The Countdown

Next Tuesday, September 1, my international travels will officially begin. Beginning with a 6 a.m. flight to Philadelphia quickly followed by a six-hour layover and ten-hour flight to Athens, Greece, I will be leaving the United States for the very first time. For two weeks, I'll be trekking through Greece and Italy, enjoying my first tentative steps into the global playground, before settling down in Jouy en Josas, a small town on the outskirts of Paris where I'll be attending school.

Sadly, this will also be the first time that I will be away from my long-term friend and roommate, Andrew. For the past two years, we have shared the triumphs and tribulations of our new college lives as we transformed from immature, yet studious, introverts into slightly less studious, yet more immature, introverts. Since that fateful day in the fall of 2007 when I watched him move into our already-crowded dorm room, he's been my rock, my lifeline, and the man I turn to at parties when neither of us are confident enough to meet other people and aren't sure what to do with ourselves. Now, for four months, I have to brave the perils of the Old World without his flawless guidance, and he must survive a semester without his wingman.

However, neither of us like to admit our dependability on the other, and so, for the sake of our sanity and the fact that we don't actually qualify as having lives, we have made a contest out of the whole heart-wrenching affair. While I'm traipsing through Paris (and the rest of Europe), he will be in Austin, desperately trying to live a life as exciting and romantic as mine is bound to be. Austin's a great city, but it doesn't stand a chance against Paris.

Taking a cue from my roommate, I'd like to dedicate my blog to all the dreamers and romantics of the world, the ones who never quite removed their heads from the clouds, who remain smitten with the idea that artisans, bums, professionals and kings can come together in the greatest gathering of the human spirit the world has seen, who believe that love and compassion still constitute the most powerful force in the cosmos, and who know that underneath the harsh, ambivalent exterior of modern man, passion and promise still reside, ready to well-up at a moment's notice. Mostly, I'd like to dedicate my blog to Andrew, my brother.

a tout a l'heure.

Rob