Pre-departure procrastination

     The bag’s all packed, everything on the list (almost) checked off and I no longer have any reason to procrastinate my first blog entry, since apparently I'll be blogging through this trip. In about 18 hours I’ll be on a plane to Belgrade to spend 5 weeks traveling Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia and yet, it doesn’t feel that close. Perhaps is the nerves kicking in but I find myself anxiously excited to finally being in country rather than just talking about going, explaining to people that this is what I’m doing with my summer vacation and that yes, this is something I want to do. I’m excited because this is a area of the world I don’t think I’d ever make it to on my own and it would forever remain a conflict that existed only on paper for me. Even though technically it happened during my lifetime, it’s definitely not something I read about or saw growing up because I was about 4. I want to see the places I’ve only ever read about in person, to be able to better imagine what happened there and see the very real remnants of what it left behind.
     Alright, I think that’s it for tonight, time to attempt to get some rest. I've got the annual Zolla family 4th of July weekend bbq tomorrow before I head out, turns out this will be the second 4th that I’m outside the U.S. for and the 3rd where I’m not in Mass. I’ll try and keep updating pretty regularly but I’m usually terrible at these sorts of journaling things. Wish me luck!