Come down from the mountain; you have been gone too long

So, of course, time is waning and goodbyes are coming in droves. It's hard if not impossible for me to imagine my life beyond all this. Most days, I get into a groove, do some packing, think about what it is that is absolutely necessary, etc. I'm what's the english word for nulle at this. Wordreference is telling me the best translation is hopeless or worthless, but the French connotation seems to have a bit more involved in it, a touch harsher than hopeless, barely functioning might be the most appropriate translation.

Either way, my godmother is coming this weekend to say goodbye to me. She makes this whole experience seem comical, as she does most things. She asked me a few weeks ago, what exactly I needed to get before I left for Ukraine. I told her the things still left on my list: a compact sleeping bag, an oven thermometer, yaktrax, etc. Upon explaining to her what an oven thermometer and yaktrax were, she exclaimed, "Kari, you cannot go there! Are you kidding me?" She, of course, is kidding. But it doesn't stop me from laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. I mean, honestly there are a couple of things I never thought I would need in my life, yaktrax is one of them. They would have been useful in Marquette, of course, BUT somehow in the states for all its excess, you do without, because you know in the end nothing bad is going to happen because you slip and fall. Now the thought of falling, somehow invokes this primal fear of bad injury and thus removal from the country and/or death. Like I'm in some kind of victorian England drama where I've a bad cold or I've twisted my ankle and somehow everyone is worried for the state of my well-being. Nevertheless, the thoughts of this life are all passing and fleeting.

I'm excited to see what awaits me in these months to come; to start feeling my soul in another language again. French has been therapeutic in a lot of ways, I found myself in French/France. I hope that either Ukrainian or Russian will bring me into new ways of being.