5 days!!

Well it is the start of a new year, and it seemed fitting to do a little blog revamp. I want it to reflect my time abroad... which is what the main focus of the blog is going to be. Gone are the days of posts about grocery shopping and cleaning my apartment... I am on to bigger or better things!!
It is incredibly odd to think that in exactly a week I will be in LONDON!! Well actually in exactly a week from this moment I will be fast asleep because it's just a little after 1am. Then again, with the jet leg, I may still be wide awake and sitting in my dorm room looking out of my window. By the way said window could possibly be one of the windows pictures in my banner, because that is the hall where I will be living!!

So in preparation for my imminent departure I have officially moved out of my apartment and back in with my parents. still getting use to it. I left my the New Years party last night and almost drove back to Desert Palm Village instead of to where all my belongings were (it looks like my belongings have ransacked my parents house and taken control). My mom came up with the great idea of NOT getting out of my PJs today and instead laying around the house. My parents, Tyler and I ordered Chinese food and watched Last of the Mohicans, which Tyler had NEVER seen before!!! I can't believe he can still be considered my brother. But he saw it and LOVED IT and so we're friends and siblings yet again. It has been my first day of vacation where I had absolutely nothing that I HAD to do - no packing to start, no shopping to do, no holiday parties, no homework, no appointments... just sheer lounging bliss. Very fun!!

So how am I preparing for my trip abroad, glad you asked... here is a run down of my prep:
1. EMAILING!!! Lot's of it. I have gotten information for people in England who are friends or friends of friends who I want to get in contact with so I know people who I can visit or get ahold of. I have the incredible blessing of have one of my family's friends Greg over there for his work. He is gonna help me get settled in England with my metro pass, a cell phone, and take me around the city so I can get use to it. He has flooded my email box with the most amazing and fun emails about places to see, slang to adopt, and advice that has proved invaluable (one being to not bring curling irons because the difference in voltage will do crazy things, and also to register my trip with the US state Department. That way they can notify me of security info about the countries I'm traveling to, as well as I can tell them if let's say I fly to Spain on a spur of the moment trip - they'll no where to locate me if they need to!!!)
2. READING!!! I am of coursing reading through the Twilight books for free time. I have a complicated relationship with those books, but I'll save that for a different post. The other thing I have been reading is travel books and my orientation schedule for my first 3 days in England... SO EXCITED!! I have a dinner with all the other exchange students, orientation about the school and residence halls, and then saturday is a tour of the towns Staines, Egham, and Eton finishing with a free lunch at Windsor Castle and tour of the Estate!! Pretty sweet stuff.
3. SET UP!! I set up skype on my computer and my parents computer. It's free and anyone can have it and if you have a microphoneon your computer... which you should, we can chat for free. If you have a camera on your computer, we can see each other as we talk.
4. WAITING!!! Now that the Holidays are pretty much over, there is nothing standing in the way of me fully focusing on my trip. It makes me feel like it's more real, but still not fully REALLY real. I am thinking as soon as my parents drop me at the airport I'll feel like I'm really doing this... but it probably won't fully hit until I have a routine in London - like an actual resident!!

To finish off the post, here are some pictures of Kendra and mine's "death bed friends trip to Flagstaff" (we decided we'll be friends even on our death beds). It is our last trip together before my adventure... I don't think Kendra knows just how much she means to me and how much I love her!! She is such a gift and I can't believe that God gave me a best friend like her who is so wise and fun and knows me and understands me!! Love you Kendra, I'm so glad we get to live this life together!!