Ari is Stumped

As how to how she could possibly fit all this stuff lying around her room into two suitcases. It's true. I've spent more than an hour now taking things out, making a mess, staring at my suitcases, expecting them to magically fill themselves up. I have no idea how I'm going to squeeze all this in; and I have no way to weigh them, so that sort of makes me nervous too. I've decided to pack the most important clothing first (sweaters to t-shirts, let's say), then all the gifts and souvenirs. I am going to compress and package up my down comforter tomorrow morning; once I figure out how much room that is going to take up, I think I'll feel a lot better. But I'm still thinking there are going to be some clothes I have to leave behind--now it's the tough decision of what and which. I'm thinking my t-shirts are probably going to have to be the one to go, even though I LOVE them. :-( But sacrifices must be made if I ever expect to get home. Home > T-Shirts.

And, so you see, I was planning on buying more chocolate tomorrow, but I think that plan has been revised. No more chocolate. I bought 25 bars at the factory, then I've got another four or five Kinder Riegel boxes (thin ones, about the same size as normal chocolate bars). And about four Milka bars from Germany. I think that's plenty of chocolate right there. I've been working on taking the tags off of things, in order to go through customs without having to pay anything. I think I could use some Oma-packing-advice right about now. I don't know how I'm going to get the rainboots home that Angi sent me. Fitting them in my suitcase seems to be a physical impossibility right now. Baah. And Tahnee's moving her stuff in at one tomorrow afternoon, so I sort of need to have things pretty well sorted-out by then. Her parents are helping her drive everything down here. And I still have plenty of cleaning to do. I have been tracking the vacuum for two days now without success. I'm still not stressed, at least not outwardly, but there's a feeling of impending stress rising in me as I look around at my little stacks of things to pack... atop my down comforter. And mailing things isn't so much of an option any more.

I went to FoxTown with Deniz today, on perhaps my last Swiss Travel Adventure. We took the train to Mendrisio, got considerably lost for a bit, eventually found the place. FoxTown is pretty much a designer outlet mall; it wasn't very impressive... and it was still really expensive. So we poked around a bit, but I know I was feeling rather drained, so we came back and I made dinner around 6:30pm, and Katie came over, too. I had my Math and English finals this morning. I still need two more signatures on my withdrawal form; I couldn't find the Deans anywhere today. Grr, frustrating. In any case, it's 8:30pm, and I'm more than ready to go to bed. I wonder if I should do just that, then get up early as usual and get all my business done tomorrow. We'll see. Hope all is well on your side of the Atlantic, and I might be seeing you soon! :-) Ari