Two weeks and counting!

Two weeks from today, we'll be somewhere between Dallas and Dubai (much closer to Dallas), a route sandwiched by its start and end in Cleveland and Jakarta.  I'll have welcomed my wonderful mom and step-dad into their long-term visit with the grandkids, prepared my family for my 3-week absence, worked ahead in my job so I'm not as far behind as I could be when I come home, had a date night with my spouse, and packed. Most people think that leaving my three small children for three weeks is what will worry me the most.  Wrong. Packing, packing, packing is causing me conniptions.

Packing has never been my strong suit.  I really hate it, usually playing the role of "follower" or "list maker" for my family. I prefer to travel very light; when I go to my professional conference, I usually have only a backpack for my three-night stay. I prefer to use the toiletries provided for free by the hotels I stay in. I borrow my families' coats and sweat shirts rather than bringing my own.  I hate clutter.

I don't have many of these options for this trip.  And it's a little worse because I don't seem to have the right clothing on hand. And I might need more than one set of clothes a day.  And things aren't going to dry quickly after they're washed (or sweated through). We're going to be near (on?) the Equator during the rainy season. Yuck! And Indonesia is a country home to the largest population of Muslims in the world.  And we want to be respectful.  As a non-Muslim, I normally will not be expected to cover my head. However, as a group, we have written and agreed to a dress code that prioritizes respect for a different culture over our own American sense of comfort.  That seems good and right to me, but the combination of all of it is stressing me out a bit.

Here's the dress code we wrote for the seven women on the trip:
Public situations, women. I will choose respectful clothing using these guidelines: long pants, long skirts, blouses with ¾ sleeves or longer are good; pants should not be tight; I will display no midriff and no cleavage.

I keep going to online sites looking for wicking clothing. Wicking clothing that's not form fitting and is long sleeved is not easy for me to find so far. When I do find it, I wonder if I'll ever wear it again after this trip.  Then I switch to a different tab to do something different.

Luckily, I put away some laundry tonight (another thing I'm not the world's best at doing) and took some time to look at some of the tags of my shirts. Turns out I have a lot of 100% cotton clothing.  Also, today I finally had the presence of mind to buy a pair of pants, two tunic-y shirts, some unmentionables, and a pair of Keene-like shoes. I'll be headed to the stores for the after-Christmas sales, hoping to pick up a few more nice essentials.

Given today's revelations and successes, I'm a little less anxious about packing and can focus more on what is super exciting. The list of things that excite me about this trip is long and varied, ranging from getting to live within (alongside?) a society that lives and practices Islam, being exposed to new musical practices, traveling far away from home, getting to know an amazing group of students, seeing new things, thinking new ideas, bringing new musics into my pedagogies, and, generally, having a life-changing trip.