I'm Here?

Oh boy have I got a story for all of you readers out there. Lets start from the beginning like most stories do... Last Thursday evening I had server pain in my right lower side which resulted in a trip to the emergency room. We thought it was appendicitis until.. that's right all good stories have an until, the CT scan. The CT scan showed a normal appendix but that was the only good news. It also showed that I had two cyst on my right ovary. This of course resulted in a ultrasound. Now I won't share all the gross details but by now it's the middle of the night, me and my mom have not slept a drop, and I have been poked and probed in more places than I would like to be. We were finally discharged and told to make an appointment with a gyno the next morning and did so. The news we got out of this was that I could have surgery (which would delay my trip atleast 10 days) or the cyst could go away on thier own. Since my pain stayed low all weekend we deciced to take the risk and let me go to Spain as planned on Monday and cancel the surgery. But now, I was an exhausted, stressed and emotional Paige as I prepared for my wonderful going away party and leaving. The party was wonderful (thanks to everyone who came) and I then had to pack.. dun dun dun. It was a long process but eventually two suitcases were packed within the weight they could be. Monday morning some of the family meet up and had a semi-emotional breakfast before I left. We drove to the airport and said a tearful goodbye. I found my terminal and sat there for the longest time, thinking what had I gotten myself into. I managed to get on the flight to Germany. We were served a hot dinner and there were a lot of movies to choose from to watch on our own personal tv's. No one was sitting next to me so I got an extra blanket and pillow.. and extra leg room. I still couldn't fall asleep for the longest time though. I think I finally feel asleep for about 2 hours and woke up to a simple breakfast. Shortly after we landed in Dusseldorf, Germany. I sat at my next terminal talking to some other people about their trips which kept me from thinking about home a little. Finally we boarded this bus that took us to the plane and sat down. This time it took me no time at all to fall asleep and I slept almost the whole way to Valencia, Spain. Once we landed I waited and waited for my host mom's son to arrive to pick me up, finally I tried calling one of the numbers that I had, but the phone machine wouldn't accept my card. Some very nice gentleman came over and saw that I was having trouble and thankfully spoke English. He let me use his cell phone and eventually even translated for me and my host family. I them embarked on my first adventure... finding my way across a country in which I do not know the language very well and have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing, which I am very good at doing. The nice gentleman explained how I would get to my host family. I would take a metra to some town with an x in it and then I would go outside and find the train station and take a train to Castello. I did so, in a very confused manor, and managed to get to Catello. Oh and did I mention that I have two large suitcases, a carryon suitcase and a backpack, oh well now you know. I got off the train with the help of another very nice gentleman helping me with my bags. He worked with me through my language barrier and I called my host family and decided the easiest thing to do would be take a cab, again I was flying by the seat of my pants. The nice gentleman helped me find a cab that would take me to the address that I had written down (thank god) and helped me load my suitcases up. This is what I found beautiful, when I was thanking both gentlemen for their much needed help they both said something about karma, maybe no exactly the same thing but they mentioned balance. It was so amazing that these people helped me when I litterally needed it most. My host mom then meet me in the downstairs of her appartment and helped me upstairs. She feed me and showed me around and we both could only kind of understand the other. It is very hard to communicate at this point but I think somehow it will work... hopefully. My advisor over her, who is very nice and was very concerned, then called my host mom and talked to me (in English thankfully) and then told my host mom what I couldn't translate. I also found out that tomorrow I will be going over to the university to get things started which should be helpful!

Well I know it was a long post but it has been a long couple of days (even if it hasn't even been a full "24 hours" US time technically). I love and miss you all very much and will post again soon!

Chao!