I´m Here!

Pretty much everything isawesome here except for thisSpanish keyboard, so please bear with me. I also have to be on abus in 10 minutes to go back to my house... BUT my suitcase ended up being 51 pounds so Mom stuffed a shirt and capris in my laptop case. Nice. My hostmom is great (shefed me PEANUT BUTTER for breakfast!!!) and I have to go BUT I SAW SOME RUNNERS!!!!!

in 12 hours...

The suitcase is packed: the bathroom scale says 48.8 pounds. Yes!! (I managed to sneak in some extra running gear. You never know.) Plus a backpack and laptop case. Everything is ready; Mom and Dad are BOTH coming to drop me off for my 6:15 (AM) flight. By the way, don't call me; my phone has to be left here. But facebook is good. Although I'm not sure if I'll have internet in my house... and I'm not allowed to speak English, so if some Spanish words slip into my posts, well, deal with it :)

Packing

At first I thought that packing would be no big deal. I fit three weeks' worth of stuff into a small suitcase for Europe four years ago, and nine months' worth of my life into a couple boxes for college. Then reality kicked in, especially after I went out and got the things the program had on a list. Your own towels, layers (Ecuador isn't always hot because it's about 9,000 feet up in the air, depending on where you are), rain gear, umbrella, hiking boots, Tevas, wipes, plastic bags, Swiss army knife or equivalent, a headlamp, a nice dress, binoculars, a gift for your family, malaria medication, sea-sickness pills, sunscreen... I don't think that's half if it. Add normal clothes, the school books that I had completely forgotten about, and things that I consider essential (peanut butter and running shoes) AND ten extra pairs of socks to leave in the jungle because they will never dry, and... I need to do some downsizing. I'll be lucky if this suitcase weighs less than 100 lbs.; forget making the 50-lb. limit. I also need to hide 150 or so $1 bills in and around my suitcase because no one ever has change (although it's lucky that they use the US dollar). Am I ready? Despite the mess of clothes, boxes, bags and socks littering the loft: YES.