3 weeks and I leave...Yikes!

Hi y'all,

Realized that in the chaos and everything over the last few weeks, I haven't updated on here. Whoops! So let's try and do a quick recap...


1. Moving
I am fully moved home. THAT was a hurdle in itself, and still rather a mess. On April 22, my dad, brother, and I moved all of the heavy large furniture home. We set up my new "room" - After that, it was my hurdle to continue packing everything else up. While working on that, I had to downsize and sorted things into piles of "sell," "keep," and "give/donate." Again, easier said than done!

In the end though, last wed we got everything moved out with help of may mom and dad. Thursday I spend cleaning the place with intent and agreement to turn it back over to landlords - except they never showed! When I called them, I was first chastised for "not informing them" that the previously agreed upon day was actually my last day?!? Then, they were unable to come over to check things over. I'm awaiting the final word and last check, as there should not be any hassles - but certainly didn't go over as I had tried to plan for.

I still have things to go through and downsize, such as clothing, along with a rather larger pile of things still being sold and or given away. Thankfully, it's clearing out rather quick - except for those dreaded clothes!


2. Work
I informed work of my last day. Hoping they can keep me on the roster as part-time/casual to make it easier when I'm back - but that's up to them still.


3. Tickets, tickets, tickets...
I have all of my Russian train tickets booked and paid for. Well, the train exiting Russia into Mongolia is paid for but I have not received the ticket confirmation. Because it's an international train, it cannot be booked easily online so I had to go through a travel agency.


4. Hotsels
I have a place to stay booked in each city until I arrive at Stepperiders. I want to still see about finding people to Couchsurf with, but if I can't find anyone (or loose track of time!) then I still have someone to stay.


5. Visa
My visa applications are mailed and that agency should be in the process of obtaining them for me. I was an idiot and first realized that I forgot to include my photos - and then was reminded that I had forgotten to include my passport itself! Thankfully, my dad was able to help and get that in the mail for me. Things are much closer to my departure date than I'd prefer - and there's a good chance that even with the overnight mail back to me, my passport might not arrive till the day before I leave!


6. Equipment
Oh, this one has taken much of my time over the last week or so - and still being resolved. I think I've already noted, but in case I haven't, the two hurdles I have on my trip are being without power at Stepperiders (despite taking photos for them) and the high altitude of Tibet in regards to my laptop and a hard drive. In addition to the struggle of feeling like I am bring even more electronics rather than trying to get off the grid, I'm trying to avoid not spending an arm and a leg on things. Amid a flurry of extra camera batteries, extra memory cards, power bank, solid state hard drives, and solar panel chargers... I think I have whittled it down to what I need though and will be writing a separate post next week.

On a similar note for equipment, I have decided on which backpack I am getting - and while REI did not have the color in store that I wanted, it's much smaller than even I expected! It'll be interesting how to get everything packed inside! I have to order it off amazon now, but should be here in a few days.



Things are quickly coming to a head as departure day approaches. Plenty to still get done, but thankfully, a LOT is already accomplished. At this point, other than packing my backpack, I'm comfortable heading off to Russia. It's the later half of the trip, into China & Tibet, that I need to spend some time on to prepare a bit better.