11 Days till take off.

Just recieved the news that Mum is now joining me on the trip to England so she can visit with Granny (who has been suffering for seizures and memory loss episodes), but really I think it is so I do not burden any of  my British family members with my wild Canadian ways and excessive luggage. Not that I mind, I havn't seen the De Little family for 4 years and hopefully this will make the five day reunion a little less akward. 

It's really starting to sink in that I'm leaving, that I'm not going to be able to wake up at 12pm, leisurely drink lattes at Wendels or watch endless episodes of Bones with Mum. Instead I'm going to be waking up at 5am, drinking bagged water and teaching the difference between a simile and a metaphor to my students (Note to self look up difference between a simile and a metaphor, I joke, I joke). And I couldn't be more excited!

At the moment my life is completely devoted to not forgetting anything I will need, down to the last Q-tip. I have been to Wal-mart & Best Buy more times this weeks than I have in my entire life, and I still don't feel prepared. It helps that the other UK volunteers and I are constantly communicating about everything under the sun. It all started about 2 weeks ago with a message from me asking if anyone wanted to show me around their lovely Island state, and has evolved into a whirlwind conversation about scrabble, swimsuits and the amount of weight of each of our suitcases (they all use kg to which can be quite baffling sometimes).  And of course because of the time difference this is all going on while I'm asleep, they have a whole conversation about Malaria Medication:

"What medication are you taking? Lariam. Whats Lariam? The medication I'm taking."

"How many months should I bring, 2 months or 3?"

"When do I start taking them? Do I start taking the medication now?" 

"What about the side-effects?"

and so on.

Meanwhile I am dozing off and hours later, after they have finished their discussion on the side effects of the prophylaxis, I add in any questions or quips I have to offer on the subject. But I digress; It has been very helpful to get many other volunteers insights into the matter of packing and what not, and also very therapeutic to have someone else to go crazy with and say "I'm Freaking Out!" "Man, I'm freaking out Too!" with. It's nice to know I'm not going through this insanity alone.