Adios America!

I made it from one Washington to another with 72 pounds of my belongings, strategically split between my lovely roller bag and my sister Katie’s big purple backpack.  After determining there was no way I could wheel two suitcases through subways and crowded streets by myself, she took my smaller backpack and loaned me the big, lopsided purple beast which now houses my beloved Big Agnes sleeping bag, two new pairs of shoes, and all the clothes and goodies that made 10 rounds of cuts for their own international adventure. 

This is it - my haul to Mexico. What you can't see is the HUGE suitcase and box stored at Katie's for potential restocking at Christmas ;)

I had a week with family to rest and relax, which really meant that on one Saturday and one Sunday I was a nice, normal visitor engaged in fun downtime. The rest of the time I was running around in a bit of a panic trying to cancel my phone, send in new voter registration forms, print out loan deferment documents, transfer music files, practice Spanish and complete pre-arrival readings.  

I did get to see everyone and managed to get a lot of good laughs in, including when my brother Amery said “Now when you get there you need to immediately – well maybe not immediately – but you need to research the fishing situation so we can figure out if there’s anything worth visiting.”  That guy loves his fishing, but he also loves his sister and lugged my 72 pounds of luggage into the airport for me at the crack of dawn on Monday.

Lots of laughs with my brothers and sisters!

It recently occurred to me that in addition to no longer having any keys, I no longer own a fork, a pillow, sheets or any of those other seemingly mundane things I spent years accumulating only to give away for free.  It’s weird to think I’ll have to buy utensils again at some point in my life but I’m embracing that weirdness and pushing off those thoughts to a later date. Spoons?  Where I’m going I won’t need spoons! Well, I won't need to personally own any spoons... Ok, here we go.  Next post is from Mexico!