Have passport, will travel.

[In Denver International Airport]

"What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?--it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-by. But we can lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies." --Jack Kerouac

I read On The Road at the beginning of the summer, and that quote has stuck with me ever since. Kerouac perfectly sums up exactly how I feel every time I travel, and especially how I feel when I watch Justin's car drive away from my house or the airport. Travel days are always half tears and half butterflies, and today is no exception.

I have a crazy-long journey ahead of me (though I guess by Kerouac's hitch-hiking-cross-country standards, it's really not that dreadful):

• 3:45 pm PST: leave house
• 5:30 pm PST: take off from Santa Barbara Airport
• 8:30 pm MT: land in Denver International Airport
• 11:55 pm MT: take off from Denver
• 5:00 am EST: land in Dulles (Washington DC)
• 8:30 am EST: take off from Dulles
• 8:30 am PST: land in JFK (New York City)
• 6:00 pm PST: take off from JFK
• 7:00 am CET: land in Madrid Barajas Airport
• 1:30 pm CET: take off from Barajas
• 2:45 pm CET: land in Santiago de Compostela

So I'll be traveling from 3:45 pm PST on Wednesday til 2:45 pm CET on Friday...I'm going to need un café negro...or tres.

The final countdown.

photo by animal at heart on Flickr.

I leave California in 12 days. I have a 6:30 pm flight from Santa Barbara to Denver to JFK, where I'll spend the last few precious hours with my BlackBerry before I call to cancel its service, buy an overpriced Naked Juice, and board an airplane that will carry me across the Atlantic Ocean for my very first time.

It doesn't feel real yet. I spent an hour or so today writing up a long email to send to extended family members/family friends, explaining where I'm going and what I'm doing. But the thing is, even I don't really know where I'm going or what I'm doing yet. I've been passing the time by doing little things, like buying a ridiculous amount of new shoes (my excuse is that I've heard Spaniards are snobby about shoes), ordering Madrid guidebooks, and speaking to my cat in Spanish.

There's so much to do before I leave: somehow condense all my belongings into two suitcases, order a double-case watch, go swimming in the Pacific Ocean a few more times, see countless friends, celebrate my 3rd anniversary with my boyfriend...these are either going to be the saddest or most exciting 12 days of my life.