After much anticipation, it was finally the Friday before the Mandala Fellowship Italy Trip. Laura, Red Anna, and I were all hyped up as we made last minute plans. Personally, I was going to take a trip back to my home so that I could see my family again before I left the country and also to get the duffle bag my grandma was letting me borrow to pack in. It was just a normal day, one like any other. We had devotions and classes, after which Harrison, Austin and I went out and did a few hours of shopping. There were plenty of daylight hours left when we got back to the Villas, so I wasn't in a rush to start the trip back home. Everything was going as planned. I was just packing my things into my wonderful CRV when I heard Red Anna scream.
Rushing to the source of the noise, I rounded the hall corner and found my villa mate running from the kitchen to her room, the bag of raisins still in her hand. A few moments later the sound of water running out of a sink could be herd with a mixture of splashing and gargling. I asked Anna what had happened as she rinsed out her mouth in her bathroom sink, and she managed to say one word as she cleansed herself --"Ants". Dread washed over me as the word sunk in. I looked again at the bag of raisins she had thrust into the trash can. Walking this time, I went back into the kitchen, pushing the pantry door open more so that I could look in.
Ants. Ants everywhere. The reason that Anna had screamed is that she wasn't paying attention as she picked out her bag of raisins (why would she?) and hadn't noticed the army marching through; at least until she felt some of them in her mouth.
Military lines of blackish-red dots crawling through our food stuffs. Shelf after shelf filled with the little creatures.My skin prickled at the sight; partly from disgust, but mostly from fear. I'm no coward, and insects don't bother me nearly as much as they bother most people; but this was different, you see, because I'm allergic to ants. Not severely, but enough so that if I'm bitten, the area of the bite swells up more than average and the feeling of the bite doesn't leave my skin for days. And so when I signed at the sight, it was a sigh of resignation. I mentally prepared myself, and then with a deep breath, reached into the nest.
One item at a time, I thoroughly examined each box, bag, and other such containers to see if it was contaminated. My shelf was the lowest to the ground, and so had the most prominent infestation. I was just throwing away my bread when there was a knock on the door. I shouted that the door was unlocked, and in walked Alec. He asked me where he might find Anna, and I told him that she was washing her mouth out in her room. Just then, Anna emerged from her room, her expression one of someone who was completely grossed out and exhausted. She told Alec what had happened as I threw out bags of chips and dried fruits. Everything that was ant-free I set on our kitchen table. It was slow work, so I hadn't even finished checking my shelf when Alec came closer to see for himself. Alec promised to help, and he went back to his villa to get some supplies. I was nearly finished with my food, most of which was surprisingly left untouched, when Alec and Seth returned with a vacuum cleaner. I stepped aside so that the two guys could get to work. They used the hose to suck up the ants as Anna and I double checked the things I had set on the table. When the guys had gotten most of the ants swept up, I set to work on the next shelf up-- Anna's shelf.
Anna, who is likely the healthiest eater in our villa, was not as fortunate as I was. The ants were ruthless to her things, getting into many of her bags of health foods. We threw away more of her things than I care to remember. My poor villa mate still hadn't fully recovered from the invasion on her mouth, and as we through out more and more of her organic snacks, she couldn't hide how upset she was. When she and I finally finished checking the rest of the shelves, and the two guys double checked our work, we were all pretty spent. So when we looked again at the empty pantry, we were all equally horrified to find a second army marching through, searching for their missing provisions.
The boys counter attacked again, sucking away all of the little pests. They made light of it, shouting and laughing as they jabbed the mouth of the vacuum hose at the last of the crawlers. This time they even removed the wooden shelf boards to make sure to get every last ant. I was very thankful for their company. Yet even their jests couldn't lighten the mood when, a few minutes after they had removed all of the enemy, there was another wave of the beasts. It was apparent, but I didn't want to say it. I didn't have to either, as Seth did the honors of voicing what we all knew. The ants had to be coming from somewhere, and there were none on the kitchen floor; so there was only one answer. Our house was infested.
We opened took out the wall vent cover near the bottom of the pantry. Sure enough, as we watched, another line of ants slowly formed as they crawled out of the square hole in our wall. There was nothing else for us to do but get some raid from the guy's villa and to call Mr. Bortins.
The evening hours were approaching fast, and I began to feel pressured to hurry back home, but I didn't want to leave Anna to deal with the ants herself. Yet now that we had found the source of our problem, she seemed much calmer about the situation. Once Mr. Bortins had confirmed that he was on his way to our villa, Anna herself told me that I should start my drive home before it got dark. Seth and Alec offered to stay around till the problem was solved, but I also went to one of the other villas to ask that the others helped Anna keep calm as the problem was resolved.
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Finally, I made the drive back to Charlotte. On the way there I called Laura, to warn her about the state of our villa, and my mom, to tell her why I would be so late getting home. Thankfully, the trip home was fast and easy, and my mom had dinner ready for me when I got home. It was good to be back home with my mom and her dogs. We sat together and just talked for a few hours. It was past midnight when I finally went to bed, and it was equally nice to sleep in my old bed again.
Saturday morning I slept in a bit, but got up around ten to go shopping with mom. We spent a lot of time in Wal-Mart, during which I had a very particular experience with an individual I had never met before (but later dubbed him as 'That Dude') which somewhat disturbed me; and after that we moved onto the next store as fast as I could get us to go. I got a few clothing items, two pairs of shoes-- some Nike comfort flip flops and a pair of Guess cork platforms--, and a new journal-- the exact same kind as the journal I had nearly filled. We got done just in time for mom to get ready for a company reunion from her first job and in time for me to change before going to my Aunt's birthday party. I had a really good time at the party, but the best part was getting to catch up with Aaron, my youngest boy-cousin. I took a piece of cake home for my mom, and when she had returned from her company reunion she brought a cupcake back for me. We ate the desserts and talked about our respective parties before going to bed.
I slept in again on Sunday, only waking up when my grandma came over for lunch. She had already brought the luggage bags for me, and so she spent a little while showing me my different options and giving me advice on how to pack. My grandma travels a lot, so her tips were very useful, such as the idea of putting outfits in zip-lock bags so that when I was searching for one I could just move the bags instead of throwing clothes every which way; or to keep money in at least three different locations-- be in my wallet, pocket, shoe, or otherwise-- so that if I dropped something or was pick-pocketed, I would still have some resources to pull from. After she finished, we all sat down to a yummy chicken salad my mom made. Lunch was delicious, but ended too fast. Soon enough, I was saying goodbye to my grandma as she drove away.
I spent the rest of the day packing my things into the bags my grandma had brought, and then it was time for me to drive back to the villas. I hugged my mom goodbye as she gave me well wishes and we promised to try to stay in contact even though I wouldn't have phone service outside of the States. One car ride later and I was back at the villas.
There were a few fellows tossing a Frisbee around when I arrived, but my first 'welcome home' greeting was given to me by Red Anna, who, when I opened the door to my villa, screamed my name and threw herself at me. I only barely caught myself from falling over. Laura was there too, and though her greeting wasn't quite as eccentric, she was just as welcoming as Anna. It was good to be back.
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Monday was spent just the same as any other. We got up early to do devotions before class; and after class we went on to work. I spent the afternoon hours in the warehouse with Alec, Olivia, Ian, Chris, and Harrison. We pulled orders, restocked shelves, inventoried, packaged and shipped boxes, as well as all the other tasks that are done in a shipping house. The hours flew by as we worked; mostly because we freely converse and sing as we do whatever needs done around the place. As usual, we got done with the typical work before it was time to go home, so I ended up washing the windows and sweeping the sidewalk before clocking out.
The evening hours were spent completing our packing and cleaning our house spotless. Many thanks to Mr. Bortins, there wasn't an ant to be seen. Laura, Red Anna, and I put a lot of work into cleaning our villa, and we were all very happy with the results. We were just pulling our packed bags into the living room when Mrs. Bortins came by to check all of the villas. Ours was first, and she was very happy with how we had cleaned up the place. She counted our bags and then moved onto the other villas. It was late and I was excited about the next day, so I decided to go to bed a little earlier than usual. Even though my insomnia kept me from sleeping, I enjoyed the time of just laying there and thinking about what was about to come.
Now, if the Mandala Fellows were anything like most groups of high school graduates, we would have spent Tuesday morning just relaxing and getting last minute things done before our flight; but that's not how things go around here. So Tuesday morning we were all up and at the Mandala House just like any other day. We had devotions and math class and a final SAT before lunch. After class we had lunch and then we all piled into the two vans at the end of the driveway. Those of us with cars left our keys at the Mandala House in case Mr. Bortins would need to move any of them. Then we were off, girls in one van with Mrs. Harvey, and boys in the other with Mr. Bianco. The adults were driven by Mr. Bortins in his minivan.
The route was all too familiar to me, as we drove along to the Charlotte airport. When we arrived, we all jumped out and grabbed our stuff, even though we were a bit groggy from the two hour car ride. I was a bit nervous as I waited in line to check my bag, as I had it full to bulging. At the same time, Red Anna's father came up to us. He worked at the airport, so we all got to talk to him as one by one we checked our bags and moved onto security. When it was finally my turn to put my bag on the scale, I watched nervously as the number on the screen shot up, getting closer and closer the the 50lb limit. The number stopped: 16.8, I was good to go. I was very relieved as I soldered my carry-on and followed the others to security.
As we stood in line for security, I suddenly realized that it might not have been the best idea to wear the clothes I had chosen. Even though my black pants have the most pockets, it also happens to have the most metal zippers, buttons, and studs. I couldn't help but laugh at myself for that. Soon enough, I had taken off my shoes, emptied my pockets, and put everything except my clothes through the X-Ray conveyor belt at security. Then it was finally my turn to walk through the so-high-tech-it-makes-you-almost-feel-violated metal detector. Of course, the moment it was done scanning me, the little alarm went off to tell the security guards that I was covered in metal from the waist down. Thankfully, the guard who had to scan me with her metal-detector-stick realized that it was just the buttons and studs and so she didn't give me a hard time about it. So I quickly moved on and got my things back from the X-Ray conveyor belt.
We were all through security and seated at the gate by two o'clock. Our flight was due to begin boarding at five twenty. I had a lot of time to kill. So I wandered around the airport a bit, seeing what stores were where and laughing because there was a Starbucks on both ends of the moving sidewalk. When I had finished my tour of the airport, I went back to the group to find Caleb and some of the other guys doing magic tricks with cards. I watched them for a while, wrote in my old journal for a while after that, and then found more ways to kill time. Eventually, it was time to board the plane.
Zone by zone, all of the passengers got on the international flight. All of the seats had little screens on the back of them that were playing scan-shots of landscapes when we first boarded. Right before our flight began, it played a video of the flight protocol (turn off electronics before we take off, in case of crash life vests are here, seat can float, put your own oxygen mask on before helping others, so on and so forth), and once we were in the air the screens let you watch movies, TV shows, play games, or listen to music. It was all much nicer than the flights I had been on before. In the end though, I ignored the fancy screen and just listened to my own iPod and read the first book of the Night Angel series.
The dinner options were either pasta or chicken, and it came with a bread roll and salad. I chose the pasta, which was a little bit spicy but much better than I anticipated. Mrs. Bortins, who was sitting beside me, had booked two seats for herself so that she could have more room, and she gave me part of her extra meal. I decided that she is officially the best person to fly with. Breakfast, however, is something I would prefer to forget about.
Nearly eight hours after take off, we began our decent. I strained my neck to try to see out of one of the windows as we flew lower. As always, the last stretch and landing made me a bit motion sick, but I dealt with it more easily than I had on past flights. The great tires of the plan finally touched ground, giving us all that little jolt that told us we had made it. Our pilot came on the intercom to announce that we had successfully landed in Rome, what time and temperature it was, and thank you for flying with us. I looked out the window again to get my first look at Italy. There wasn't much to see from the odd angle I was viewing from, but even just having the ground so close again was enough to bring back my excitement. We were finally here.
We made it to Italy!
