Thoughts on Packing

I'm packing my life away into a suitcase-and-a-half plus a backpack.
And that's great and all as is- without packing in presents as well.
Under a weight limit.
With size restrictions.
(But I neeeed nine pairs of shoes. Really.)

I have my checked bag down to 48 lb, and my carryon can be wrangled shut (What do you mean, it's about to burst and spill clothes-guts everywhere?), and no, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to pack everything when I come back in a year with all of this plus stuff I'm inevitably going to accumulate, but hey. I'm this close to being done.  And that's a heckuvalot closer than I was when I first weighed my checked bag and found it 14 lb overweight (A suitcase crash diet ensued).

Looking at the weather, it is 100 degrees in D.C. right now; in other words, what would have been a literal hell for my inner Seattleite (I mean, it's barely 70 here and already unbearable) if it hadn't been the beginning of such an exciting adventure. That doesn't mean I won't whine through every minute of it though.
Bah, I'll content myself thoughts of Marl, where it's 65 and -thank goodness- rainy. 

Almost There

It's the final, final countdown:
One week to goooooooo.

And with that kind of a countdown, it's perfectly acceptable to be a tourist for a day on your own turf, especially with Pike Place being a one-stop-shop for picking up souvenir-presents for my German family-to-be.

They dropped the fish!

Holy Grail of the world

I love downtown Seattle so, so much, but I've said my goodbyes here- seven days of blowing bubbles left.


Now, the packing begins [and it is every bit as daunting as it sounds]. Could the airlines be any stingier in their weight limits? A girl needs her wardrobe- and shoes to match- to say nothing of trying to fit presents in there!

I'm going in tourist-mode full force with one of these charming things.

However, packing for D.C. is depressing; my Washington wardrobe does not account for temperature in the mid-90s and above. Please. I don't want to melt before I step on German soil- that wasn't in the itinerary.





Sieben Tage; eine Woche.
Almost- but not quite- there.

Washingtonians [but not for long]

We finally had the chance to meet at the CBYX pre-departure orientation yesterday, and I must say I'm already fond of this little group. In exactly two weeks from today- two Sundays away!- the seven of us will be on a plane, going to meet up with the other 50 ASSE kids (Germany-bound students from AK, HI, ID, MT, ND, NV, OR, SD, WA, WY, and Northern CA).
 
And we will terrorize D.C.

Looking ahead, I can't wait to meet up with everyone at the end of this program next year. We're all going to the same country with the same program, but the experiences each one of us has are going to be wildly different, and so, so worth it- and then who knows what opportunities it will open up for each of us respectively in the future?

With two weeks to go, I've been whittling down my mini-bucket list as well. I got my bubble tea and mochi ice cream from the local asian food mart, took pictures of our downtown area and old highschool, and have been making Taco Bell runs whenever the opportunity presents itself. [How will I live without my Taco Bellllll? :'( I need my fake mexican food...]

And then yesterday, I visited my college.
I hadn't been thrilled about attending the University of Washington before, but I fell in love with it yesterday, after visiting it for the first time ever- you know, regardless of living less than an hour away, having applied back in November, accepted into it in April, and deciding to go there in May.

Plainly said:
It's about darn time.


Although there was never any question about the level of academics there, I was so happy to find that the campus suited me perfectly, and I'm thrilled to be spending my four post-CBYX years here. I hadn't been expecting to feel this way at all, but this visit has given me one more thing to look forward to coming back to!

Alles in Ordnung

As the German say, 'all is in order'-- although that comes nowhere near expressing my level of excitement at the moment. I have more peace of mind and anticipation combined than in any of the four months prior in which I've been waiting to depart.
Now read between the lines:

I got my host family :)

I'm in the state of North-Rhine Westphalia over in West Germany, in the city of Marl. It's sandwiched between two rather major cities, Dortmund and Essen, both of which are  a half-hour drive away. Even more exciting is that Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands are all about a two-hour drive away.
True, a two-hour drive from my current house lands me in Canada, but let's get real. That's nowhere near as cool.

So,I'm not slated to become an exchange-hobo, which is always promising. I have a mother (42) and a father (45), the former being a stay-at-home mom, and the latter being an orthopedist- which is an absolute dream come true, given my love for all things anatomy and physiology related. (Job shadow, bitte bitte bitte?)

And then I'm going to have a 13-year old younger sister and a 10-year old brother, which I'm quite looking forward to. I always did want a replacement for my own 10-year old brother. In addition, younger children are known jackpots when it comes to learning a language. They're fluent and not judgmental, two things I'm going to very much appreciate when I try to flounder my way through some very primitive German.

 Here's to not being homeless anymore!