Happy New Year!

Ahh, winter break is flying by. I hope everyone had a nice holiday season and that 2011 is off to a good start. I can hardly believe it's a new year already! I think it's going to be a very good year, though. Definitely better than 2010. I'll quikly recap my winter break so far.

I made it back from Portland with a surprise trip to Texas thrown in due to extremely improbable circumstances at PDX. Luckily I was back in time for the Christmas party! I then spent a solid week doing Christmas shopping for my family since my parents had to work. Now that the holidays are over, I get to do the returns! Haha. I have spent an unbelievable percent of my time in NJ in malls. Christmas was fun though, and I got lots of stuff for my upcoming trip, including a new backpack from Adam, a handmade journal from Emily, a waterproof digital camera from my parents, and lots of supplies (guidebooks, Rite-in-the-Rain notebooks, a new pocket knife, etc.) from my parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

My new backpack!

I also bought myself a new pair of hiking boots (I wore a hole through the sole of my last pair!) and a sleeping bag that is small enough to fit in the bottom compartment of my new pack. Because Adam and I are going to travel in Ecuador after my semester is over, I have to be able to carry and easily travel with everything I take with me. That means that everything I'm going to need for the whole semester has to fit in this backpack! We did a practice pack a few days ago and I actually had room to spare, which is exciting. I am only bringing a very limited selection of things, especially considering how my indecisiveness usually makes me overpack for most trips. Packing light is liberating, but I hope I won't feel limited by bringing so few things. I have also been getting ready for the trip medically: I got Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccinations, a tetanus booster, and a prescription for some anti-malaria pills and antibiotics in case I need them while abroad. The only thing left to do is get a yellow fever vaccine, which I didn't need at first but will need to re-enter Costa Rica from Ecuador before I come back to the U.S.

Taking care of all this preparatory stuff makes it feel like I'm actually going to leave soon! Adding to the anticipation is the fact that most of my friends from home have already departed to exciting faraway places... Sharyu is in India for a few weeks, Cody is in New Zealand, Rena is gone to Kenya for the semester, Kelly is digging in Egypt and then headed straight to Rome for the spring, Alice and Nikkitha are both in London, and Corey is leaving soon for Israel. All of their adventures are making me even more excited for my own semester abroad. Luckily, while most of my friends from home are already gone for the rest of break, I will get to see a bunch of Reedies in the next few weeks! Liz, Alina, and Michael are all coming to New York, and making trips into the city to see them will definitely keep me busy.

...Not that I will need too much help to stay busy. I still have a LOT of important things to do before I leave on January 24:

• Finish acquiring everything I need for Costa Rica and pack it all up!
• Decide what summer jobs I want to apply for, and then do all the applications
• Write recommendations to my dormies who are applying to be House Advisers
• Thoroughly clean my room and donate all my extra clothes... possibly re-paint, get new bedding and maybe some bookshelves
• Do some preliminary reading about Costa Rica, and brush up on my professors' primary literature
• Get my hair cut
• Visit Emily in Philadelphia
• Officially decide what Adam and I want to do in Ecuador, and book our flights

Hopefully I can finish it all in the next 20 days! Time for me to stop blogging and start doing.