Yes, I know it seems to all of our friends and family that we’ve been talking about our trip forever, and yet we’re still here. Trust me, we feel the same. We talk about our year abroad with each other a lot, more like all the freakin time! We’ve even both gotten to the point of actually dreaming about the trip, but we’ll just keep those images to ourselves. Anyway, we mostly talk about some of our expectations in all the different places we’ll be, anticipating all the wonderful, romantic times we’ll share together, constantly adding on to our already long list of destinations we plan on visiting, thinking a disproporionate amount about all the amazing, weird, delicious food we'll be eating, and making lots of probably over-ambitious plans. We’ve also gotten to the point of preparing ourselves for all the fights and arguments that inevitably will take place between us (of course we know who’ll be starting them, since we all can't be communication experts--haha!)

Anytime we have any sort of incident in the city that seems could in some way remotely help build our character for traveling the world, we try and focus on it as a learning experience. For example, the chaos and stress of Union Square on Labor Day weekend would normally scare us off to being anywhere near that vicinity during that weekend. This year, we bravely mounted on our tennis shoes and t-shirts on what was a beautiful sunny day, and decided to make the trek to the heart of the city. There’s nothing worse then the swarms of tourists who have no clue what their doing or where their going, and that was pretty much what scene of Union Square that day. However, this year instead of hurriedly rushing past them annoyed at their lackadaisical pace, Jason and I looked into the eyes of these people, and saw images of what probably would be confused, lost, immersed beings for that year. These inquisitive souls were enjoying and taking in the beauty and grandeur of the city that at times we’ve sadly become complacent to. We had a level of empathy for the hoards that day would normally drive us to curse and go crazy.

Ikea at 12pm on a Saturday afternoon has also been a good place for us to test our skills at staying calm in total, complete claustrophobic, overwhelming chaos. We know that many of the Asian counties we visit will no doubt emulate the scene here, times 1000. Anyway, on our most recent excursion to Ikea, Jason proudly flaunted only needing to consume half a Xannax verses his usual whole Xannax to get through the anxiety provoking experience. So as you can see, we are making strides by the day for preparing for what’s to come.