Big plane to Tokyo

C: Reading material for the fully bright and musically genius.

P: And definitely not for the "ownhorntooting".... But seriously, the "Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking is a great book.

C: You're a dork P.

P: You can even see my ziplock pencil case under the reading materials. It's always good to be prepared :-)

C: Ok, so your a cheep European dork. Pencils for what P, to write calculations for dark matter considering the quantum mechanics of all things physical or living in a black hole.

P: Ok, enough is enough.

C: I had real high hopes for the food aboard this flight with all the appetizers, mid flight snacks, bbq beef entrée etc. Let's just say, it was completely, unrecognizably, Japanese.

P: But I still enjoyed the all-too-risky-plane-plain-shrimp!! No photos due to the graphic nature of the material. Sorry.

On the plane from Raleigh to Detroit

P: Look at us! I have never felt like this before. This is really crazy.

C: Optimism in our hearts. (I can see already that I'll be taking a more sarcastic tone for this blog. Like I always say- I am the bitter to Piero's sweet.) But really, together we can do anything.
C: Cultural factoid: good luck charm of the Germans- the pig. My mom gave me this pig the day we left, her Glück Schwein. My heart melted, my eyes swelled with tears- it was her way of protecting us somehow, and when I think of it now, it makes me want to strangle her with all my love. Now we are protected by the collective force of German "witchcraft." Look how cute he is, how could you feel any fear with him on your side.

P: JAAA, with the german "vich Kraft" we fear none.
P: Which one is the piggy?

C: I already know I'm your good luck charm P. (Mom, look how happy he's making me- it works, it really works!)

The Overture

P: Here we are at our gate in Raleigh. Ahead of us we have a really loooong trip. Raleigh-Detroit-Tokyo-Bangkok and finally our destination, Kathmandu. It will take some two days... I feel a lot of anticipation, while at the same time I can't imagine that we will be living on the other side of the world for ten months. It somehow doesn't compute. My brain doesn't accept the idea...

C: Piero, what have you done to my life! Ha, just kidding, I suppose we did decide this together. Actually in this moment, I was feeling quite excited, overwhelmed, and just plain happy we'd made it to the airport all packed. Notice how empty it is, that's the German in me ya'll. Had us on time, squared away, everything was finally done. It's so hard not to try to imagine where you are going, but you know in the back of your mind that you are setting yourself up. Ain't no way I know what Kathmandu Nepal will be like (and to let you in on my dirty little secret, and probably yours too, when P told me Kathmandu was where he wanted to go, I had to head straight for the Atlas). Thanks again P for being so smart.

P: You are really the smart one. I couldn't have done it without your help. Anyway, I also wanted to point out the surgical precision with which we packed our bags. All of them exactly within the puny 50lbs that regulation allows. That was a relief. I was praying to all the gods at the check-in. Every bag hitting the scale in slowmotion with the evil ticket-counter executioner ready to slice my wallet at any moment....