Ciao, Mia Amica!

Well, she's off! My best friend, Bekah, has officially left me to spend 5 months in Italy! She studied abroad in Europe last summer and is returning to Italy to be an Au Pair for the rest of the summer and then to study next semester in Tuscany.

Every summer since our early high school days, I have helped Bekah pack. During highschool, I helped her pack for CWIS every year. Those were crazy times. We did a lot of yelling and screaming at each other! I am a minimalist packer and she is...the exact opposite. I used to tell her that we should just rent a U-Haul and be done with it! On top of that, the act of "packing" itself always dreadfully overwhelmed her! She would sit in a pile of her clothes almost at the verge of tears! I would more or less be "exhorting" her in probably not the most delicate of ways! "Bekah! Just pick up something and put it in the bag!!"

Last year was even better. We were not packing for our 1 week long summer camp; we were packing for her study abroad trip to Europe! She was only allowed to bring what she could fit into a backpack. The Princess manages to buy the largest backpack I have ever seen! It stretched up about a foot over her head! After going through and debating each single item's worthiness to be included, I reduced her pile as much as I possibly could without jeopardizing our friendship! In the meantime, her dad must have heard the arguing from downstairs and walked into the room saying, "What is going on?...Oh, hi, Amber!!" He shut the door and walked out. (The red-head Philosophy major and the blonde English major frequently get into many verbal matches!) I carefully packed everything in as efficiently as I could. We just BARELY fit everything in and the bag was at least 70 lbs.
She said, "okay, great! We are done!"
"Nope," I said, "You are going to put this on, walk downstairs and around the cul-de-sac."
"Amber, I don't need to do th-"
"YES, you do."
"Okay, FINE."
We mounted it on her back and pushed her little optimistic self out her bedroom door. She stopped at the staircase. "Go" I said. With a role of the eyes and something that sounded like, "you are so mean," she walked down the stairs. About halfway down the top of her bag it the ceiling of the stairway and she slipped. I grabbed the top of the bag and pulled her back up. "Keep going," I said. We finally made it down to the kitchen.
"That was easy enough." She triumphantly declared. "Let’s go back up now."
"No, Bekah, we are going to take a little walk now." I said noticing her straining shoulders.
"OKAY, OKAY!" She screamed. "Can you just take this off of me please....its really hurting me now."
Needless to say, she was a little more cooperative going back through everything. She still refused to leave her hairdryer and straightener!

After traveling so much last year, I think she realized the value of packing light! This year, when I walked into the room to gaze upon the mountain that I would have to fit into a suitcase, I was pleasantly surprised! She had several piles folded on her bed and that was it! I still went through everything and made her justify why she was taking it. We got rid of a few extra things and then I started packing! I felt like I was making clothes origami! I folded everything super small and then lined it up in the suitcase like books on a bookshelf. (thanks for the tip, Tay!) While she did do much better limiting her items, she still can't pack it right. Perhaps I am too meticulous...but everything fit into a 45 lb suitcase!

After snuggling on the couch watching an Oscar Wild movie and spening one last night having a late-night conversation before dozing off, we said "goodbye."

I love you, Beks! I know you are going to have such a great time and I really hope to see you in November!!