14/7/12 11PM

My flight out of Logan is in 9 and a half hours. After a delicious dinner and some wonderful cake and a cute, quirky Wes Anderson movie with my family, I'm home and finally finished packing my two checked bags, had to redistribute some t-shirts so they’re both under the weight limit. 80 pounds of stuff should get me through a year, I hope. Among that gear is a new mask and snorkel, an abundance of clothes and notebooks, my brand new Swingline Stapler and my good scissors from fibers class. Shawn gave me a neon pink tank top from St. John that was too short for him, so I’ll be bringing some Atlantic style to the Pacific.

Rockin' the pink. Yes, they're going to allow me to teach children. I was shocked too...

My rock hammer is packed tightly away next to all my yarn and my hand lens, so I’ll be able to geologize in Samoa and knit to my hearts content, or at least until I run out of yarn.

I arrive in LA at 11:11 tomorrow, at least if my plane is on time I will. I then have a full day before my 10:40 flight out of LAX. I’ll be in Samoa by 10 pm local time on Monday night, so two full days of travel and adventure ahead. Some of the other people on my program are getting to LA early too, so we’re going to try to have some sort of adventure during the day before out meeting at 8 that night.

I couldn’t be more excited to start this adventure. I’m going to miss everyone on the mainland immensely, but luckily I got to see and say goodbye a fair number of people during the weeks I’ve been hanging out. And those of you who didn't get to say goodbye imagine I'm giving you a firm handshake or a massive bear hug, whichever you deem appropriate for our level of acquaintance, or another form of goodbye, if that suits you better. 

Please keep pestering me so I update this thing regularly.