Well guys today is the day I depart for my flight to Nepal. I wanted to make a short blog post conveying my current feelings as I wait.

• Everyone always asks me prior to going somewhere "Are you excited?" or "Are you nervous?" and, quite frankly, I just do not feel any of these things or be it anything! I got this way before I went on my one year journey to Japan. It's strange because you know your excited and you've waited for this moment for so long yet, internally, you feel apathetic to the fact. Granted, occasionally I get little spurts of either excitement or anxiety here and there but it isn't consistent. If I try to think back to when I went Japan there wasn't a set point where I fully acknowledged where I was; it all came in stages. So, it's probably going to be the same way with Nepal. Come to think of it, while I was in Japan there wasn't really a time where I fully acknowledged and appreciated where it was. It was actually after returning home to the United States that it all sort of sunk in sporadically. After you get over the initial hysteria of being home you kind of sit down and just think to yourself of the times you had and how much it changed your life. While I was in Japan, I never thought of it as life-changing until after I came home. So, with all this said I imagine a similar reaction from Nepal but this time it might be even more significant. I guess I should brief you guys on what exactly I'll be doing in Nepal. Basically, I'll be volunteering with this program called ELI Abroad (Experiential Learning International) in which I'll be working in an orphanage helping the children get ready for school in the morning and also playing with them. Also, I'll be working at a Buddhist monastery during the afternoon to teach Buddhist monks English. This kind of freaks me out sometimes because I'll be given two big responsibilities. So yeah, that part makes me a little nervous. While I did teach English in Japan, I'm still a little insecure since I haven't done it in a while and the environment might be different in Nepal. And for a while I've been freaking out on how I am possibly going to establish bonds with the children with the huge language barrier and then I thought to myself: If I can have a great time with my 9-month old niece, Abby, who obviously doesn't speak yet, then I can do the same in the orphanage. This was a recent revelation that left me relieved. Well, my flight leaves at 6:30pm tonight so I guess I'll write back either in the airport or in Nepal! Wahoo!