T Minus 16 Hours Before Take Off

Hey all.

I made it to DC and I have been touring the city for the past couple of days with my family. I was able to see the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the White House, the Washington Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, basically all the landmarks of DC. The weather here has been hot and humid, about 90 degrees. I just view this as a way to prepare myself for the weather near the equator!

So I have less than 24 hours in America and thoughts have been whirling in my head the past several days; did I pack everything, is there anything I forgot, should I bring this, what if I don't like it, what if they people don't like me, what if they can't understand my spanish, etc. I've been making myself nervous and having to calm myself down a couple times of day. The more I think about it, it's the actually first day I'm dreading. The fact that I don't know anyone going or who I'm staying with has me most concerned, followed shortly by the fear of intense scorching weather and giant bugs.

I've been able to print off my boarding pass and I've found out the name of the family I will be living with in Costa Rica. I've had my bag packed since Saturday, however, just today did I realize that it was quite heavy. I decided to weigh it here in the hotel (luckily they had a scale) and it came out overweight, by 5 lbs. Thank goodness I checked now. So for the past hour I've been repacking my two bags (the one bag is full of the equipment I'm supposed to bring down, I'm allowed to put some personal items in there but they don't recommend it since that bag is going to be seperated from me for the first night in Costa Rica). Luckily, I managed to get both bags less than 50 lbs, I'm fairly impressed with myself.

By 3:30 pm tomorrow, I'll be on my way. I have a layover in Miami and then on to San Jose, landing at 8:50 local time. Even though I'm nervous, I'm way more excited than anything else. I definitely think this will be an experience of a lifetime and I can't wait for it to start. The next time I write, I'll be there, hopefully having a great time!

And because the Wings lost, I don't know how I will be able to watch the final game. Way to go Wings, had to make the series suspenseful!