Into the unknown

Recently I've been remembering what it was like to go to college. I grew up in a small New England town and had traveled a little bit but had never been away from my friends and family. I decided to go to college to someplace very sunny and far away and different-- I went to Berkeley. I had an adjustment period of about a month where I had to relearn how to eat, sleep, talk to people, get around, etc. It was like being on another planet. I was so disoriented that on my first morning there, I got into the shower, looked down and realized that I still had my underwear on. Fortunately I was jetlagged and no one on my dorm hallway was awake at 5am to see me trying to figure out what to do with my wet underwear.

I've been imagining myself going to China and being very disoriented. I was feeling anxious, nervous, excited, and mostly overwhelmed at the thought of this big unknown ahead of me. Then Jason showed me photos from his recent trip:
http://frank.harvard.edu/~jason/harvardG4/2004_10_China/

and I realized that I was being very silly. I'm not going to another planet. I'm going to be in a place with other people and plenty of resources and damn beautiful scenery. Now I'm just plain old excited.