2015-10-01 09.50.45

Packing Up Our Lives

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Aquí teniu el post en Català. 

Since the calendar flipped to fall, trip planning has taken on a frenzied pace, centered mostly around temporarily closing down a life we love in Barcelona and doing a gazillion administrative things that need to be done before traveling.

These last few weeks, we have been busy sorting through all our material possessions; deciding what to keep, what to toss and what to recycle; moving boxes into storage, getting some of our beloved plants situated into their new home, and working with agencies to help rent our apartment.

We’re living off the most basic essentials, and enjoying the empty shelves, closets and drawers liberated from stuff we realize we really don’t need but like to have. We’ve stuffed most of our take-with-us gear into backpacks, ordered two different kinds of water filters, and are inventing ways to cut unnecessary weight. Every gram matters (we’ll tell you more about them in an upcoming blog about gear we’ll be hauling around for the next three to five years).

We’ve gone to the doctors for annual check-ups, and updated our vaccinations; polio was the surprise shot added to our yellow international health cards, which already feature inoculations against diphtheria, hepatitis, Japanese encephalitis, meningitis, rabies, tetanus, typhoid fever, and yellow fever. Of course, too, anti-diarrhea, anti-malarial pills and iodine will have prominent places in our emergency medical kit, along with antibiotics and antiseptic creams.

vaccinations
Checked off the to-do list: Make sure we have our shots.

We’re also looking at travel insurance options, budgeting projected costs, and thinking about how to secure visa extensions in places where we’ll need more than 28 days to walk.

Although our mental grit and physical might will be toughened with every step we take, we’re also finding small ways to test our limits before we leave. We have a couple 30-40-kilometer walks planned, and a self-defense class on the calendar. I (Jenn, in this case) also trained for and finished a Spartan race, mostly to remind myself how to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. Mud in all the wrong places seemed like a perfect way to put that theory to work.

Jenn Spartan race
Jenn (middle) slides down a muddy bank after crawling under barbed wire. She’s practicing being comfortable in uncomfortable situations.

The best part of all this is that we’re getting closer to buying airline tickets to Thailand! We’re in the last legs of finishing  all the things that have to be finished (or as many as will be humanly possible to finish before we go). We’re getting there! Really… we’re getting there, and all this starts looking real. The butterflies in our stomachs are starting to fly.

 

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