North Carolina Blog

I’ve been in North Carolina for a little over a week, and it has been a tremendous uplifting and beautiful experience. Now some details that are of utmost importance so my fellow readers can understand my next few paragraphs. I have been staying with my identical twin sister, Alyssa, her husband Marty and Alyssa’s daughter, Jade. Marty is a marine and is stationed, while he is on active duty, here on Camp Lejeune. It is technically in Jacksonville, N.C. This pitstop was so ironically easy to make, since it was on our way up north, right off of i95.

It has been amazing to spend time with my family, especially my niece, on the front end of our adventure. There are downfalls of a lot of family time, because families can fight and bicker. Ya know? I’ve spend over a year strengthening myself, making my nerves not so sensitive and my temper not so short. Along with that, is my anger, that is indeed one of the hardest qualities I have tried to tame. Not so sure what it is due to, but I have had a short temper and very quick anger with things most my life. Maybe it’s in reference to the fast pace of everything in my life. I used to get angry with traffic, slow speech, stuttering, anyone in my way of what so all and just pretty much anything that wasn’t instant or done my way. Yeah, what a crappy way of life. I know. It is something I have been trying to change. Something that has been a long process, but has been rewarding in every light. Either way, my family isn’t perfect, as is no ones. But it is my family and I love them unconditionally. We bicker and we get a little crazy when we spend long uninterrupted time together. 7 of us in one house, yeah it can get a bit crazy. But we did maintain good composure. Main point here is that we were on a military base. Second main point is that Jessica’s car does not have a pass to get on base. A pass for base requires insurance and registration of a vehicle. We do not have insurance. So when the family gets hectic, we can not drive off base to get some fresh air since our car does not have a pass. So we were restricted to someone else going off base, with us in tow. So it has been restricting on base, but nothing to complain about. Just a lesson to be learned about that we can not always control everything around us and we can’t always make our own schedules, that we will, over the next year, be following others schedules. So I appreciate this week, it has grown patience within me. It is hugely important for me to gather as much as possible since I will be living life on a lot of people’s terms in their homes.

It is weird to be on a military base again. It does feel different as a civilian rather than as a solider back in 2005 when I was too, myself a solider for the Army. Other than not being able to go off base as we please, we can not purchase from the local gas station down the street, we do not have a military ID. I understand that, because things are tax free and a hell a lot of cheaper on base . So a solider deserves those sort of discounts. Things are so uniform, houses look identical, military housing doesn’t allow painting of certain rooms inside, no Christmas lights taller than you can reach on the exterior, newspapers are marine newspapers, the schools on base are of the strict kind, uniforms everywhere, and there’s a guy with a shaved haircut everywhere you look. It is restricted, but there is a great pride here. People walk with heads so high and feet in line. It’s impressive and I respect every solider, marine and all of the above. It has shown me a different way of life, which is very nice to see. That is how you learn about cultures, and how to respect others that are unlike you. Also the sense of safety is beyond anything here, feel free to leave your doors unlocked. I get that feeling all the way.

It has been different for Jessica as well, her first time in who knows how long that she hasn’t had a job. She feels at ease but restless too, I can imagine. She is used of going to work for a 9 hour day and being on top of several things at once. At first it was stir crazy for her here, but as the days rolled by she became very serene and in touch with herself and has been reading books like crazy, something she always wanted to do but never had enough time to do so,

Also, the time.. Oh the time… Moves so slow when you’re in such a serene touch with yourself. When peace is elegant and real.. It is extraordinary. We look at the time, 2:30, look again and it’s 2:31. And we’ve already had a full conversation, eat dinner and blogged. Lol.

Our airline tickets are booked!!! We leave January 25th at 8pm from JFK in NY to London. We do have a layover in Iceland for 9 hours, in which I am trying to extend it to a day or two and try to get a couchsurfing host while we are there. Why not? Iceland is beautiful and I can not wait to breath that air. There are loads of excursions you can do, but they are so restricted and guided. Jess and I want to stumble into the beauty and see the wickedly bridge and hidden streets that “tourists” miss.

Till later…