Leaving Day, or

9/12
10:00
Ashlen and I awake in her apartment. It's hard to believe...today's the day. We're finally leaving for Europe. All that's left is to do one final check of our luggage, make sure we both have everything we need, or at least everything we don't want to worry about buying overseas. We've planned to have breakfast at a cafe I have a gift card to and then head over to my mom's, who will be driving us to the airport.
I am strangely calm. I freaked out plenty the day before, remembering the thousand little things I wanted to have ready before we left that I had put off or forgotten and had no time to take care of. But today, I feel at ease.
At least until Ashlen announces that she's been oddly nauseous, dizzy, constantly hungry, and plagued by headaches the last couple days (and pregnancy has been ruled out).
It is about 10am. We need to be at my mom's by 1pm, to get to the airport by 2pm, to leave for Iceland at 4pm.
We leave the apartment to get breakfast at Cafe Javasti, hoping some food will alleviate her symptoms. It doesn't. She calls a nurse through her insurance, but unfortunately doesn't have her insurance info on her, thinking it wouldn't be necessary overseas. Thankfully all they need is her social. However, upon describing her symptoms, the nurse advises going to an urgent care clinic, which will need her info.
11am.
We rush back to her apartment, grab her info, and head to the urgent care clinic down the street. I am frantically signing in to their Wi-Fi, as I no longer have a network-connected phone, to Skype my mom and let her know what's going on.
11:30.
Ashlen gets out of urgent care, with a disappointed look. Turns out...she's fine. But the doctor didn't really do anything but take her blood pressure so it's hard to know if the diagnosis is accurate. He has given her some medicine for vertigo/nausea that we can fill across the street at Safeway. It will take 30 minutes.
I refuse to freak out. On the outside.
12:00.
We have parted ways for a couple minutes. I had some cash to deposit at Chase, she some checks at Bank of America. I am sitting on the hood of my car, waiting for her to return.
I am still refusing to freak out. Now on the inside as well. It's a fight I am losing.
Ashlen appears, proclaiming she's done! And let's go!
12:30
We arrive at my mom's, apologetic, trying to explain the crazy morning we have just had. I am quickly dropping off clothes I had decided not to take while Ashlen and mom talk upstairs, and switch out my shirt because I had gotten a grease stain on it.
I take a quiet moment to freak...the fuck...out.
1:00
We leave for the airport. Traffic is, for once, not that bad. Mom drops us off, we hug and try not to cry, knowing that this will be the longest stretch of time we've ever been apart.
2:00
Our boarding passes are printed from a computer terminal, as there is no station open for Icelandair. We worry briefly about if our bags are overweight, and if we'll need to check them what do we do?...And then quickly discard that worry in favor of figuring out what we needed to do next. I thought "follow the pilots, surely they know where to go". Of course they did know where to go...the staff entrance. We double back, get through TSA fairly quickly, promptly get lost trying to find our gate which requires a train to get to...and finally find it.
3:00
We grab some teriyaki bowls to munch on. I watch the people at the gate next to us heading to Dubai, and have to wonder how differently it must feel for them traveling one day after the 15th anniversary of 9/11. Is it different at all? How much do they feel the impact of a presidential candidate being so adamantly against anyone like them (aka not white) being here?
They call our row to board the plane. We haven't finished eating our teriyaki and quickly make room in a bag to take it on the plane. It turns out to be a sound investment as there is no free food on the plane, just drinks. The woman in the window seat beside us, who didn't speak a word or even get up the entire time, was far better prepared.
11:00 US, 6:00 Iceland.
Neither of us have slept. We've barely eaten. "Big Eyes", most of "Warm Bodies", and listening to various Icelandic artists has kept us entertained during the ~8 hour flight. My feet have been uncomfortable in my currently too-cushioned shoes that I had to untie and stretch out to stop feeling like I needed to stamp my feet every couple minutes. It has been too dark to see anything since about halfway across Canada. But as the cabin lights come up, and the plane tilts down, and I see the sun rise on the other side of the plane, and I look out to see the crashing waves, and the ring road, and the countryside, nothing else matters but the fact that I...am...here. I've done it. I've made it to a foreign country halfway across the world. And I'm going to be here for six months.

And then the Icelandic wind and rain punched me in the face.

To be continued...