It Begins...

This week has just begun and it's already really crazy. Class is at 10 till noon but when you have other things to do to get ready for the trip to come, it can be kind of hard to get everything into two days. I've saved most of tomorrow for just packing and making sure that everything is in order. It'll probably be last minute things I need, which by the looks of it, I have everything, but knock on wood that I don't!
Yesterday and today was probably the worst of the week. I had just gotten back from Chicago and turned my computer on only for it to freak out on me. Luckily it was something that had happened before and so the fix was a little easier this time to figure out and the woman who helped me at Apple told me how to fix it if it happens while I'm overseas. Cross your fingers that I don't have to do anything at all!

I have also started packing, and it looks like I already have a lot, but I actually haven't put anything in the suitcase yet, they're all just piled up into a mass of things.

 I'm really happy that some of my relatives were super cool and got me things for the trip so that I didn't have to worry about trying to find things, or in one case touching something that someone else had rested their head on or using a blanket that probably wasn't washed....

Four bags total will be taken, two will be crushed into the bag thought for easier carriage when they're not in use. So only two will really be used while I'm flying. I don't want to be the one that constantly is carrying around my laptop or things that aren't needed when we're trekking and biking across the Ayutthaya Historical Park or when I'm out away from my things at the Elephant Nature Park. Plus constantly carrying around too many things can be a pain in the butt.

To those who don't know me well, I have a stuffed animal called Doppellump (The doppelgänger of Heffalump who has taken his retirement quiet well on the dresser). I got him when I was five, and he turns 16 years-old this month. So for his last thing before he goes into retirement and joins Heffalump on the dresser (during the summer and my desk during the school year), I have decided to take him on the trip as a fond farewell to my buddy who has been by my side all these years. But being a little paranoid by possibly losing him (though I didn't in Ireland, Germany, or France) I have taken an idea I saw online so that if I do someone will be able to return him (if they're cool enough to do so).

Yep....I bought him a cat collar with a name tag and everything. There is also a bell on it so possibly just shaking my bag to make sure he is there will be nice, but I will still physically see that he is inside. He has been gearing up nicely by taking long naps, and somehow I really wish that the idea of making him a small passport when I was younger was actually done, but yet my dad thought of it a little too late so, it would've been a little weird though to do that at customs, but I would've still done it anyway.

Hopefully, tomorrow when I see my chiropractor he will be able to fully message out my left lower leg so that it doesn't freak out on me during the trip. I overstretched a ligament (on the outer sider) a while ago and now the inner side of my leg has been in pain after long walks or dance. But for now, it's just one last class of dance, one more class, eating food that I know my body won't freak out about, packing, and two nights of sleeping in my bed before getting up at three in the morning on Wednesday to get to the bus and get the last of things I usually use every day packed.
I'm incredibly excited and really nervous all at the same time.
Ahhhh!!!!

-Claire