I'm also madly cleaning my house (so it's fit to invite in the cat sitter), and trying to figure out what clothes and shoes to bring, not to mention raincoats and art supplies and guidebooks...and blogging ahead on my two work blogs so they don't sit idle for 10 days while I'm gone...
It's interesting gearing up for a trip like this. It seems to divide everything into "before" and "after." I keep saying to myself (and others), "Oh, I'm going to do such-and-such as soon as I get back from my trip." Which seems ridiculous, because it's only a 10-day trip, it's not like I'm going to be away for a month in darkest Africa. Perhaps it is because it will be "time out of time." Ten days passes here without the blink of an eye because while each day brings particular challenges, all tend to blend together because of their inherent similarities. But getting on a plane and going somewhere new, somewhere you've never been before, alone and knowing only rudimentary phrases of the language--that's a watershed moment. Meeting new people, seeing new things, learning to work with watercolor in a new way, exploring museums and foreign city streets...
I can't wait! I especially can't wait to actually sit down on the plane and realize that all the things that have been stressing me out while getting ready are now in the past and there's absolutely nothing more to be done about them! Meanwhile...time to end this post and do something useful!
