Just an Update

Good evening folks. 

Not too much to report since my last post regarding travel stuff.  Personally, it's been an eventful month.  

I ended up moving out of my last place on extremely short turn-around.  I'm going to leave it at that.  I'm done going over it.  

I'm very happy where I live now though.  It all works out.  

Count down is currently: 18 weeks and 2 days.  

With travel stuff, you know that I booked my airfare and a 30-day tour of southeast Asia.  The update right now is that I've collected the records for my previous vaccinations.  Now, I have to find a doctor who can consult and grant an international "yellow card" which indicates my vaccinations.  Hoping I don't have to get too many additional vaccinations, but we'll see.  

I knew I didn't have much to post, but I didn't really expect it to be this short.  

Ragnar 2.0 is a month away; Triathlon 1.0 is 2 months away; I ended up signing up with a couple friends for a Tough Mudder Half which will be at the end of July.  It's going to be a blast.  

That's pretty much it for now.  One more thing; it sounds so cliche to me when folks say you meet people for a reason.  I mean, yea I've believed them, but it never really seemed to happen to me.   Well, I'm starting to believe that.  Seems like within the last year and a half that I've met people who have given me some bit of wisdom or guidance or practical knowledge or direction or just working together with colleagues which I have ended up using my knowledge from that experience to manage my way through subsequent experiences.  

The latest experience?  Well, my new roommate is a personal trainer.  The trainers I've been working with at the gym I go to don't really talk about preparing for my triathlon in the aspects of nutrition and pre- and post-exercise stretching.   My roommate looks on aghast as I tell her this!  So now, I'm learning about preparing my body even better for this triathlon.  

Things keep coming to me!  Lately, I am constantly (ok, not constantly, but more than usual) hungry for very substantial meals - I'm talking serious carbohydrates with gluten.  For a while (probably about 2 years ago maybe - that's a guess) I completely cut gluten out of my diet and it helped manage my weight and taught me how to cook without it.  I gradually began eating gluten but pretty limited.  Up until beginning of March, I'd say I was probably 70-80% gluten free.  Cutting something out of your diet teaches you new things... it's all a learning experience!   

Anyway - so lately I've been eating bagels for breakfast instead of just some fresh fruit and maybe yogurt with granola.  Gosh it has been hitting the spot!  Oh, I've also noticed that I'm scarfing down my food - not good.  I have to consciously slow myself down while I'm eating.  Also not the best, but I expect that August 5th, I'll eat a little more slowly.  Hahaha...  

Ok, that's really it for now.  

Have a great night. 

Slight Change of Plans ("Fiscally Sound")

So, slightly unexpected but... I set the date I'm leaving the US (for an extended temporary period) in stone yesterday! So now, the first two months of my world travel is all set!  Paid for?...well, I'm getting there. 

I learned that Global Nomadic partners with Student Travel Association.  So I thought why not go visit them and see what I can find out.  I went to their storefront downtown.  I visited a couple times; first time was either last week or beginning of this week.  He gave me a couple books (Europe, Asia, and Australia/New Zealand) to look at and said I should try to nail down some dates for when I'll be where.... pretty hard to do if you're trying to keep an open schedule. 

So I printed out a 2018 calender and started strategizing.  I thought I was ready to go back to STA travel to put something on hold or put a deposit down.   So yesterday, after work, I headed down to STA again.   There was a promotion going on with G Adventures.  The fine print was that it had to be for a trip departing in 2017, not 2018.  My initial conceptual plans were falling slightly apart in front of my eyes!  How to work around this??  

Here's how it turned out.   Instead of jumping straight into the deep end of adventure travel by trekking in Nepal, I adjusted my trip so that I start with a 30-day guided small group tour of up to 18 people.   This tour, called IndoChina Discovery, starts and ends in Bangkok, Thailand but tours through Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia.  Cambodia wasn't on my list of places to visit, but that's fine.   I'm good with adding a country to my list of places visited.   

This tour goes from October 15 through November 13.   This works out perfectly; the price of the 30-day tour was less at this date than in January 2018, and the airfare for JFK -> Bangkok -> Bali was $1,500 less than JFK to Kathmandu to Bali.  It also works out with my Global Nomadic volunteer internship start date of November 17th in Ubud, Bali.  The next thing I need to do is buy airfare from Bali to Taiwan so that I can apply for the Indonesian visa which you need a departing ticket to get.  

I'm not sure when I'll do trekking in Nepal; it is still on the list for sure.  Possibly in February between hopping from New Zealand to Europe.  I really don't know where it will fit in now, but it's ok.  I have months to figure that out.  

So, I'm set!  I fly out of JFK on October 12th in the evening and probably won't come back to March!  Wohooo!!  Oh yea!  I'm so stinking excited now.