And He's Off

This is my last day at home for about thirteen months. Tomorrow, I board an airplane for Seoul, Korea, which stops there for a few hours before moving on to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I'll spend a couple of days there in Vietnam before boarding a flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where I'll be, probably, until September 2006.

I'm going to Cambodia as an intern for Cambodian Living Arts--a division of World Education Fund-- which works to help preserve and reinvigorate traditional Cambodian performing arts. I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to be doing there at the moment, but I expect to study the Khmer language, study a Cambodian instrument and/or musical genre, and conduct some research on particular aspect of the connection between religion and music education in Cambodia.

Over the past few days I have been packing and preparing to leave. It's an interesting exercise to consider which items are essential for a trip and which are not. As it turns out, very littleis essential, and part of the joy of leaving home is findinga a new set of material expectations--that is, finding out how little we actually need.

It's been harder to say goodbye to those who I won't be seeing for a while. But I've noticed that when people realize that they won't see each other the next day, their thoughts are more sincere and more honest-- this is something I've really appreciated lately.

I hope that with this blog I will be to share my experiences with all of you. Please also email me if you have questions or would like to hear more.