SkkyeChan's Webnest

So, here I am, sitting in Panera, sippin' a tasty Almond Mocha IC (quite good, actually!) and absolutely spazzing about my trip for China. Which I leave for in two days. *gasp!* 48 hours from now I'll be merrily (or perhaps not so merrily, as I'll be at the airport by, like, 6-something for my 8:40 flight) on my way to San Francisco, where I'll join up with the rest of my lab as we cross the Pacific in to Seoul, and then take a little hopper to Beijing. 'Cause Air China is the suxxors (they bumped our entire group to waitlist status, *after* we paid, *without* telling us), but Korea Air is good.

In any case, I still have a bit to get done... Thankfully I have my Visa, passport, and flights arranged.. but I still need to pack, and my poster (though finished) hasn't been printed yet. Meep! So I'm fairly wiggling out of my seat with the knowledge that it will be a full two hours yet before anyone's even in the office... and God knows when the printer-lady gets in, or the labmates that will pick up the poster for me!

I've been doing my best to think of this trip circumspectly-- like, in my head I know I leave on Thursday, so I have to get things done.. but not really realizing that I'm *travelling*. Unfortunately that's unravelling rather swiftly. I'm really quite nervous-- on top of travelling, which I'm starting to dislike a bit,I'm going to be away from Patrick (OHNOES!), I'm going to be around my labmates (which for some reason makes me nervous.. I get terribly paranoid and worry about what people think of me, especially when I didn't do something the 'proper' way [like stay at Davis to finish out the year, etc]), but I'm going to be in a completely different country (Australia didn't really count that way-- really, it was only about as different as visiting my relatives in West Virginia) and I'm going to be presenting research. MEEP. And on top of all that, I'm really expecting this trip to tell me, yea or nay, whether or not I want to continue in the program, or even continue in paleontology at all. Which has ramifications for not only the rest of my life, but some pretty strong ones for Patrick as well.

I have a feeling Patrick's going to find me curled up on the bed and cuddling Wild Thing and the new Build-A-Bear he got me expressly to take on trips where we'll be seperated.