What a week it will be!

My room is a mess, I'm surrounded by papers: It's finals week and I'm leaving Oregon for six months in three days! Tomorrow I have my last day of work at the History Department office and my Anthropology final. Tuesday I have my Greek Civ final and in the evening, drive up to Portland to get ready for my Wednesday 8:30am flight to Pennsylvania! I am so excited to see my friends and family back home. For my final days in the states, I'll be spending time with my mother in my favorite place: Dewey Beach, Del...enjoying east coast beaches, eating amazing food, and trying not to freak out! On the 24th I leave...Washington Dc to Atlanta, Georgia, ATL to Santiago, Chile!
I'll get into Valdivia on the 25th around 4pm. Chile is in the same time zone as the east coast, so hopefully I won't be too tired! We get the weekend to acclimate: tour the town, meet our host family(!), take placement tests, and get to know the others in our program. There's about 20 of us from the Pacific NW heading down together.
We start classes on March 28th! They run Mon-Thurs- Spanish Grammar and Composition, Spanish Conversation, US and Latin American Relations, and Latin American Literature. On the weekends there may be planned excursions to the coast or nearby ruins (there's going to be a lot of ruins in my life soon) or we can plan our own!
I have never been more equally nervous and excited at the same time. I'm sad to be leaving my wonderful life behind, but I am so ready to make some new adventures and discover a new way of living.
I really must get back to packing. Since I will be traveling after the program ends in July, I am trying to stuff everything into a single 70L backpacking bag...we'll see how this chronic over-packer manages!