Departure day has come.  Along the way we’ve said goodbye to our apartment, our car (how we miss you shakira), good friends, and family.   Our last days in Florida were met with frantic last minute phone calls, errands, selling our car, becoming Florida residents (discount at disney world!) and saying good bye to Danny’s side of the family and his Florida friends.  Although Danny denies ever having enough cuban food, his parents had a big family dinner party for us (black beans and rice included!) where we gave last minute hugs and got final words of advice.  We said goodbye to Danny’s Florida friends at a bbq and extracted some promises to run the big 5 marathon in south africa.   …

I know we were supposed to give you Part 2 about how we made this trip a reality, but somewhere between our last day of work, packing up and moving, and saying good bye, Part 2 got pushed back a few days.  We promise, part 2 is on its way.
We’re finally off!  Last night was our official going away party in DC.  I’m not really sure how to describe how it felt to have so many people help send us off.  It was incredible to have everyone (ok our DC people) there and I will admit their enthusiasm was contageous.   As the night grew on, the feeling, at least for me, became more somber as one friend after another …

Parting is such sweet sorrow… perhaps for Romeo and Juliet, for us, I’m not quite sure.  Almost nothing is harder than saying good bye to people you care about, even if you are about to take the most exciting trip of your life, even if its something you are 100% sure you want to do.  Maybe the first goodbye is the worst, but emotionally, I feel like I’m at the edge of a waterfall about to go over.   I am overwhelmed by the idea of saying goodbye to everyone we know – to our colleagues, our friends and our family – literally everyone we know.    Everyone is an overwhelming word.  Of course we’ll be back to the States and I …

I’m not sure which milestone is the bigger milestone. Today marks the 27th year of my life, of my past. Today also marks four weeks before our departure, before the start of our very exciting future. Only four weeks are left until we leave on the trip we’ve spent the last 5 years planning and preparing for. I’m not sure how I feel. Mostly anxious, I think. I feel nervous and excited, worried yet exuberant. Are we making the right choice? Will we land on our feet? Perhaps we’ll strike gold importing hammocks from Guatemala, or maybe we’ll become so disenchanted with poverty and indifference we’ll return home early…worse for the …