See Y'all in 2012!

So it's just a few days, less than a week, until I'm on my way to Cambodia. Lots of stress and currently avoiding getting my butt in gear to clean out my car, pack and look for essentials that I know I have but can't seem to find. (I know I have a voltage converter somewhere!) I feel as though I'm plumping up quite nicely before I ship off: I guess that's the downfall of insisting, and others supporting my insistance, of eating all my favorite foods before I leave and will be deprived of such favorites for 2 to 2 and a half years. No worries though- I'm sure I'll shed some pounds once I'm biking and walking everyday in the Cambodian heat.
Honestly though, the few vanity pounds I've gained is the very least of my worries. I know in my heart that I'm supposed to do this. The benefits of the potential experience far outweigh any insecurities I may have, but those insecurities are still hard to avoid as my departure date looms closer and closer. I worry about whether any skills I may have will be useful to my host community. Sure, I have a college education, but I don't know the first thing about teaching English or Health and disease prevention. And even though I may have been able to learn a Romantic language without too much difficulty, Khmer is a much different thing. I also worry that the language barrier will make it harder to make friends, as humor is harder to translate cross-culturally and I tend to use sarcasm in my personal interactions in the States.
Probably the biggest insecurity, however, is the fear of being lonely. I'm leaving the comforts of knowing that if I have a bad day I can just call my family or friends or boyfriend to pull me out of a bad mood. And, although I have seen how fast two years flies by, I'm worried about coming back to the U.S, and realizing that things have changed in my relationships much more than I had even anticipated.
So I guess I'm finding more strength in myself than I've seen before as I enter the unknown, "the undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler returns" (Hamlet, Act III). I'm optimistic about the future but ready for the anxiety of the first few weeks of settling into a new place to diminish. Well, I'll see ya on the other side... of the world that is!