Here we go

Well...not quite...but New York here I come! The journey begins...

I must say thank you to everyone for being so supportive and excited for me at this time. It really has meant alot hearing from people, "I'll read your blog! I love it!" I'm obviously not a journalist but now I see one reason they like their job. It's nice to sit here and share and let you know how I'm feeling and it's even nicer knowing that you're reading it and are so excited to share in this experience with me. I promise to try to post here as often as possible. I'm unsure of IF we even have a connection at the orphanage but the minute I'm back in Cape Town I will fill you in.

I know I've said it before but I still CANNOT believe I'm going to AFRICA! WTF?!? It's a very weird thing because, as I am excited, it's hard to be excited for something you know nothing about. Like when I went to Israel my Freshman year of college - I had spoken to 30 different people who had done the same program and knew what to expect every step of the way. With this, I've read 1 girls blog (thanks Eliza!) and have absolutely NO clue what I'm in for. I purposely have prevented my mind from creating any fantasies about what this is going to be like. I don't want to go in with any expectations. I haven't imagined the children or where I'll sleep or how beautiful Cape Town will be. I'm just open. Open to whatever comes my way and ready to experience it, whether good or bad. But I've learned that with that openness and a positive attitude, most things turn out pretty good...even the bad stuff.

To fill you in on some logistics: today at 12:15 I fly to New York, where I'm spending the night with some old friends. Tomorrow I fly at 5:20pm to South Africa. It's a 17.5 hour flight to Johannesburg (after a brief touchdown in Dakar, Senegal) and then another 2.5 hour flight to Cape Town. I won't arrive until 9:20pm on Wednesday. I'm not too anxious about the flight...just that I want to sleep. I'm also anticipating that 11th hour when I'm sure I'll get pretty restless. Or not.

This is it for now. I'll try to write again from New York...maybe tomorrow. Again, thanks for reading. :-)