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Two Weeks

Monday, September 22nd, 2008

I have 2 weeks left to work. I already resigned a few weeks ago – I wanted to be sure they had plenty of notice. Most of my co-workers knew this was going to happen at some point, so nobody has been very surprised. I’m still in a strange state of disbelief that it’s really happening, and soon too! My emotions have been alternating between panic (at how much we still have left to do) to excitement to a little apprehension. I’ve been looking forward to this for such a long time that I’m surprised by that last one. I guess that giving up your normal life and packing all your belongings into a tiny bag for one whole year requires a little more courage than I expected. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still completely psyched about it and starting to get impatient for it to start!

I had a weird moment yesterday when I realized that I have two more weeks of work left. That’s it. Two more weeks of email, conference calls, and TPS reports (with the cover sheet, of course). And then I have a year off! It’s the exact opposite of every other vacation I’ve taken – off somewhere fun for two weeks and then facing a whole year back to work. I’m still trying to get my head around the weirdness of it. I’ve been working full time (and was going to business school at the same time for while) since the day after my college graduation. Whew! I’m tired and ready for some time with no ties to anything, schedules, or commitments. My first inclination was that this is too irresponsible, but now I’ve begun calling it “unresponsible” meaning we’ll have no responsibilities for a while, and that includes more than just work. No house to clean, no lawn to mow, no neighbors to keep up with, and very few bills to pay. The feeling is hard to put into words – a little sad to say goodbye to our stuff, but mostly happy to be free of it all for a while.

Besides my roller coaster emotions, we’ve been keeping ourselves busy and started packing up stuff for storage. It’s really amazing how much you accumulate. For each thing, I have to ask “Will I still want this a year from now?” and then “Will I want it bad enough to pay storage for it for that year?” As you probably guessed, as lot of stuff has been going to Goodwill or in the trash. The experience has been really good for me, getting down to the essentials and things that you really value vs. stuff you just felt like buying at the time. I suppose that’s enough philosophy for one blog post.  The packing continues…

garage.JPG

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Reading List

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

The trip planning is still progressing, but the things we’re doing right now aren’t really interesting enough to blog about.  I’ve renewed my driver’s license so it won’t expire while I’m gone. We got our International Driver’s licenses too. Eric has been doing a lot of “fixing” and painting to get the house ready to rent. We started to pack up things we don’t think we’ll use in the next two months, and the garage is filling up with boxes.  Slowly the mundane things on the To Do list are being checked off.

All of this is exciting for us because it feels like we’re actively getting closer to the trip, but probably not for most of you reading this. Instead of boring you further with the minute details, I thought I’d take some time to mention a few interesting books that have helped in our RTW planning. I read these a few years ago when the “year off” first started to take shape, but just found them again while I was sorting through some boxes. I’ve re-read them both it’s amazing how much of the advice we’ve unconsciously followed in the interim. These two books are very different from each other, but they have one thing in common – oddly both have different photos of a lone backpacker trudging across desert sand dunes. Some editors must think that image conjures up exotic travel. I personally hope I don’t ever find myself in that situation.

First Time Around the World (Rough Guides) by Doug Lansky – “A trip planner for the Ultimate Journey” – This book is a great practical “how to” and includes everything from planning an itinerary to packing lists to advice on “foreign” toilets. I found a lot of the insights on public transportation/taxis, food, and health to be great for any type of traveling, including a simple week long vacation.

Vagabonding by Rolf Potts – “An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel” – While this book also has a lot of good travel information and references, it focuses more on the psychological, spiritual, and cultural aspects of travel. It covers a variety topics including why people want to travel, earning your travel, and even ethical issues. This one made me examine my own reasons for and fears against making this trip. There are quotations about travel in each chapter from Thoreau, Whitman, Muir and numerous other writers and texts that worth the price of the book alone.

Aside from the “advice” type books, I also want to give an honorable mention to another great inspiration, Bill Bryson. While some may put his books into a “humorous travel essay” category, I think they also offer a great insight into why people travel and certainly added a few destinations to our itinerary. A few of my favorites are A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned County, and Neither Here Nor There. I’ll leave you with a quote from that last one that sums up a huge part of the fun and lure of travel for me. It also explains the grand sense of euphoria and accomplishment I felt after simply purchasing a bus ticket in Chile (to the correct destination and back, I might add).

“Suddenly you are five years old again. You can’t read anything, you have only the most rudimentary understanding of how things work, you can’t even reliably cross a street without endangering your life. Your whole existence becomes a series of interesting guesses.” Bill Bryson – Neither Here Nor There.

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New Toy

Sunday, August 24th, 2008

On a lot of the travel forums and message boards there are debates about whether to take a laptop or not on this type of extended trip. I know there are internet cafes just about everywhere, but I still feel like there are times when you just want to hang out in your hotel room and surf. The other key concerns people express about traveling with a laptop is the extra weight and potential for loss/theft/damage.

We found a cute little PC that addresses most of those worries. Our new Acer Aspire One is just 2.2 lbs and cost about $399 (so if anything happens to it, we’re not out huge $s). The keyboard is about 90% size, so while it’s not quite as comfortable as a “normal” PC, it’s much better than most of the mini PCs out there. It runs Windows, which means we can take along Skype, iTunes, and our camera software. We bought it now to start getting it up set up before we hit the road.

Aside from online bill paying and blogging, there’s the most critical reason we’re taking it… We can update our fantasy football lineups from anywhere in the world!  League members, be warned.

Along with this post, we’re also adding something new to the blog. There is now a “Gear List” along with the other permanent pages at the top right (below the Itinerary and FAQs). It’s not final, but we’ll be adding to it as we make final decisions about what goes and what stays.

  pc-compare.JPG

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Zoom!

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

blue-angels3.JPG

 While our trip preparations are still progressing, we took some time out last weekend for a little getaway to Seattle.  We got to meet our adorable new nephew for the first time, as well as do a few other new things in the area.

Seafair was happening when we were there, so what better place to be than on the water?  Thanks to our brother-in-law, we spent a day on Lake Washington and got to see the Blue Angels performing right above our heads.    After that, it was down town to take in a Mariners game – our first time since the new stadium was built.

We also did a little wine tasting at the Columbia winery and took a tour of the Boeing plant.  The facility is amazing and huge!  The 787s are coming along nicely and I can’t wait to fly in one someday.  Supposedly the composites from which they are made will allow the cabin to be pressurized more comfortably, as well as having a higer level of humidity in the air.  Ahhhh.  Wish they were already in the skies for that long segment to Sydney that’s coming up. 

Finally, we couldn’t be in Seattle without visiting the mothership.  I’m talking about the REI flagship store.  It’s a RTW-trip-planner’s paradise with multiple floors of every possible type of gear.  We spent quite a few hours and quite a few dollars there.  I think we’re nearly done with our packing list – it’s shockingly small.  We made a lot of progess stocking up on lightweight, quick drying, wrinkle-free clothes that hopefully won’t make us look too much like we’re on a permanent safari.  I’ll be posting a gear list here in the near future for those of you who have asked. 

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Doing Shots

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

Normally this phrase associated with us would have conjured up visions of last call and tequila.  This week it had a different meaning – immunizations!

The trip planning seems to be in a lull right now.  Not everything can be as exciting as buying a one way plane ticket.  However, there are still a lot of things to tackle, even if they are not quite glamorous.  We’ve spent some time reading up on what shots are recommended for travelers.  There is a ton of information and opinions on the web about what you need.  Most of it seems by and for backpackers who have no money or health insurance. I even saw a “tradeoff” chart showing the likelihood of getting a disease and risk of death vs. the cost of the immunization.   Did you know that 200,000 people die from Typhoid every year?  (or so the brochure from the doctor’s office claims)

Thanks to good ol’ KP’s preventative care, we are were able to get our shots for almost nothing.  I did mine a while ago and Eric finished up this week with a pretty sore arm.  We’re now generally protected from Tetanus, Typhoid, Hepatitis A, and Polio, as well as having a stash of Malaria pills. 

Aside from reading about the variety of bad stuff that can happen when you’re traveling, we’ve also been checking country entry requirements.  It turns out we’ll only need 3 visas for the whole trip.  We got the one for Australia online.  Our passports are en route back from the Indian consulate with Visas.  (Is it just me or is it really unnerving to put your passport in the mail?)  Finally, we can get the one for Egypt on arrival there. 

Shots and visas are fairly minor things, but they felt like progress this week!

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