it begins (soon at least)

I am leaving on Wednesday to begin my temporary new life. It doesn't seem quite that close yet at all, and this may be because I... a) have not began my packing or b) this trip has been planned for me since I was about 10 years old and it doesn't seem like it's actually happening to me. Besides this, I have mostly everything in order. AFS gave me a pleasant surprise in the beginning of August that came in this form: UMM I KNOW WE SAID NOTHING ABOUT IT BEFORE, BUT YOU'D BETTER GET YOUR VISA REALLY FAST. Naturally, the Consulate prefers to give you a visa in person, but at this point, a trip to New York City on such short notice was completely out of the question. However, I got the visa in pretty much less than three days, which was extremely handy. It's cute, it's kind of like another passport inside my passport.

So, right now I'm in my crunch to say goodbye to everyone at once and get a whole lot of things done that I've been putting off. These include the AFS Culture Trek textbook, cleaning my room, etc etc. I had a party last Sunday and said goodbye to many people from school and my family. Today, my friend Jen from school had a lunch with the drama club for me. There were about eight of us and it was amazing fun, since it was basically people who couldn't make it to the party last Sunday. This morning I said goodbye to my best friends who go to two different Catholic schools, and we had breakfast and walked around the town and all sorts of the peaceful, hilarious mostly, things that happen with the people you're closest to. I know I'll be back before they know it.
I was under a lot of stress last week, and I was starting to think I was the worst exchange student ever, because of all the simple things that made me frankly far too emotional. In this stage three days before my trip, I am feeling altogether more peaceful about what's coming (although it doesn't quite seem like it's happening yet). The truth is, I know six months is a long time to go away, but it does come to an end, and at the end it doesn't seem like much time has passed at all.

Tonight my family decided to go out for burgers and milkshakes, because as both my father and my stepmother's experience with study abroad, this was a typical American thing they missed.

The next few days look like this:
-Packing Monday
-Packing Tuesday
-Orientation in New York City Wednesday
-Flight Thursday
-Which brings us to Vienna Friday
-Orientation Saturday
-Meet the family Sunday
-School begins Monday

This translates to: crazy week ahead of me. But altogether the beginning of some really good stuff. For now, I'm out. We'll see what's next.