Three Days

As time gets closer to July 12 I’ve been feeling a mixture of anxiety, fear, and elation. The anxiety and fear are products of uncertainty and the elation is the result of a positive future mindset. At least that’s what I think.

Sometimes I wrap my head too much over the whole trip when I should be just be focusing on the first couple of cities I’ll visit. I need to remind myself to let go and not do too much planning. The beginning of a major undertaking is always the hardest. If I can get through this then I can get through anything. “Follow the flow,” as I say.

Other than mental preparations, I still have some things to take care of, such as storing my possessions, getting a haircut, and doing laundry. I also have just enough food to last me until the final day before my departure. Things are coming to an end soon.

Over the past few days I completed a few to-do items.

I subscribed to Couchsurfing.com for $15 for a year. It’s a website where people can host travelers. The website used to be free, but during Covid they started charging. Most likely I won’t use it much, but it’s good to have in case I want to be hosted. I will be staying in hostels most of the time.

I also bought travel insurance from IMG to cover me until the end of July since I’ll be in the US this month. The cost was only $22 to cover July 12 through July 31.

Lastly, I put in travel alerts for my Charles Schwab ATM card. This bank card reimburses ATM fees anywhere in the world. The lady on the phone told me to avoid foreign conversion fees I should take out money in the local currency rather than US dollars. That’s good to know. For my two credit cards, I don’t need to set travel alerts so that’s convenient.

One more thing I need to do before setting off on my journey is to change my cell phone provider from Ting Mobile to Google Fi so I can take advantage of its international features. I’ll do that tomorrow.

As for my trip route, I will be departing from Philadelphia airport, going to stay in Seattle for 5 days then Hawaii for 14 days. My first foreign country is Japan, which I plan to stay for a month and half or so, then continue to South Korea, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. I will have a take a long flight to Eastern Europe from there. That's the plan so far, but anything can change. I plan to be back from traveling before the November 2024 election day, or earlier if I get bored or when the money runs out.

During the trip, I want to be open minded about new opportunities in terms of life and work. I can see myself living in a foreign country if I can get a work visa doing something I enjoy. I’ll just have to see what happens.