First Post!

July 3^rd, 2012

It is the night before Brittany and I depart for our journey and of course I cannot sleep!  I am feeling a spectrum of emotions from sad to scared to extremely excited!  I am so ready to see what the next five weeks has in store for us.  It has been quite exciting the last few weeks as I read Alexis and Kofi’s blogs.  They have had so many incredible experiences.  The anticipation of what our mission is going to be like is overwhelming with so many possible scenarios running through my mind.  I can’t believe that we have been offered this opportunity and the fact that it has finally arrived is so surreal. 

            We depart tomorrow July 3^rd from Washington, Dulles airport around 1:35 and after a 14 hours flight (yes, 14 hours!) we will arrive in Korea for a short layover and then continue onward to Manila in the Philippines.  We are going to spend the night in a hotel and then board the ship the next day, which will be July 5^th.  Shortly after that (I am not quite sure what day exactly), we will head to Vietnam!  I am so excited to see how the people live and what the country looks like.  I will be sure to take many pictures!

            That is all for now, I should get to sleep.  The next time I update will be from the USNS Mercy in Southeast Asia!  Thank you Shenandoah University for such an amazing opportunity!!