All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

Today is the big day. I just finished packing, and surprisingly I managed to close the bag. It only weights 27 kilos. Taking into consideration I’m off for two years, I really don’t think that’s too bad. I’m almost proud of myself actually! 27 kilos of clothes, shoes, toiletries, jewellery and accessories. But it’s scary. It’s basically my entire life that is in that bag now. If it gets lost somewhere between Billund-Copenhagen-London-LA and Honolulu I’ll die! And I do have a history of loosing checked bags. Cross your fingers…

It’s a 35 hour trip. It’s normally closer to 24 hours with 19 hours of fight time, but I have a long layover in Copenhagen. I’ll sleep over at Nina’s place on Nørrebro, and that way I’ll get to see her and say goodbye. One more time :-)
I’ll leave for London tomorrow morning at 7.25 and almost precisely 24 hours later I’ll be in Honolulu. I hope! I’m still a little nervous about that whole name issue on my ticket. Expedia.com somehow managed to change my name in their system, so now the name in the airline system is Katrineses, and Expedia claims that it can’t be changed. So we’ll see if I’ll mange to get any further than Billund airport. One more reason to cross your fingers for me!

When I land in Honolulu after 35 hours of travelling it’s still Thursday and it’s 8 p.m. hawaiian time. There’s a 12 hour time difference. Hawaii is literally on the other side of the globe! My good friend John will pick me up in the airport, and he’ll take me to his house in St. Louis Heights where I’ll stay. It is such a relief to have a familiar face welcoming me, and not having to worry about accommodation is awesome. Staying in a hotel the first few nights would have been a really weird feeling, since moving back to Hawaii feels like moving back home.

On Friday and Saturday I’ll be busy with Graduate Student Orientation, but I won’t have classes until Thursday next week since Monday is a holiday. So when I get there I’ll have about a week to settle in (and get a nice tan of course….) before school starts.

Enough from me for now. Next time I’ll blog I’ll be in Hawaii J (I hope…) Now I’ll do my best to survive this long and exhausting trip I have in front of me…

Take care!

Too much planning

Most people have absolutely no idea how much time and preparation you have to put into moving to the other side of the world. And, I’ll put it like this; it doesn’t make it any simpler that Hawaii is a part of the US. I’ve been planning this for many months now, and not until yesterday, I started to get the feeling that this might actually work out, it does seem as if things eventually will fall into place. I’m exhausted from all the planning, but hey, I know Hawaii is worth it...

I’ll just have to keep up the good work. I’ll spend the next few days’ talking to insurance companies... Sitting on hold with SU-Styrelsen... Applying for scholarships... Talking to my bank about the whole financing issue... Worrying about Expedia messing up my flight tickets... And finally, I’ll be trying to figure out whether I should move out of Norway, into Denmark, out of Denmark again 5 days later, and into the US. (And if I do, will I still be covered by the Danish health insurance when I’ll be back on holiday??) Arrrrrgggghhhh..... There should be one single phone number you could dial, and get hold of some oracle that could tell you everything. About everything. Does anyone know that number??

My first blog...

So - this is how it works... This would qualify as the first post for my first blog. I guess I never really thought my life was that interesting. Nothing to write about. Or rather... Nothing to read about! But now things are beginning to get a little interesting. Today my visa was finally approved. I had started to get a little anxious about that, but now things seem to start falling into places, and it finally seems as if I'll be moving back to Hawaii. Although, I’m still working on getting used to the thought of moving back. If everything works out as it should, I’ll be back in the Aloha State in just three weeks from today. Unbelievable...

So here I am - blogging. I would like for people back home to have a chance to see what my life will be like in Hawaii. And maybe feel as if they’re not that far away, and that they can somehow still be a part of the life I’ll be living. At least, that thought is somewhat comforting to me. Even though I’ll be moving to the other side of the world, literally, I have no intention of leaving my present life and friends all behind. I have a strong wish to stay in touch with everyone of you, and in most cases, I’m confident I’ll succeed. Therefore - this blog!