Ready. Set. Go!

I am on my way. The first leg of my travels to Sweden has begun, as of two days ago, when me, my two bags, and my childhood stuffy boarded a plane to Boston at high noon. Tired and a bit nostalgic, I watched the ground below disappear and my life in Seattle at last fall behind me.

In a sense, it's a relief to have all the things I have planned for in the last three months finally wrapped up. But in reality, these last two weeks have been wildly bittersweet.

For the entire month of July, I have been spoiled by my friends and family with a plethora of bon voyage functions, beers, and an all-around celebratory status I simply cannot believe. The party my fellow scientists threw me on my last day was so epic, it continued for two straight weeks. My friends, both new and old, continuously flattered me by offering up their couches, food, totems, and good energy up until the hour before I departed. And my family---my family was just so supportive, a rock in an emotional ocean of drinking and last-minute travel errands, that even now, I am simply lost for words.

And Saturday, my last day, was one of the best nights of all.

It's an incredible privilege to feel all the love you've acquired over a long period of time in the course of a few days. For this, I thank just about everything in this universe. I just wanted you to know that here, at this very moment, poised on the brink of a grand adventure, I am quite clearly the sum of all of you.

From now on, I'll be posting more often on the blog my experiences as a Seattlite in Sweden. I'll have far more pictures, I imagine, and more videos, and certainly far more interesting things to share than my previous posts.

But for now, I'm going to go spend some time with baby cousins, east coast beaches, and a Sam Adams before departing my birthplace for the homeland. :-)