Departure

Well tonight is my last night in Canada and I have said good-bye to everyone except my parents, who are driving me to the airport.

Saying good-bye was pretty hard, especially when it came to my family and people who I see every day (Steph!). I'm very appreciative of everyone's attitude concerning my decision to do this. Everyone has been really encouraging and positive, even though it's not easy to see me go away for an entire year.

It makes it a little easier to leave everyone when I think of how happy and excited everyone is for me. I'm excited too, but I hope that's just assumed!

It's 11pm on the 19th, and my plane leaves from Toronto at 8am tomorrow. I am going to be tired, but oh well. I thought I'd write one last post from Canada.

This is my plan for posting messages until I get the internet hooked up in Korea:

• Chicago - I'll post from the airport, as well as send out an e-mail to my family & friends
• Tokyo - Same as in Chicago
• Korea - I'll find someone who has internet and use their computer to send out an e-mail update. At that point I'll probably make another post to this blog.

It's going to be a long haul from Chicago to Tokyo - 13 hours and 5 minutes. The two longest flights I have been on were to and from Spain, and to and from Austria. They were under 10 hours (I think). I will be writing in my journal on the plane and when I have the chance to update online I will transfer my journal entries onto here.

Anyway, I will miss everyone very much, and I love everyone very much!

Have a good year everyone!