t minus... one month

Hello my dear friends,

Today is a rather auspicious day, being the 11th of December, being exactly one month away from the 11th of January, being the day I arrive in Auckland for the very first time.

Oh. My. Gracious.

The closer it gets to my departure date, the more intensified my feelings become. Not too surprising, I suppose, but I feel like a human rollercoaster- I'm alternately terrified, excited, anxious, excited, sad, excited. Most of the time it's a combination of all of the above. Like I said, rollercoaster. I guess it's a good thing I like rollercoasters; but I guess it's a bad thing they make me kinda sick. Ah well. Here we go. "Jump and the net will appear" and all that.

As sort of a final little trip, Mum and I went to New Hampshire for a long weekend and had an absolutely blast, as we always do. We went on an amazing Canopy Tour at Bretton Woods. It was one of the very coolest things we've ever done: hiking through the woods, sliping and sliding down icy little hills (I gave up halfway through and scooted down on me bum), rapelling from platforms in the trees, rope bridges through the treetops, gorgeous views of the mountains all around us and a series of nine (count 'em, nine) zip lines! Absolutely incredible. The next day we went skiing, letting really try my hand at it and face my fear. Turns out I'm pretty good at it. Also turns out that I hate it. Like, hate it. Like, loathe it with every fiber of my being. I'll settle for drinking hot chocolate in the lodge. We stayed at the Mount Washington Hotel on Sunday night and it was beyond beautiful. It's got this grandeur and old-world feel about it that can only be achieved from a building with that kind of history. We went home on Monday after a lovely breakfast accompanied by views of the breathtaking mountain range, which, in my mind, equals up to a really awesome weekend.

And here we are again, facing ten days left of work (hooray), less than three weeks until I leave Boston (quite the opposite of hooray), and less than one month until I leave the United States of America (we'll go for a mix of both hooray and non.) My little duckies are lining up nicely though. I have nearly everything I need- a plane ticket to LA, a sexy silver water bottle, and accommodation in Fiji are among my recent aquisitions. Still to get: an international drivers licence. Oh yeah. The lovely and incomprable Jayne (my friend in Auckland who is an absolute angel and letting me stay with her until I figure things out) has said she'll take me driving on the other side of the road!

I sort of feel like an electric eel: I have all of these currents of energy and adreneline coursing through me pretty much all the time. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited and I know I'm about to embark on the biggest adventure of my life. So far.

It's just getting my electric-eel-bum out the door that's the hard part.

*Olivia

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost

t minus two months

Dear Friends,

If today is really the 30th of October, then I am really leaving in two months. Like, to the day. Freaky. Exactly what I'm doing hasn't sunk in quite yet. I mean, my mind has grasped the fact that I am actually leaving, but it still hasn't occurred to my sleep-deprived brain what I'm leaving for. I'll get there. At this point I'm just trying to not panic about all the things I still have to do and get and take care of. A very daunting thing, moving away for an undisclosed amount of time. I'm not the first to do it, and I certainly won't be the last, I know, but I still have found myself getting sucked into my dread. It was actually my mum who mentioned that I needed to make the most of the time I have left, rather than allow myself to sink into this petrified stupor. Very sound advice. And I'm working on it, truly I am, but there are still those moments when I wish I could curl up in my closet to hide from the world like I did when I was a little girl.

This is silly. I refuse to overthink this (more than I already have, that is.) My exile to a beautiful and far off country is self-imposed and, quite frankly, necessary. I can't wait to step off the plane and get a taste of what awaits me half a world away! I've managed to obtain most of the key things I need this past weekend on a foray into the outlets of North Conway: a fabulously waterproof Marmot jacket (thank you Dee-Dee) and a windproof fleece vest (thank you Mum), in addition to some clothing that will be up to the challenge of fashionable world travel. There's no much left to do at this point- physically speaking, that is. Mentally we still have a ways to go. But my impending adventure is definitely the blindingly bright spot on my horizon- so bright it's kind of hard to see anything else. I guess it's a good thing I have such excellent sunglasses.

*Olivia

"I am not an adventurer by choice but by fate." - Vincent Van Gogh

t minus three months

Dear Friends,

This being my first blog entry, I would like to officially welcome you (and myself) to the site and thank you for having a look-see! No doubt by this time you have gotten tired of hearing about me moving to New Zealand, but unfortunately you'll find talk of little else on this blog. Consider yourselves warned.

Today is October the 7th, which means that in exactly THREE MONTHS I will arrive in Nadi, Fiji before heading on to Auckland on the 11th. When I first got my visa and plane ticket in July I felt like January would never get here, but all of a sudden I feel like it's coming up almost faster than I can deal with. Moving is expensive! In addition to buying the international cell phone and the luggage and the sexy new (hot pink) camera, I'm also having to invest in something I've never had to buy before: outdoor clothing. Like, waterproof things and really hardcore sunglasses and moisture-wicking shirts... It seems like the list is never-ending. But I know I'll be glad of it when I'm there.

I still can't believe I'm Doing it- I feel like I've made so many plans before this and none of them have worked out for one reason or another. But this one just felt so Right to me. And part of the reason I bought a one way, non-refundable plane ticket was so that I couldn't back out of it, I couldn't lose my nerve, I couldn't find any excuses to not take the plunge. This way I had no choice. I'm free of this static rut I've gotten into, I'm making myself Stop Planning everything, and I'm getting in touch with my inner beatnik. Go me.

Despite the manifold attractions of this plan, however, I am having an emotional quandary which is making it difficult to be care-free. In three months I leave my family for an unknown duration of time (remember the one-way ticket thing?) and, as it turns out, that's kinda tough. My family is getting along for the first time in... well, for the first time in forever, really, and here I go moving 10,000 miles away. So it's going to be hard. But I'm still leaving and I'm going to throw myself whole-heartedly into the most amazing adventure of my life. So far.

I'll just make sure to wear waterproof mascara at the airport.

*Olivia

"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.

Keep in the sunlight." - Benjamin Franklin