B U T T E R F L I E S

It's Saturday. I leave on Wednesday.

I'm trying to get my apartment packed up today...every last morsel. I picking up a UHaul truck shortly to deliver my oh-too-many possessions to my sister tomorrow.

My family is having a little send off lunch tomorrow for me.

Monday, my mom and I are making a quick trip to Idaho Springs for a short get away.

Tuesday - anxiety.

Wednesday - adios!

The nervousness has begun. I think it started to set in last night or today for sure. Almost everything is in boxes or in my little backpack.

On Friday I got a dose of Guatemalan Spanish and oh how I failed! I tried to make a hotel reservation for my first couple of nights in Guatemala. Just getting a good phone connection was a challenge. Then the call didn't go through. Then the person who answered hung up on me. I didn't know if I had reached the hotel or a private residence.

When I finally got through, and was informed that I would have to speak Spanish, I gave it my best - un person, cuanto cuesta?, por favor, un dormitorio...and although I think this Guatemalan understood me, I could not understand him.

I couldn't understand the price. I didn't know how to say "October." And I knew I was unsuccessfull at making the reservation when the gentlemen never took my name...even though I asked if he needed it.

And when I hung up - reservation-less - I knew I was in deep shit. I am so screwed. And that's probably when the butterflies set in.

In any case, my boyfriend called the next and made the reservation for me. He struggled with it a little, but the gentlemen did ask for a name.

So needless to say, it's gonna be tricky.

Thank you again to all of you for your constant support and encouragement as I worked to pull this off. Thank you for your continued thoughts, prayers, ideas, contacts.

I will do my best to stay in touch and update my blog regularly.

"The trick is not to rid your stomach of butterflies, but to make them fly in formation."

Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Book of Readings