For those of you who are not retired yet, Try to imagine if you had 10 more weeks until it was time to begin a new chapter in your life! For those of you who have already begun A shiny new chapter, you know just how excited I must be. I’m excited and terrified all at the same time! For nearly 30 years I have known what each day held for me. Maybe not exactly what each day would bring but I could predict with relative accuracy, what my day would hold. Now as I look forward to 10 weeks from now, it is unwritten, it’s not predictable at all. To some , this fact would be unacceptable. To me and to Scott, the unpredictability is exhilarating! The unpredictability is not just related to my career, but to every single aspect of my life! People I will come into contact with, food, where I will live, language, customs and traditions, even the landscape I will see when I look out the window in the morning will be different. In 10 more weeks I will wake up with the reality of a fresh new start.
What will our “fresh new start” look like? Your guess is as good as mine! We can plan and strategize and make arrangements all we like, but we still won’t know exactly what will happen once we hit the ground in Panama. Things could go as planned or more likely it could be a comedy of errors! Let’s just hope we can have a sense of humor and roll with the punches as we navigate our new, unpredictable life. We are planning to find a furnished place to rent for our first year in Boquete. We are hoping to be able to find a place fairly soon, we’re always keeping our eyes open , watching online on forums what is happening in the rental market there. Our friends, Al and Sela may have a place available close to town but we don’t know much about it yet so we are looking and attempting to keep our eyes peeled for just the right spot. Our cats are most likely going to be a bit of an issue, limiting us on what we can rent. I totally understand landlords wanting to restrict renting to folks with pets. The right place will show up eventually, of this I’m sure.
I envision our early days in Boquete being filled with a bit of relaxing and getting acclimated with everything. Stocking up on food and essentials. Getting the cats settled, getting signed up for spanish classes, relaxing some more, maybe getting caught up on my reading. All this and also getting all our essential things lined up like banking and cell provider and wifi and I’m sure we will still have a bunch to do about our residency visa. We will see how long we can live without a car, taxis are pretty cheap and easy to use, we shall see how long we last. Buying a car in a foreign country will be an adventure. I hope we will be able to find an animal sitter so we can get a bit of traveling in. But, wait! I still have 10 more weeks, and I am planning on enjoying these last few weeks. I’m gonna hug everyone I can hug and I’m planning on appreciating each and every moment with all the people in my life here. Not that I will not see everyone again, cuz It’s not goodbye! Noooooo! It’s “farewell”, “see ya soon!” and “Bon Voyage!” Initially there will be tears but then time will pass and we will become accustomed to being connected via, Facetime, email, Facebook, my Blog, Skype, and even the old fashioned telephone! The world is not so big these days and I have a feeling many of you who I only see and catch up with once a month or so will be hearing from me much more frequently. You’ll probably wish you’d stop getting so many emails from ‘Let The Adventure Begin!’ Yes, it will not be “The Same”, but who says “The Same” is the best? “Different” will work!
As I’m counting down 10 more weeks, I plan to savor the joy and anticipation I’m feeling . Beginning anew is not something that happens everyday and I’m really excited, filled with so many different and varied emotions. There are so many things happening at the moment with the beginning of trying to sell our house and moving into our little apartment and selling my business, just to name a few. I could be stressed and grumpy and sad and many other less optimistic emotions but I’m choosing to be focused on all the exciting aspects of this next chapter. Yes, An Adventure is A’ Brewin’, for sure! WhooHooo! 10 More Weeks! La, La, La! ( That’s me doing a Happy Dance!) I hope your dancing with me!
Let The Adventure "Continue"! 
My thoughts exactly when it comes to knowing what I am going to be doing everyday ( the same thing for the past thirty years) and then the unknown. Oh my! I am super excited for you, and I hope to be in this same place late next year! Enjoy the time you have in CA, savor every moment, live life and just keep living it up all the way to Panama and the days ever after! We are all reading your blog supporting you, cheering you on and encouraging you every step of the way! Ten weeks will take forever and also go by very quickly. We will also be here to push you along just when you stop long enough and think “what the heck is going on!”. Enjoy work and play, and I do hope that house sells now!
Imagine how you are going to feel the day you get on that plane!! I remember it all felt quite unreal, and it still does sometimes. Did I actually DO this?!