, family, stuff - voluntarily giving all of it up except what I can carry in my head or on my back - how does that make a person feel? I guess it's easier doing this straight out of school or college, when you're at a transitory phase anyway and are just postponing what comes next. But this is a self-inflicted transitory phase in itself, and I don't know what'll happen afterward. And I won't know how I feel about that until it's sunk in fully.
My mum brought me to the airport and we were met there by my aunt, but there wasn't much time before I had to head toward the departure area. The plan is that my uncle in the Bay Area will collect me from the airport, and being used to more spontaneous travel it hadn't occurred to me to get his address. U.S. Immigration didn't much like that. The Irishwoman checking the forms we had to fill out advised me to put something there, anything I could (the best I could manage was a vague and inaccurate "Oakland, California") and said it'd depend on the person and mood I encountered at actual Immigration. The American woman there quizzed me about that, purpose of holiday, how I was planning on contacting my uncle if he didn't show up, and then came the "What are you working at?". I lied and told her my old job title, the job I finished six days ago, and she was satisfied.
The flight's about halfway done now. I've got a pair of seats beside the left window to myself, which let me catch up on a little sleep earlier on. I'll have a few hours to kill in LAX before my transfer flight to San Francisco, which at the moment I'm planning on spending in a bar.
Wednesday, April 9th, 5:30 PST, a few minutes out of LAX
I love it when a plan comes together. Drank a few American-pints (stereotypes notwithstanding, American-pints are significantly smaller than ours) of Sam Adams in a Sports Grill near my gate in LAX. Sam Adams seems pretty nice, although I reserve the right to reverse my opinion on this should I discover in the future that it's actually popular or common, rather than pretentious like I usually like 'em. Spent the time talking to a guy from a place a little south of San Francisco who went by the name of John. He's 37, single, an athiest, a project director for Symantec, and is anti-war but supports his country. In retrospect I wasn't particularly fond of the fact that the conversation centred around the war (probably because it was on a TV screen right in front of us), but we talked about travel and computer games too. It was a good way to pass the time, and something I'll endeavour to do in the future. Travel is like a story - places, events and items are all important and have their place, but what it's really about is people.
Wednesday, April 9th, 8:40 PST, Rod & Ted's house in the hills above Oakland
Spent most of the surprisingly short flight talking to a Chinese woman living in Los Angeles who was sitting beside me. Uncle Rod picked me up without a problem from LAX, and I've just been fed a fantastic ravioli dinner. I'd forgotten how beautiful their house is, the view is fantastic (Oakland, the Bay, and San Francisco beyond) - if I had to choose one place to live on a permanent basis, it'd be something like this. Right now my brain thinks it's coming up on 5 a.m. and I can't remember the last time I had a decent night's sleep - certainly not within the past week anyway. So I'm going to bed pretty soon.