So it's real

My departure is official. I've started a blog.

Not only that, but I've started selling furniture on Craigslist. As is typical for me, I went directly from entirely ignoring the fact that I'm moving in a couple of weeks to full-fledged panic. I packed about a third of my room today, and will probably be rid of most of my furniture by the end of the week. Then comes the odd limbo of not having furniture, but not being ready to leave quite yet (I leave August 15th). Why do I always set myself up for that?

I have a feeling that leaving Seattle is going to make this whole Peace Corps thing come into sharp relief. The notion still hasn't entirely set in that I'll be living abroad, with who knows what kind of Internet and phone access (let alone electricity and water!), for two years. Yes, I've been abroad before, but in neat little chunks. A summer, a semester, a month. Two years. Wow. Two years ago I had just barely moved to San Francisco; it's amazing to think how much has changed in my life since then. I can only imagine that as much (probably more!) will have changed when I return in a couple of years.

So, here we go. I'll be updating periodically about departure preparations, and then whenever I can from Ethiopia. Here goes nothing!