Today is the day. The end point of my countdowns. The only thing I have to do now is actually go to Namibia, be a teacher and somehow survive a year away from home. When I put it like that it sounds pretty easy!!
I have said goodbye to all my friends and family and my bags are packed. Yesterday I went to the vets to weigh my bags as I was paranoid they would be overweight and I'm not sophisticated enough to own a bag weigher! My main bag was 28kg and my hand luggage was 7.8kg (only allowed 7kg) with not everything in it. The painful discarding process began (I am now bereft of a tube of toothpaste, some shower gel, a pair of shoes and some sour apples - it was painful!) and hopefully today my bags will be under the limit otherwise I have no idea what I will get rid of.
I am now ready to head for Heathrow where I will meet Chelcie and the rest of the Namibia crew, hopefully no one will have grown an extra head in the last month or so and they will be just as lovely as remembered. I have 500g of sour apples packed (thank you Matilda), lots of books on my kindle (thank you Cluny), 18 sachets of hot chocolate and most importantly my blanket. Some people believe that by the age of 18 I should have out grown the use of my baby blanket, however, I haven't seen it as necessary although I am slightly worried as I was told not to take anything white with me as it would turn orange....I bet you can guess what colour my blanket is!
I suddenly feel very patriotic as if I am representing my country which I suppose I am. On the outside of my rucksack I have the St George flag and underneath the Namibian flag. My home country and the country of my new home. Massive thank you to Mummy for that as apparently they were quite difficult to sew on.
It is widely known that I am a massive foody so it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise that I looked up the menu for my flight to Dubai as it is the last official supper I will have in England, it couldn't tell me the exact food I would be eating although it presented me with a possible menu which looked satisfactory although I doubt I will be eating grated carrot and sticky toffee pudding! I have also done my research and have discovered that I will be able to watch the Kings Speech which everyone has been going on about and I have yet to see although I feel at the time I might be more tempted by the children's selection such as Finding Nemo!
Okay Miss Anghard Marment requested a shout out yesterday when she came to visit and gave me a beautiful bracelet to start my gap year collection, so here it is! I love you lots and I will miss you! I also need to mention the most amazing present from Emma Cheshire - my communication turtle. Emma gave me a turtle called Spud and she has a matching one called Sporkle. Over the year I will talk to Spud and she will talk to Sporkle and we will be able to communicate. Spud will also feature in many photographs so if you see a little turtle hanging around that will be Spud!
Okay so I need to leave now, thank you once again to everyone who has helped me in any way possible to get this far I really, really appreciate it. Please remember to write to me and update me on your lives. If you see any of my family or if my family see my friends give them a big, big hug from me.
See you in a years time
lots and lots and lots of love
Ottilie xxxxx
No comments:
Post a Comment