My final pre-trip entry - Golden, from here on in!

This will be my last entry before I leave, after that, any communication you get from me will be sent from somewhere not in the U.S. Crazy, innit? I'm so very excited, and I can tell because I keep sitting down with my book, then getting up again, pacing the apartment, checking how much time before I leave. Yeah, slow day. :) Yesterday was good, my parents drove me to Michigan City, I took the train in to Chicago without incident, and then the El to North Park, where I gave Katie the hat I knit for her (she likes it) and enjoyed some homemade chili for a late lunch and then some mac and cheese for supper. If Drew is reading this, you should know that I now understand why you would sleep on the couch - your mattress is terrible. Lol.
This morning I took my last American shower for the next two weeks, went through all of my things again to make sure I only had what I needed, and read some more in Brothers Karamazov. I was rather far behind on my personal winter break reading assignment, but I've made significant gains in the past 24 hours. And it really will be 24 hours, because I got here about 3:30ish yesterday, and I'll leave the apartment at about 3:30ish today.
I'll be turning in that book on Bemba that I got from the library (not much help, there was hardly any English in it, so I couldn't rightly figure what words I was learning), and then we're having a final team meeting before we are driven to the airport and have our waiting time. It's going to be quite a wait, I believe. Our plane doesn't leave 'til this evening, and rumors are that security will be extra tight. I can't say that I'm terribly worried about that, though.
Well, I'll leave it at that for now. I've got another half hour to waste before I leave the apartment, and I'm not going to force you to read for that long! ;)
I hope you all have a great weekend, and drive careful in that snow and ice, if you have it!

~Jaclynn