The Duality of Naoni

This week has been really slow to be honest. I have spent every other day looking for clothes for my trip to Japan, which has been challenging to say the least. The professional style of the Japanese is really strict (and confining in my opinion), so it has been hard finding something that was not only my style but was also “professional” and breathable enough to not make me hot. Luckily I did it, now I just have a few toiletry items and I’m off (tomorrow actually) :D

The fresh whip that I will be driving up in

Honestly, I don’t know how to feel about this trip. When I leave, I won’t be returning back home until December 20-something. I have to stay up in Mass/New York until school starts up again. So saying bye to everyone here and the familiarity is really hard… At times I want to cry but I have to keep reminding myself that it will all be okay and that I will see my friends and family again.

But what’s crazy is that I can only “blame” myself: I voluntarily applied to a school far away. Do I regret it? Surprisingly, I can’t say I do. I am glad that I was able to experience something new and meet new peeps, like you all :)) And thanks to the distance, I was able to grow a greater love and appreciation for my family and friends here in Georgia that I don’t think I really had before.

Saying all that, I am still REALLY stoked to leave: I am excited for the new things that await me. From going to the other side of the world to starting next semester to seeing you all!

Oh I almost forgot to share this one day that stood out for me this week! So my friends and I tried to go out and eat somewhere. Sebastian and I found this European Bistro and was like let’s go! My friend Komlan (aka Aboni’s daddy) said he would pick me up, but like he’s on CPT so I was like I'm going to wait for you outside cause I was getting restless waiting. Once I got to the end of my dirt road, a car started turning into it. When I looked through the tinted windows I saw a tall, short-haired, black figure so I thought it was Komlan. I tried to get into the car and the door was locked and the car slowly kept trying to drive down the path. So I thought Komlan was playing games so I was like pulling the door handle and telling him to stop being annoying. Then the window rolls down and it’s some rando woman and she likes “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” And I was so embarrassed, I apologized but the lady was super triggered and drove off.

Then, when we got to the restaurant we waited outside for one of our friends. As we were doing so, this old lady kept peeping through the blinds at us. We were like weird and then we were like maybe she doesn’t like all the “diversity” outside of her restaurant so we waited in Komlan’s car. Once we got in, the lady practically ran to the place we were waiting and started smoking. Maybe it was her favorite smoking spot but we thought it was weird because she could’ve smoked literally anywhere if she had to take a drag that bad.

How she was watching us

But once our friend came, we went inside. It was dimly lit and everyone there either were wearing dresses or dress shirts and pants. And we for the most part we were wearing jeans and t-shirts. We didn’t think much of it as we were escorted to a white cloth table. They gave us our menus and fancy glasses of water. As we looked through the menu, we literally died T-T. Steaks were $74 at minimum, the cheapest dish was $24, and to get a sustaining meal costed $33. Needless to say, we ran out of there. We apologized to the waiter and he was jokingly like “Yeah, it’s okay. I suspected as much.” So we went to Steak-&-Shake and decided to never try anything new for a while.

The best diner

It was a crazy day. Almost as crazy as you guys not believing in yourselves, you guys got this: do good this week!