New York and Philadelphia

Just so you know, the following thoughts will be completely unorganized, unlike my luggage, which is slowly taking on an organization of its own. Sadly, said organization is accompanied by an ever-increasing weight. I'll make mom take a picture of me with all my luggage tomorrow morning. Everything I hear from Peace Corps reiterates that we will have to carry our own luggage. Apparently I'm very confident in my luggage-carrying abilities. It's all mental...right?
I must mention that my final weekend in New York City was fabulous, despite my unfounded fears. You see, I was positive that my friends would not, in fact, organize ANYTHING in the way of a send-off for me and I was, to say the least, disappointed. Let's just say that I complained to the people who actually HAD organized something that I didn't think I was getting a darn thing. Thankfully, all my friends are used to laughing at me for being a bit of a jerk every now and again, so nothing was out of the ordinary there. And what, precisely, did the aforementioned friends organize, you ask? A LIMO RIDE AROUND THE CITY! Very posh. Even when we stopped at the liquor store in my old neighborhood ("Ay mami") to buy my favorite wine (it's pink and tastes like juice...'cause I'm SO high class), the limo radiated glamour...or so I thought.
In the end, I couple more teary good-byes, mostly because Bonnie cried and, thus, I cried and, thus, Tyler cried. All the whimpering was more or less demolished by some dude who rolled up and asked us if we would move so that he could park behind my car. Awesome.
Since my departure from Manhattan, I've been running around like a crazy person (seriously, crazy people run around a LOT) and participating in America's favorite pastime: shopping. At malls, no less. I figured it was the American thing to do before I left. Even though I mostly shopped at H&M, which is Swedish, I felt very American every time they scanned my MasterCard.
Now, it's off to a fancy good-bye dinner with my Mom and Aunt Claire before I FINALLY force myself to stop packing and watch Everything is Illuminate (first a book, then a movie, then the inspiration for the name of my blog...all set in Ukraine) before attempting to sleep. Riiiiight.
Thankfully, Washington D.C. is still in America. I can envision last-minute runs to Wal-Mart for adapters already. Hopefully I'll update everyone before I go international.
Oh, oh, and I went back to my old school to say good-bye to everyone before I left. It was great to see everyone, especially the 8th graders, who will remain cute little 6th graders forever in my memory. They were HUGE fans of the Ukranian hip-hop music I played for them. Huge, I tell you.
OK, I think that's enough.