Three more days, baby! I'm leaving for Vancouver on Tuesday, and will be in the air by 6:30pm Wednesday. It's almost unreal. I've been imagining it for years, and suddenly it's actually happening. It's a bit unnerving. I have to stop myself from thinking about it now because I get too anxious, so I've stopped picturing myself in Ecuador to save my own sanity :P
Mum's been spoiling me because she "won't be able to for four months" (I mentioned I felt like orange juice yesterday so she got up, went to the kitchen, pulled out one of those frozen orange juice from concentrate cans and made a whole jug of it, put it in a tall, fancy glass with ice and half a mandarin orange on the rim and orange segments floating in it! How's that for service?). We went out for gelato this afternoon, visited the little farm that lets you see and feed all these sweet animals, went to church together, and drove around. It's hitting me how much I'm going to miss them, and I'm trying to hold back these thoughts so I don't have to hold back my tears...I've never been without them for more than two months.
But I'll be okay, and so will they, because (if it's not obvious already) I need to do this. It isn't an option, I have to go. The only thing that makes me nervous about this impending journey is the loneliness that I'm sure will strike at some point, hopefully later than sooner. I know I'll meet people in the hostels, or on tours, or wherever, but the initial sense of being alone worries me. On the other hand, it's an immense amount of independence and freedom! No schedules, rules, or guides, and that is (excluding love) quite possibly the greatest feeling in the world...
