To follow up on Marjorie's post, I too am starting to freak out a little. The culture shock will be a little rough to deal with. And I'm worried about the toilets, too. Especially since my love for the cuisine of the region is -- how shall I say -- unrequited.

We're going to make mistakes, sometimes, and be taken advantage of, occasionally, and be uncomfortable, frequently. But we're hardly the first person to visit there, and I think we do better than most tourists, because we're generally respectful and we don't expect people to cater to us or speak our language just because we're Americans or anything.