T-1

It still hasn't hit me yet. I just got home from my weekly potluck dinner with the girls (and Julie's fiance, who gamely puts up with our chatter and tv show). I still feel like I'll be there next week to watch and talk and eat with them, instead of halfway around the world. My friend Becca once told me that the first time she went to live in France, it didn't hit her until the plane took off that she was not going to be back for six months. I think it's partly because there are so many unknowns: I don't have a job, I don't even have a really good idea of what my job might be since there are so many possibilities. I don't know what the city will be like or even which city I'll be in. I have no idea who my friends and coworkers will be, what my day-to-day routine will be, how my free time will be spent, or even what my apartment or roommates will be like.

In a way, that's sort of stressful and frustrating and makes it all seem unreal. And in a way it's liberating: Australia is a blank slate. It can be whatever I want it to be.

Wheels up in 12 hours!