I heart giant duffel bags

First I would like to say THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of my friends and family for all the well wishes as I prepare for this journey. My DNR friends were awesome and took me out to lunch on my last day which was really nice. I am so lucky to have been able to work with such a great group of people!

Also my Chuck-town friends gave me a GREAT farewell party weekend, complete with pinata, a surprise guest (yeah Katie!), and concert! I already miss you all SO much! STAY IN TOUCH!

Now I am back home in the good ole NA, hanging with the family. It is really weird to think that I won't see them for 2 years. I did get skype on my computer though and even did a practice run video chatting with my Aunt in VA. So add me to your contacts if you have Skype, although I will be 12 hours ahead (so I will be living in your tomorrow hehe). 

So I am pretty sure that I must be the LAST person in my training batch to pack because I finally got everything packed today... leave it to me to wait two days before I leave!

Here is all of my stuff (note: my backpack is already filled with a tent, snorkeling gear, drybag and camping gear):

And here is it all packed away in my GIGANTIC duffel that I bought today:

That is what two years packed away looks like for me! And I even have room to spare!

So Thursday I will be leaving for Detroit from Augusta, connecting in ATL. I will stay in Detroit for roughly 24 hours to complete my staging, which from what I gather is just a lot of paperwork and preparing to leave the country. Then we all will travel together Friday morning to Manila, Philippines, which is an 18 HOUR flight! I haven't been on that many flights in my life and I don't think any of them have been longer than 2 maybe 3 hours, so this will be interesting. At least I will have a plane full of fellow PC volunteers to get to know!

I am not sure what my internet access will be like through all of this but I will try to update when I can!

Wish me luck!!!!