Pre-travel jitters…

I’m starting to get the pre-travel jitters…half of me is saying, “Oh my God, what am I DOING?? I’m taking off into a foreign country armed with nothing but an ATM card and a guidebook, and I don’t even speak the language…”

The other half is saying, “Good gods, don’t be such a wimp. You went through all of SE Asia with even less of the language, and you were just fine. Relax.”

I’m just about fully packed–I’m currently taking care of minor stuff like dyeing the silk for my travel project, ripping my CDs to iPod (unbelievable–about half my CD collection is done already, and I’ve only used 3GB!!), and making a batch of chocolates to pay off my snake-sitter. Yesterday I had the pure joy of going down to Openwave and simultaneously picking up my severance check and dropping off my offer acceptance. How often do you get to do THAT? 🙂

Oh, and I have reservations for the first night, at a very nice if very pricey tourist hotel. Single bed, private bath, cable, the works, all for the extortionist price of $40. (By way of comparison, you can get quite a nice room for about $10-15, so this really is extortionist.) I like to have a guaranteed room for the first night, basically to let me stagger in from the airport and orient myself in peace.

My current plan is to spend a night in Guatemala City, then spend a few days in Antigua (which has been recommended for textiles and weaving) before heading up to the western highlands, which have the most textiles. Beyond that I haven’t any particular plans–I’m vaguely contemplating some diving, but generally just plan to explore as the whim takes me. Third World countries can change so fast that the guidebooks often don’t have the really cool stuff, so it’s better to pick a general destination and then poke around on your own. Of course, I’d do that anyway. 🙂

Anyway, I can’t wait to be off…I think the jitters will settle down as soon as I’m actually on the plane. After all, I’ve done this before. 🙂

Tien