Right now I am finding it incredibly difficult to believe that I week from today I will be in an entirely different country. After approximately 27 hours spent on airplanes and airports I will be on the other side of the world. The time spent traveling seems more than reasonable for that kind of magical transportation (and yet, if you were to ask me how I feel about it on hour ten of the fourteen hour flight to Seoul, I might answer quite differently).

Am I ready to go? No. Not at all. I need to clean, I need to pack, I need to make a million lists, and do a million tiny errands. I need to say some serious goodbyes. But will I be ready by the time I board my plane? I sure hope so.

The truly important question: how many pairs of pretty shiny heels do I get to take with me? None. I've got a pack (brand new and pretty blue from REI) and I plan on fitting six months worth of material goods into it and onto my back. That in itself will be an adventure. In restraint.

The fact that I am sitting at my computer, wrapped in many layers, woolly socks, and fuzzy slippers, watching thousands of snowflakes fall on top of the two feet of snow that has already accumulated inspires in me a rather ridiculous amount of excitement that a month from today I will be far far away from snow, in sunny warm Thailand, ready to start a new job that will hopefully provide much fodder for the writing of an engaging blog.

Where I am.

Yes indeed! If you haven't already heard, and I have no idea if you have (and likely, no one is even reading my blog anymore, so I'll have to tell you all about it again) I am going to Thailand in March to take on a job teaching English. I couldn't find a real job here in this country, so I found one abroad! I'll spend my first month there in training, learning how on earth one teaches another language without speaking any of the language one's students speak. The new school semester doesn't start right away, so I'll spend the next month traveling goodness knows where and hopefully having some grand adventures! The job will start after that, a 4-5 month teaching position at a Thai school. I'm not sure yet exactly where that will be, or what ages my students will be, but I'm excited to find out.

Where I'm headed.

So I have about two weeks left here in Baltimore, and then I'll pack up my life, pray that it stills fits into my car and head home to Ohio, hopefully stopping to see some favorite friends and family on the way. Then a week or so at home where I can unpack, repack, store everything else in Mom and Dad's attic (thanks guys!), get some shots, see the dentist, freak out about everything etc., etc... Then I fly away on March 5 and spend more than a day in airports and airplanes. I'll arrive in Bangkok in some surely crazy, exhausted, exhilarated, and most likely hungry, state of mind and start my training program the next day! Can't Wait!