My bags, as of four o'clock today, are packed (to the gills I might add). I'm probably taking **TERRIBLE PUN ALERT** weigh too much, but it's amazing how quickly things start to add up when you consider everything you think you'll need for ten months in a foreign country, including one hell of an Arctic Russian winter. The good news is that a lot of the weight (books, clothes, my teacup pig Jerome) won't be coming back with me. The bad news is that I'll probably more than make up for that difference in various gifts and shirts with wolves on them.
I've had a good last week in the good ole' U.S. of A. Got to spend plenty of time with the family and see all my friends a last time before I leave. My mindset has been pretty good overall, though it is tough at times to fathom being away for nearly a year. Mostly I just want to get on with already; what with finding out in March, going to orientation in July, and trading emails with my host contact up until the present date, this departure has been a long time in coming. I feel like I was ready to go about a month ago, and all the time since I've just been in a state of limbo.
But tomorrow my emo whining gets forcefully jammed back inside my diary where it belongs. As the title intimated, it's going to be quite a trip. If you're interested in the specifics, my itinerary looks like this:
Plane leaves Columbus for JFK in New York at 1:05pm, August 31st.
Next flight leaves JFK for Moscow at 4:05pm, August 31st, arriving 10:00am September 1st (the flight isn't as long as it seems from those figures; Moscow is eight time zones ahead).
Finally, my train leaves from Moscow at 5:00pm, bringing me to my final destination of Petrozavodsk at 8:00am, September 2nd.
At approximately 8:13am, I will be pronounced dead on arrival at the nearest hospital.
Well, okay, maybe not. But it's going to be a rough one. The only good thing I can say about such a long trip is that, in my experience, my internal clock will be so screwed up by the time I get there that it won't take too long to adjust to local time, as it will believe anything it's told. I imagine my first day or so will be pretty busy (or pretty "me fast asleep"-y) so it might be the weekend before I update again. But who knows, the hotel I'm staying at temporarily while I look for an apartment has wifi, so when the inevitable insomnia strikes I might just write something.
