Greetings from Omaha!

Early tomorrow morning, the majority of us will be headed for Thailand via a number of international airports to tour Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Why not everyone, you ask?

I'm Brooke, a.k.a. Ogawa, and I will be joining the group January 5th, after my brother's wedding. I wanted to be sure I could be there for my brother on his big day, and also to take part in this HUGE opportunity, so imagine how happy I was to find out that everyone would be so accommodating! So, long story made more or less shorter than before, it looks like this blog is going to start a few days late.

So far we've all been preparing for the trip by getting to know your everyday tourist, deciding what we may have to leave behind in favor of portability, and learning how to be multicultural learners. Obviously there's only so much one can accomplish with bullet lists about being tolerant and seeking knowledge, and a journey like this is just the thing to experience it all for ourselves.

So I guess since I don't have anything to report about the trip, I can introduce myself real quick-like. You know my name; I'm 21 years old, I'm a senior at Dana this year, and I've traveled all over the country and outside of America as well. My freshman year I joined the Dana College Chorale on the Europe tour to Germany and Denmark. In high school, I made it to Asia for a couple of two-week trips to Japan during my sophomore and senior years. I'm a huge gamer, and I used to maintain a sort of a news blog on the topic at Xanga. (Deus_Magi if you'd like to check it out.) I will be the primary author on this blog site throughout the month of January.

That's all for now... Remember to follow us on Google or add us to your RSS feed for easy access. See you soon!