My world is so wired...
Trip Start
Oct 25, 2007
1
36
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
New York City,
New York,
United States
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
And that is all about to end for me tomorrow when I give up my computer at my last day at work. Its a great thing I thought to take 2 days off before my final day (and, most importantly, not to commit to doing any chargeable work during those days) to sort through all internet-related to do items related to my trip. There turned out to be an exhaustingly long list of them. Let me give you an example of what I have spent the last 4 days doing:
- purchased luggage and medical travel insurance online, and then followed up with phone calls to each company
- made final purchases of equipment such as a backpack. This has been an ordeal in itself as I started with the 40L North Face I had, upgraded to a 65L REI bag, didn't like it, bought a Lowe Alpine 65+15L which I finally had to give up in favor of the monstrous 95L Arc'teryx that is hopefully going to arrive later this week. So that's really 3 separate purchases...
- changed mailing addresses
- downloaded all my photo and music files and other personal files onto cds... my laptop does not have a dvd burner so it took a long time to burn the data onto cds
- synchronized all my address books between personal and work email accounts. This actually took me days as I had to sort through about 4 years worth of emails in my work account in order to identify the odd "goodbye" email from a colleague who moved on, or person who never made it into my address book but is important to me.
- look up all sorts of important numbers and addresses I could potentially need, even stupid things like sports stores, bank branches, etc.
- reserve storage for my stuff and also reserve a van for the moving day. Did I mention that in order to decide what size storage unit I need I first had to package up 90% of my belongings, load them all up in one corner of the living room and physically measure the volume?...
- not to miss taking 3 furniture items and about 10 boxes downstairs for large item removal
- make hostel reservations in Ecuador so I can print them at work. I contemplated searching for a Galapagos cruise but I was so tired by this point that I did not have the energy for this task. As you can imagine each one of these bullet points took me a (little or not so little) while to research, compare options, purchase/act, etc.
The list goes on and on... Its now 12:30am on Tuesday and my mind is blanking. I am trying to think of whether or not I am forgetting something important. Of course I am, I should just accept that, its always the case. But one can't prepare for everything, otherwise life would be too rehearsed. Even so I have a full page long list of items I need to print out tomorrow - confirmations, itineraries, directions.
The backpack is packed - correction, all the stuff that is going to go into the backpack is ready to be stuffed in, I just need to wait for the backpack to arrive. In the meantime it probably would not hurt my credit card if I were to return the other two I just purchased.
In a way I think I have been over-focusing on the practical aspect of leaving work because deep down I am still having a hard time processing the finality of it. Not to worry, its going to hit me smack in the forehead tomorrow. Next time I update this blog it will be from an internet cafe, and my life will be completely different from the way I have lived it now. Am I scared, many of you asked. Yes, truthfully, I am a little, I think it would be inhuman if I were not. But that will not stop me. I was scared before I got on the plane to come to the US yet still I got on that plane - because I believed that whatever was going to happen was going to be for the better. Similar situation here.
The plan, you ask, the itinerary? First stop is Ecuador, probably will make that my base for a month or two. The heading south but not sure how and when. I think I will work on that once I get to Ecuador. I have some thoughts on the itinerary, of course, don't think I've totally lost it. But I'm leaving it fairly open to accommodate information I pick up along the way - which, I find, is frequently the most reliable information a traveler can get.
Comments
none
Maybe you would consider using the Bulgarian flag on your title page?
Autumn has come over here, leaves are falling on the wet streets, fogs cover Vitosha, and people gear up for a snowy winter. Nothing exotic as in Latin America.
There are still occasional beggars on the streets, traffic jams in rush hours.
Life may not be that easy and not as well planned in advance, but is dynamic and fun. Even at 61/58.