Progress . . . ?

Today marked the start of my official preparation. Procrastination has finally taken a beating and things are under way. Whilst cleaning my room I started throwing clothes and other various items into a rather large suitcase, thus helping me create the illusion of 'packing.' In a few more days this pile will have to be taken out, scrutinized, tried on, its level of layerability and matchability analyzed and finally rolled and put back into the suitcase. I also managed to narrow down the make-up and jewelry items I will be taking. My mom thinks this makes for a bigger mess, but really it's rather helpful and orderly. 

Another thing I can now check off my list is getting my laptop repaired/cleaned. The store has it right now and so I am writing this from our home computer, whose lumpy keyboard is hindering my ability to type efficiently. (No wonder I learned to type furiously loud.) 

Next on the list is going through a few years worth of National Geographic Travelers and heartlessly ripping out pages that make any reference to the U.K., Italy and the rest of Europe. Although not entirely necessary, this activity provides a nice respite (a.k.a. distraction) from the reading I have yet to make significant progress on. 

On a side note, I had my first major scare this morning about the whole process. A recent letter from Best Semester reminded us to make sure we had our immigration letters handy at the airport since that would be our proverbial ticket into the country. Well I had sent mine off with my Visa application and did not recall it returning. I tore apart my room looking for it, going so far as to dig through my trash, where I found the envelope it would have come in. There was still no sign of it so, rather dejectedly, I prepared to send an appropriately ashamed email saying I could not locate the letter and could I please get another. But what do you know, an email just happened to be waiting for me, clarifying that the year-long students only needed their Visas, not the letter, confirming my original belief that the embassy had not sent it back to me. My relief was tsunami-sized and I am back to my normal state of blatantly ignoring any worry about the trip.