Slack a**

(A: Insert tongue firmly into cheek)Yes, I know, I haven't been blogging up a storm...  Yes, I know you are all thinking "but where's Jason in all of this?" (I mean, who can blame you? Every one wants more me) Well I haven't really been a slack a** I've been worn out! Pooped! It's not like I've got nothing to say. It's just I haven't had the energy to say it... Well, for all you Jason fans (and by that I mean all of you)  rest easy I will pick up the slack. I will blog again. I know what it's like to be Jonesin' for more me and I am me. (B: Remove tongue, get on with the rest of your day)

go big or stay home?

no...no we are NOT staying home (and actually i think we are going pretty big by traveling around the world) but the advice we are getting from the people that sell backpacks is overwhelmingly to go big. like 70+10 litres big. this distresses me. it seems that once salespeople hear the length of time we are traveling they assume we must want to bring a lot of stuff with us. i mean, what would we ever do without a hair straightener...yes, that is a dig at myself. in fact, jay has stated that he will carry none of my things if i have a straightener in my pack. if i have room for a hair appliance then i have room for whatever i need him to carry. i'm not convinced. 

my philosophy (and from what i can see on the interweeb, the philosophy of many travelers) is that i want to pack as light as possible. think about it. this backpack is going to be with me for A YEAR! depending on what accommodations we find in any particular location...we could potentially carry this massive thing with us up the pyramids (can we go up the pyramids?)...

in any case, you get my point. i don't want to stay home and i don't want to carry the convenience of home on my back. do i worry that i'll forget something? do i worry that i will need more underwear than i thought? sure i do. but we have 4 months in europe and i'm pretty sure that if i've forgotten something or i need another pair of gitch, i can buy it there. and if there's no room in my pack, i'm sure jay will loosen up his pack straps and make room for it in his...even if he discovers the straightener i've hidden in mine ;p

baby steps + 2 updates

since this whole thing...this pack up your house, this quit your job, this leave your family and friends for a year thing...is quite overwhelming (how many times will i say this before i'm ok with it?) i've decided to make a list of things to do only bits at a time. i think of things that are achievable in the weekend or in an evening and then i make a list. 

this weekend my list consists of cleaning the house (i haven't done that since we listed the house - blush), going to the gym (gotta get in shape to haul around a 30lb backpack), take pictures of the stuff we want to sell & put online, sort tools into sell/donate or keep, research gear and settle on a pack, finalize overall flight plan and get quotes, plan our goodbye party, snuggle kitties.

good thing its a long weekend. 

update: half way through...house half vacuumed due to full vac bag, haven't gotten to the gym, most pictures are taken but rest not because need to vacuum & dust first, tools not touched, in the midst of finalizing flight plan (which by the way...takes a friggin' long time!) fortunately for the cats a lot of the planning happens sitting down so cuddles are up to quota...

update after the wknd: i've been meaning to write a new post but there is so much to do that i have little energy...mentally and physically to write a full-on post. so here is my update. from the list above we accomplished: the house cleaning (altho' we didn't dust or wash the hardwoods so its not my standard of clean but it will do), pictures are taken of the stuff we want to sell but we have not posted them on craigslist or kijiji yet, our flight plan is finished we just have to finalize with payment and confirm that we can get visa's for all destinations while we are on the road, we shopped for packs but haven't found one we like yet (wpg has really crappy selection...more on that another day perhaps?), the tools are sorted and ready to be sold or stored, and finally we did not plan our goodbye party...the best parties are the ones where everyone just shows up and hangs in the kitchen anyway right? so all in all, not a bad wknd...felt pretty productive :)

step three: plan trip itinerary (for real)

jay mentioned in a previous post that he had purchased a map. the map is massive. its of the whole world. we've mounted it to cardboard and it now has a place of prominence in our living room. 

we poked pins into each and every place we could think that we would want to go. ever. in our entire lives. well, the whole map was covered from top to bottom with pins...ok...that's an exaggeration...neither of us wanted to go to antarctica that badly. so how do we whittle down the destinations into a realistic itinerary? we procrastinate!!

since we sold the house we have done little to further our plans. its scary how easy it is to become complacent. i guess i wrote my letter of resignation, i postdated the cancellation of our house insurance, i set up an appointment with the real estate lawyer AND we have our physicals next week. the list of things to get done is in my head and i really, really need to get it onto paper. even jay said to me after a long, stressful day at work 'i didn't realize how much work this was all going to be'... mr. fast and loose, eh?

so here is a fast and loose itinerary that we are currently contemplating, currently looking for rtw tix vs. one way tix for and currently avoiding making decisions about:

fly winnipeg to toronto

fly toronto to new york

spend 4 days in new york city

fly new york to london

spend 4-6 weeks in uk

fly or train to paris

spend 6-8 months in western & eastern europe

including france, spain, morocco, italy, germany, netherlands, czech republic, austria, croatia, hungary, estonia, latvia, lithuania, st. petersburg?, turkey, egypt, greece...

fly athens to dubai (altho' we've had a hard time finding a flight for this leg)

spend 3-4 days in dubai

fly dubai to delhi

spend ? in india

fly delhi to kathmandu & then back to delhi (unless other flights available)

spend ? in nepal

fly delhi to bangkok

spend ? in thailand, laos, vietnam, cambodia

fly bangkok to singapore

spend a few days in singapore...bali?

fly singapore to hong kong

spend 5 days in hong kong

fly hong kong to tokyo

spend 5-10 days in japan...pusan? seoul?

fly to papua new guinea, australia and new zealand? OR just

fly tokyo to los angeles or san francisco

spend a week or 2 in california

fly california to vancouver

spend 2 weeks visiting in b.c.

fly vancouver to home

keep going to south america? money? energy? road trip?

as i was writing this list and referring back to the map i went back and added more countries. this is going to be hard to narrow down...or do we have to? do we just leave and hope that the plan will fall into place as we go?

my head is spinning...

corina

step two: quit job

a weight has lifted off my shoulders. today i quit my job. i've been holding in this secret for a few months already and its such a relief to have it out in the open. aaaaahhh. my last day is june 5th. everyone is so jealous...teehee

my bosses took it well. they are happy for me but sad to see me go. 

now its jay's turn ;p