Getting ready to leave

So, we're getting ready to leave Philadelphia!  Our flight is on Thursday, and of course since we're flying to South America, we'll have a layover in Canada :)  But we've heard good things about Air Canada, so hopefully the out-of-the-way detour will be worth it.  And it was still the fastest possible trip, anyway.  Here's a picture of me sitting at my desk at the Museum of Science before I dismantled it.  Also, if you haven't seen my haircut yet, there you go.  It sure is short!

My boss David threw me a fun going-away party at work.  My coworkers Lucy and Emily made me the most awesome cakes, shaped like my marathon jersey, an alarm clock to represent my sleep talk and my sleep forum, and a vernier probe to represent the climate change workshop we did with high school students this summer.  Aren't they great?

Sam and I have been working hard to get ready to go.  We've had more shots than I care to count (and we're still not even done!), we've packed up our suitcases (see below), and we've moved everything from our apartment into either our generous friends Eitan and Kelly's basement and my parent's attic/basement/my room/anywhere there's a square inch of empty space.

We're getting close!  Also, we ordered a Kindle, which we're anxiously awaiting.  The most awesome thing is that you can get library books on the Kindle, even from South America!  So we're going to take advantage of having access to 3 large library systems (MA, PA, and MN) to cover most of our English-language reading needs over the next year.

It looks like the weather when we arrive in Santiago is going to be 67 and sunny, lucky for us!  Earlier it was saying there would be rain, which would be a huge pain with all of our luggage.  Now we'll be able to stay dry.