Pre-Departure

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To prepare for the this amazing trip we are about to go on, I spoke with a couple of people that had been on the trip before. They were very willing to discuss all of the different things that they did and what they would do or see differently if they were given the chance to go back. The number one thing that they both suggested was to not spend a lot of time at the Sistine Chapel. They both loved it but they said it didn't live up to their expectations. It's one of the most famous chapels there and because a lot of the ceilings are painted wherever they go, it just becomes part of the background and it isn't that much different from the others that they were able to see.

Another thing that I did to prepare for the trip was that I spent a lot more time with my family than I normally would have during break. I am very ready to go on this trip partially because of them. I love my family but too much time with them could possibly drive a saint mad. They are very organized people with the need to know plans so I had the daily question of if I knew what we were doing every single day that we are to be over there. I tried telling them that I myself probably won't know what I'm doing on a daily basis until about 20 minutes before we go out and do it, but that didn't stop them from asking anyways. I find that the key to keep from getting home sick while being away is to spend so much time with your family that they become annoying and you can't stand them anymore. While I was down in Texas with my sister, we attempted to go running every morning in order to prepare me for the more active days I know that I will be having. I believe that we successfully got up twice to run but my one and half year old nephew helped me get in my extra steps on the days that we didn't because he runs everywhere and is into everything at all hours of the day.

In the month of December, from the 16th to the 22nd, I successfully walked a total of 65,576 steps within 7 days. My highest step count was 14,435 steps and my lowest step count was 3,327 steps. I would say that the high step count was from being with my nephew the entire day and chasing him around and the low step count was because I was traveling back to Kentucky from Texas on a 15 hour car trip. The week that I decided to track my steps was an unusual one because I was down in Texas and I wasn't doing my normal routine. During my typical week back home in Kentucky, I would normally average about 10,000 steps per day. I don't have the most active lifestyle, but I don't have a completely sedentary one either.

The task of actually timing myself while eating was hard for me. I don't like to put much thought into it but it is something that I believe people should be more aware of now that I have done it myself. For a single day during December, I spent about 53 minutes eating, +/- 1 minute. I caught myself twice having forgotten to start the timer after I started eating and at least once I forgot to stop the timer. I wouldn't have thought that I took that much time out of my day just by eating. Granted, I am usually multitasking while eating so that could be a contributing factor to the amount of time.

Overall I am really excited to be going on the trip and I can't wait to see everyone on Thursday. I don't think that it will truly hit me that I'm leaving the country until I see everyone else with their suitcases at the airport. I fly all the time so I'm not nervous about that. The most nerve racking thing to me about this trip is leaving my two cats with my mother while I'm gone.

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