Before the beginning

Utah. I'm here skiing with my parents and some friends for a week before leaving on Sunday for New York and then Monday for Nepal via Thailand. Alta, where we're skiing, is gorgeous and surrounded by mountains, and we have had bluebird skies and forty degree temperatures since Wednesday. I love tele skiing, and my legs are burning from all the turns (and all the getting up after the inevitable and enjoyable face plants). Sandy, however, where our hotel is, is the largest strip mall I have ever seen. Quite a contrast. And it's disorienting and uncomfortable to be getting ready to leave from a generic hotel when what I really want is to be home in Vermont with my whole family - being here is making me even more nervous than I would already be, even though skiing is a great distraction during the day. I'm finishing up last minute to-do lists and calling people to say goodbye for six months, which is another odd feeling. Saying goodbye to my grandfather Roger, who isn't doing well, was difficult, because it felt as if it might be final. But even saying goodbye to school friends is hard, and I just plain didn't want to say goodbye to Kate and Josie - I miss them already. The pre-departure nerves are getting to me, and receiving the list of other students on the trip today didn't help much. There are ten of us, and we're all girls. I bet the other students will be great, because I think Nepal will attract interesting people, but I wish there was some sort of balanced gender ratio. I'll meet everyone on Monday morning in New York, after a red-eye from Salt Lake via Phoenix, and then we fly to Thailand. There's a debate right now about whether I will fly east, west, or up and over the North Pole - I'm hoping for the pole route. After a night in Bangkok, we'll arrive in Kathmandu on January 31. As Matthiah said, by that point I will be so exhausted and have done so much traveling that I won't be able to tell up from down. And then I'll be in Nepal! Four days from now - I can hardly believe it.