24 hours.

it's my last night in the united states for two months and what am i doing? eating ice cream, playing with people i love and breathing calmly. for once in my life my bags are (mostly) packed and i have minimal things to finish the day of (which is usually the day everything gets done).

the past few days have been tornado-esque, eliciting a similar feeling emotionally. i feel an interesting mixture of excitement and anticipation along with sudden pangs of nervousness. i think it's all healthy though. i have no idea what to expect and that makes this all the more adventuresome to me.

i can't wait to share all my experiences both good and bad, scary and fun, or sad and happy. and anything in between.

the next time i write here i'll be halfway across the world!

pre-trip preps.

so i leave in one week, and i have an infinite amount of things to do before then. some of them include:

- lake house retreat this week - i get to meet my fellow travelers!
- pack. oh my.
- learn a foreign language. or at least a little bit of it.
- pay a speeding ticket. oops.
- run around like a crazy person. that's every day.

that's about it, i think.

so i'll be documenting my trip several ways, this being one of them. i'll be writing articles for world next door on this website: www.worldnextdoor.org on many different things that i'll be doing and experiencing while i'm there. this might be more personal, random, funny, informal thoughts in my head which may or may not be of interest to anyone.

so here we go. i can't believe it's only a week away.