If by “waiting” you mean “feverishly preparing”…

Posted by on October 22, 2013

“You must be getting excited for your exchange!”

“Bet you can’t wait to go Australia for a year!”

“Are you counting down the days until you leave?”

Yes, yes, and yes!

We are excited, but anxious at the same time.

Right, we can’t “wait” to go. We are feverishly “preparing” to go.

We count down the days but the To Do list continues to grow and wonder how we will ever get it all done.

Digging in to every closet, cupboard, and drawer cleaning, sorting, organizing, storing away, donating, purging is a daily activity now. It is a lot of work, and the house is in a tip, but it’s like breaking eggs to make cake. In the end we’ll have our house in pretty good order for our exchange partners, and for ourselves when we return.

Already we have had visits we knew would be the last before we head off making the farewells a little more emotional. Our attention is pretty finely focused on preparations here at home with the odd thought about what we will do when we are finally in Australia. The calendar shows only 9 weeks remaining before departure. We’re seeking a balance between preparations and spending time with family and friends, managing my two Masters courses, and attending to our day jobs.

Sharing the overwhelming list of things going on, a close colleague wisely said, “well, head down and plow through it.”

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©2011 Miles MacFarlane