Making Preparations

I’ve started making small plans for a possible working vacation for a few months. I originally was going to go sometime this fall, but I was starting to feel more and more like it was a bit too rushed. I also wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with Christmas: spending $1,500 on a plane ticket to get somewhere doesn’t make a lot of sense if you’re just going to get on a plane and head back home again a month or so later for Christmas.

With that in mind, I’m now targeting January as the month when I’d leave. Over the next few months I’m going to be slowly selling off the things I don’t really need anymore, and possibly even a few things that I probably do. With regards to the latter, I have a pretty expensive stereo set yet I rarely listen to music on anything other than my iPod these days. So I may sell some of that stuff off and simply buy a cheaper set (i.e. normal set) when I return.

The only items around my house I really care about are the items I recently purchased. That includes my bedroom suite, dining room set, coffee table, and of course all the kitchen stuff I’ve been accumulating.

This is something I’ve always wanted to do, and the reality is some day I won’t have a chance to do it again. Once kids enter the equation, or even a steady relationship, picking up and seeing some of the world becomes hard to do. Not impossible per se, since I know some families that do lots of traveling and everyone goes along. But life definitely becomes a bit less flexible, at least for a while.

I have a short list of places I want to visit: Costa Rica, Buenos Aries, Santo Domingo, possibly Europe. All I need is an internet connection and I’m good to go wherever I land.

When I moved to the Yukon when I was 20, I got on a plane with just a few clothes and landed without much money. The company I was working at up there paid for a hotel for two nights, and after that left me to fend for myself. I found accommodation staying with this crazy German lady in a trailer home in the North part of town, and spent the first week sleeping on a makeshift bed with my jacket as a pillow and the clothes I wasn’t wearing as a blanket. My mom sent my duvet blanket and a few small things to me via Greyhound, which I got about a week after, and finally had a real bed again.

So, traveling light doesn’t worry me in the slightest, nor does downgrading my living conditions. For the most part I’m just as comfortable sleeping on a couch or a futon as I am a nice bed, so I can make due wherever I end up. But seeing a bit more of the world is appealing to me, as is meeting other people that are possibly doing the same. As I’ve told people around me, Chilliwack is still home and I’ll definitely end up back here, but I’d like to expand my horizons and see a bit more of the world.

That’s the plan, at least for now.