Party, Play, Panic, Pause, Pack, Plan

This is my agenda for the next week. ;) I'm leaving bright and early next Thursday, August 5 so I will arrive in Venezuela that evening.

Party- My graduation/going away party is tomorrow. Pretty much my entire family, all the neighbors, my parents' friends and some of mine too will be here so it's going to be a nuthouse! It will be nice to see everyone before I go. I am prepared to answer 87293 questions about Venezuela, play some bocce ball, and eat a lot of my mom's good cooking.

Play- Rachel is coming up from Milwaukee for my party so afterward we're going to hit the town... erm, yeah, if you can say that about Appleton. I'm sure we can cook up something fun. :)

Panic- After all my relatives leave and the house is cleared out I will have space to organize and start packing. I haven't started packing AT ALL so I'm a little nervous about how this will work. I already can't find some of the things I thought I set aside to be packed, like my extension cords and power strips, so this is not a good start. Many trips to Target may be involved!

Pause- Take a break from the panicking and packing to watch several episodes of Nip/Tuck, which I'm not sure I will be able to watch in Venezuela. That might actually be a good thing because I should be lesson planning instead. ;)

Pack- I hope to be mostly packed by Tuesday so I can weigh my luggage and not be too rushed the day before I leave. It can't be over 70 pounds (wait, can I even lift 70 pounds?) so I might need to re-arrange and stuff like that.

Plan- I want to start planning some stuff for the first week of school if I have the time. I have Harry Wong's book "The First Days of School" which is helpful but also intimidating because I realize I have so much to do!

So that's the game plan. I can't think of anymore words beginning with P that are pertinent to my proceedings. Maybe I will do my first unit on alliteration....

The actual countdown begins - 29 days

It's difficult to count down to something when you have 30+ days to count, but now I have less than a month until I leave! I can hardly keep track of what day it is with my schedule being so.... free. I have absolutely NOTHING to do EVER so my internal clock is really confused. I don't think I have ever been this sedentary because all through high school and college I was jumping from one activity to the next with some breaks for homework, my jobs, and sleep in between. Now with all of my new-found free time I can daydream... and have nightmares about Venezuela. I haven't had any scary nightmares, just really weird ones so far. Like the time I dreamed I didn't pack anything except peanut butter. Or when I woke up believing that the walls in my apartment were melting because it was so hot. Or the one where I got held hostage in a luggage store when I was looking for the perfect suitcase to haul all of my stuff (ok, maybe that one was scary).

It's so bizarre to think about moving to a place I know so little about. I have my apartment assignment (two bedroom place all to myself!) and I know what grade I'm teaching and who the other second grade teacher is. I've even met another one of the new teachers because she lives near me in Wisconsin. Still I can't help but wonder about random things. What does my apartment look like? Will I be able to walk to a grocery store? Who are my neighbors? How much are they going to laugh when they find out some gringa who hardly speaks Spanish moved in next door? Haha I'm probably going to be laughing at myself so it's all good. And then there's everything about the school! How many students will I have? Are they all Venezuelan? What does my classroom look like? What books should I bring with me? It's a good thing I don't have real things to accomplish right now because I'm sure I wouldn't be able to focus on it anyway.

For now it's fun to daydream... the real work begins when I have to pack and ship my boxes in a couple of weeks!