Preparations

As the date of my departure approaches, I'm making more and more preparations. I spent most of yesterday saying goodbye to the relatives I would not be seeing for a year. Being part of a large extended family that is very close, I found saying goodbye to be hard. While much of my family I see rarely--only at our family Christmas party and Summer Picnic Reunion--I still love them. And I'll still miss them.

And then there are my friends. My friends who I see daily during the school year. That's going to be harder. I said goodbye to many of them Saturday at my small going-away party. But since most of my friends couldn't make it, I'll be seeing them at a movie in the park on Tuesday night. I'm glad to be able to see them one last time, but I'm sad to see them go. However, for every sad feeling I have from not being able to see my friends for a year, I have a dozen feelings of excitement for next year. I can't wait to get going. (No offense to my friends of course.)

In fact, I've just finished packing. My one suitcase is under the limit of 50 pounds (by a pound) and I have stuffed my backpack and purse to the brim with the heavy items I couldn't pack in my suitcase. Mostly books. And journals. I have made it my mission to write in my journal daily. A mission which I managed to keep up for about a week before finding myself too busy. One of the hardest decisions I had to make was figuring out which books to bring. I eventually settled on the classics: Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, The Da Vinci Code, and The Secret Life of Bees. And my French-English dictionary, of course. I don't think I'll be reading much in France but I have quite a long plane ride to get there...

Speaking of my plane ride, I leave in two days. Today is my second to last day here for a year. This is still hard to believe. I can't wait to finally be there.

Other than that, there is very little to report. I went to a rotary event on Friday which was a lot of fun. I hope to see everyone I met there once I get back. However, there was one thing which a rotary member said that really stuck out to me. He said, "This is as close as it gets to world peace." I have to admit, that feels pretty cool. So I want to thank everyone who is involved with rotary and exchanges and even the people following this blog. Because it's bringing us all one step closer to world peace (as dorky as it may sound). It's allowing us all to understand someone who's different than we are and doing that really does make a difference. Because as the same rotary member said, "It's hard to make war with someone you hug".