Today's the day!
After months of planning, I'm off to the airport to begin this journey. When I applied to the Clinton School I thought the idea of three months out of the country was exciting; now I'm here to tell you how hard it is to leave your life for three months....loved ones, dogs, a house with a mortgage and a yard that needs mowing, rental properties with water heaters that break, garbage disposals that quit working, and a/c's that konk out in the dead of summer...

Friday I attended an event in Little Rock where the managing director of the school in Italy where I will be working this summer was in attendance. I reminded her I would arrive this week.
"Oh, so soon?" she said. "Where will you be staying?"
Yikes! I had been told I was staying at the school, at least for part of the summer. That information obviously hadn't made its way to her. First hiccup. Surely it will all work out...

(Oh, second hiccup....major earthquake in Italy yesterday morning, but north some distance from where I'll be.)

Sometimes you have to quit planning and just DO.
Let's DO this thing!

I'll be back in touch from the other side of the pond.

P.S. Thank you to Clinton School faculty and staff for helping prepare my classmates and me for the adventure!