This all started in Japan.

I just had to go on that trip. It would have been the last one I could ever go on as a student ambassador, unless I became a delegation leader, but to do that I would have to be a teacher or work in a school. And it was Japan! Who wouldn’t want to go to Japan? Anyway, I saw him at the second meeting: tall, dark curly hair, dark mesmerizing eyes. Do you ever get those feelings that tell you that something is going to happen? I had a big feeling once I looked into his eyes that something big was going to happen, and it would be the start to an amazing adventure.

Next step: the accidental friend request on Facebook. He accepted, much to my surprise, and even sent me a message, which surprised me even more. We started talking and started slowly becoming friends as time slowly counted down until the 14 hour plane ride. We talked in meetings, barely opening up until the busride to the airport when things started to fall into place. We were able to open up more as the trip flew by. I was able to tell him why I am the way am one night in Hiroshima, and he was able to tell me some of his feelings. This may have been the turning point. I wanted to learn more. We spent more and more time together after that night and talking more. I learned I was able to be myself around him.

We were each other’s pillows on the plane ride and bus ride home, said our goodbyes. We talked that night, and then again the next day. We had met up, walked around the area where we first met, then went to the movies to get my mind off of the break-up that had happened earlier that day. The Hangover: one of the funniest movies I have seen, and definitely the right choice based on that day’s events. A kiss on a forehead with a goodbye, and butterflies. We’ve talked every day since then, and have hung out every weekend.

His name is Charlie, and I think I may have been falling for him for the past month.

Each time we talk, we come up with more ideas for things we should do together, and since we seem to have almost all of the same interests, we agree on all of them. We came up with so many ideas that I started to forget. So we started a list, and this is only the beginning.

First on the list was to stay up all night and watch the sunrise, come up with more things to put on the list, watch movies and sleep for a little bit, if we needed to. The next morning, sleep for a couple hours, then go hiking and get ice cream.

The ice cream never happened, and neither did the sunrise, but that one night turned into a pretty amazing weekend.

Anyway, our whole first adventure started out meaning to be one night into the afternoon of the next day, and it turned out to be the whole weekend, starting with me getting lost. I don’t know the area around where he lives that well, and my GPS gave me the wrong address. So instead of turning left, like I was supposed to, I turned right and headed into the area that he doesn’t know that well either. I called him telling him all of the places I was passing, and I was told to turn around. I did, and I eventually found the dojo parking lot, where he pulled in not too long after me.

We then went to the house to let the dogs out and drop my car off, and then we took off and parked in some empty parking lot and started walking on the bike trail to the park. I like to let my imagination take over sometimes, so when we walked to a group of trees and bushes, I stopped and tried to see what they looked like. I asked him what he thought it looked like, and he said a scorpion. At first I thought it looked like a lion, but then after I thought about it some more, I realized it looked more like Falkor, the luckdragon, from The NeverEnding Story:

I like what comes to my imatination most of the time. =]

We then finished walking to the park and sat down on the bench near the playscape, where we talked about many different things and looked up at the clouds trying to find pictures in them. I found a wolf in the big cloud above us, and he found something else. I’m not sure exactly what it was, but it was interesting to see two completely different things just by looking at the same cloud in different ways. I guess it’s like that with everything. I also saw the tree that’s been in my dreams a lot lately once we got on the swings. It was pretty cool.

The swings were really fun. I kept moving back and forth and side to side and I felt like a little kid again. Especially after he started chasing me trying to tickle me. I loved it, but somehow we started walking back. I didn’t mind though. We kept getting bitten by misquitos. So, we started walking back, talking and holding hands the whole way, and something really weird happened. It had happened earlier that day too, but I didn’t think too much about it. It was almost as if a shadow swooped at me. I jumped back and my heart stopped for a minute, and I got so scared. I didn’t understand it, but hopefully it was just my imagination.

We got back in the car and listened to music the whole ride back to the house, and then we found a huge bag of popcorn, which we ate while watching The Fox and The Hound. That is actually a very sad movie. I haven’t watched it in forever, but it was nice to sit on the couch and watch it with him. We talked for a while after the movie was over, and ended up falling asleep around 3 in the morning, but we set the alarm for 4:30 so we could get up and watch the sunrise.

Turns out the sunrise part of our adventure never happened either. We woke up, went outside, but it there was rain, thunder and lighting, and I was getting scared. So we went back into the house and fell asleep again until around 9, then fell asleep again until around 11. It was quite interesting. We found cereal and ate some of it, then sat on the couch and talked some more until we realized that if we didn’t leave soon, we wouldn’t have enough time to go hiking.

We got ready, then got in the car and drove to the parking area, and started climbing up the mountain. It was steep, and my heart started racing and it made me lose my breath, but it was worth it. I love hiking, but I haven’t done it enough to be used to the incline in some areas. I was with someone who helped me up though. I held onto him so that I wouldn’t fall, like I did when we hiked up Mt. Fuji the month before, and turns out that was a good idea.

About halfway up, there was a viewpoint, where there were rocks and a cliff. Normally, I am terrified of heights, but this time, I was completely comfortable sitting on the edge with Charlie looking out at the Farmington Valley. It was the same way when we climbed up this rock wall a little further up the mountain. At the top, there was a building that looked a lot like a small castle, and there was a giant tower that we could go up. As we climbed to the top of it, I started losing my breath again, and we rested in a room that looked like a craft room for children. It had posters, and colored in pictures of butterflies. It made me want to color again, but I couldn’t find a blank butterfly picture. I could buy a coloring book and crayons anytime though.

Once we made it to the top, we seemed to be at the highest possible point on the mountain. There were four windows on each side of the tower and we could see so much farther than I thought we could. I could see Hartford and my town on one side, and we probably could have seen to New York on the other side. I never actually realized how beautiful Connecticut is until that point. I knew it was pretty, but never that breathtaking. We stayed up there for a while and talked about so much. I love how comfortable I am talking with him. We are able to talk about everything, and it’s nice.

We went back down and walked around at the bottom of the tower and found a barbeque area made for President Eisenhower, and it made me think about how he was the one that set this whole idea into motion. If it weren’t for the People to People program, I would not have gone to any of the countries I’ve been to, and I would never have met Charlie. I silently thanked him as I thought about it.

As we headed back down the mountain, it seemed like it was only the two of us, and I really liked it. Going down was a lot easier than going up, and once we started walking off the path and towards the car, a couple of kids ran past us down the hill, and it made me wonder why they would do that, but that might be just because I’m clumsy and would fall flat on my face if I ran down a hill.

Anyway, we went to Cosi after that. It kind of reminds me of Panera Bread, who called me for an interview on our way to get something to eat, but they bring the food to you, and they have kind of different food there. It was interesting. After that, we drove back to the house to let the dogs out again and he let me read his journal… the poems that he wrote while we were in Japan and two that he wrote afterwards. I thought they all were really good, and they all gave me chills. It was cool. =]

So then the break started. This was supposed to be where our adventure ended. He went to his cousin’s party, and I went back to my mom’s. While at my mom’s, we tried to plan to go to the drive-in, with all of the people at my house: my mom, her boyfriend, his three kids, my sister, and my mom’s two friends. My mom said Charlie could come with us too and crash on the couch, but then my mom decided not to go. So then after his party, and dinner with my family, he came over and we went to see District 9. It was actually a really good movie. It was odd at the beginning, but it worked. It started off being basically interviews and like a documentary, but then it jumped into the story.

We went back to my house, and I taught him how to make a friendship bracelet. He picked the colors and did a couple of rows and then we just crashed and fell asleep on the couch. Once everybody started waking up, we watched TV for a little while, cuddled, and my mom made us breakfast. It was really nice having a sit-down breakfast for once. With everyone rushing around to get to school or work or somewhere important, we don’t have time for breakfast anymore. I was glad that we did that, and I was glad he was able to be over to share that with us.

Anyway, we hung out a little more on the couch, and then we took another break in the day to do the separate things we needed to do. He needed to take out the dogs again and stay there until his Kempo Master came back, and I had to go to a Tupperware Party with my mom and sister at my mom’s friend’s house, otherwise known as “Aunty Stacy”. I found it very uninteresting and not entertaining at all. I couldn’t wait to leave so that I could go home and pack for the week.

Turns out, he left his cell phone charger at my house, so I had to go bring it to him on my way to my dad’s. I had everything ready, and all I needed to do was let him know when I was leaving. Good thing about his town, is that he gets the most amazing reception, that he doesn’t get the text until after he sends me a text saying that he was eating dinner and that he was going to be late. Since I’m already in Hartford, I turned around and drove to McDonalds, where I got my dinner, and felt like I gained 10 pounds as soon as I started eating, then actually drove the speed limit to the dojo, where I waited about 20 minutes reading the book he had let me borrow the night before. It took me probably about 10 hours total to read the whole thing.

Basically, all we did after this point was sit around in the parking lot, then drive to the Barnes & Noble parking lot and just talk. Overall, it was a pretty amazing weekend. I would love to have that type of weekend again some point. I had a lot more fun than I have in a long while, besides Japan, and I really liked it. This may actually help me to gain the courage to make plans and have fun. =]