It hit me

I thought it would take getting a departure date for it to hit me, but it was actually purchasing my deltamethrin treated mosquito net that did it. I feel like I've almost been in a daze for the last 22 hours since I bought it. I feel like crying and laughing at the same time. Tiana took a picture of me at the bar last night with the "I just realized I'm moving to the rainforest for 8-9 months, what the heck?!" look on my face.

I'm so sad that I won't see almost everyone I now know and care about for at least 9 months. I won't see Tiana, who I now see probably 9 days out of 10, for like 16 months! Really bummed about missing Jeffrey -especially not being able to talk on the phone for ridiculous lengths of time for free! It's nuts. Fortunately, my mom and cousin Shawna (who I almost never see in Canada oddly enough but is my evil twin) will be visiting.

Updates?

• Health coverage is APPROVED! No issues at all, which is amazing considering I have asthma, chest pain and a million food intolerances. Woot!


• Police check is a bit of a messy situation, however. Which is ironic considering I've had no problems with the law and tons of stupid health crap. You can only do your police check in the city where your permanent address is. Which is in Ottawa. So I really screwed things up when I picked Wii over my police check in March. Fortunately, if you pay an extra fee, they'll give it to you that day provided you've lived in the city for the last 5 years. Hopefully they consider me living there for the last 5 years!! It's going to be so last minute since I won't be going back to Ottawa until May 4!


• CUSO forms were couriered over yesterday. So Claudia should be booking my flight really soon! Fingers crossed for a date within the next week.


• Still no passport.


• Hiking boots are in! But in the States so I won't actually get them until April 23. Here's hoping they fit.

I still have some forms to give in to the school. I wrote the first version of my long packing list in a Starbucks last night. I'm really trying to aim for a suitcase and a big hiking bag. One of those is just going to be bathroom stuff (shampoo, conditioner, prescriptions, sunscreen, repellent, etc) by the looks of it!

Turns out an international licence isn't any good since it's so unprofessional looking (taped in passport pictures!) and says that it's only valid with an Ontario licence to accompany it. So I'm going to have to apply for a new licence while I'm in Guatemala, by the looks of it, and just have a version with no picture along with my regular licence. Oye.

Spanish is moving along! It's hard with exams for us to meet as a group now. Doing activities and things on my own and Jeffrey harasses me every time he talks to me to work on Spanish. Which is actually really helpful.