Day One: Toby Leaves Minneapolis

I knew Judy was going to take it hard. (He is her firstborn and will always be her baby.) I saw that Toby was handling it pretty much like he does most things in life. (Just taking it in stride, nothin' to get worked up about.) But I was completely unprepared for how it was hitting me. Maybe I can chalk some of it up to sleep deprivation (we were up past midnight, and got up just after 4am), but I'm feeling really sad, and missing him terribly already. Anytime I think about it at all, I get choked up. (Of course I tear up at mushy McD's commercials too.)

He's in New York today, meeting up with other AFSers from all over the US, heading to various destinations in Europe. They have a 24 hour orientation, and then Toby gets on a flight late tomorrow afternoon for Frankfurt, Germany. He then travels (car? bus? train?) north to his new home in Ammersbek, just north of Hamburg.

He'll have company on his trip north. During his stay in Germany, he will one of the subjects of a documentary being filmed there about cultural exchange via programs like AFS. The director will be meeting him and travelling with him to document his first meeting with his host family. (More about the film in a later post.)

We're in awe of him, and his courage to take on this adventure and challenge, and can hardly wait to hear about how it all unfolds. So, I decided to set this up, and record my observations, recollections, hopes, reactions, and impressions of this wonderful journey (external and internal) he's taken on.