Anticipation and Excitement

The countdown is on! 6 more days and we'll be on our way to visit Alicia and family in Luanshya, Zambia (via Dubai, Johannesburg, and Livingstone). Two weeks after that, we'll come back to Doha to repack and then fly to Ontario to visit our friends and family there for about 4 weeks.

None of this seemed real to me until yesterday. I've finally completed all my thought-consuming work at work; I still have some administrative tasks to take care of, but I've completed my major projects for the semester. Even though Darren and I had been making plans with people in both Zambia and Ontario, until I had submitted my final revisions, I was unable to truly comprehend that we were going. This is always the case with me. I wonder if this is something that is universal among humans, or only humans of a particular neurological or emotional type.

Anyway, now I'm in "getting ready for vacation" mode. Yesterday I got vaccinated against typhoid, and Darren got a yellow fever shot. We also purchased the things Alicia asked us to bring to her in Zambia: diapers and Tostitos. :) I began setting aside things I want packed on the spare room bed. (Darren is the family packer; I just gather the items and he arranges them nicely in the luggage). We're steadily checking things off the to do list. And we're getting excited.

Today at lunch Darren said he was more excited about going to Ontario than Zambia. I had to agree with him. It's not that we are NOT looking forward to visiting Africa (I apologize for the double negative there); we simply can anticipate the Canadian part of our summer more. We know what we're excited to do and we've a list of people we're excited to see once we get to Ontario. Everything about Zambia is unknown, except that my family will be there.

It's hard to get excited without anticipation, and it's hard to anticipate when you have very little sense of what will be. But I know it will be an enriching (and, I hope, life changing) experience which I look forward to sharing upon arrival in Canada.

But for now we continue with the preparations...oh, and a few more days of work.