Right, so maybe a slight change of plans. Instead of driving across Canada, I may be going to Scotland for work until Christmas. It would be for the same company I work for - just in an office in Scotland. I feel rather like I've sold out (I had freedom within my reach and then I got sucked back in). But I guess everyone has a price and apparently mine is paying me to go live and learn new stuff in a foreign country for a few months. I'm not convinced it's going to happen (some may call that being cynical but I prefer to think of it as being able to learn from previous experiences) but I've committed until Christmas. If it happens, I'll just postpone going to South America until January and then maybe drive across Canada next summer.
In the meantime, I spent last week sorting, packing, getting rid of and moving all of my belongings. I was absolutely amazed with the amount of stuff I had accumulated and how much of it was complete crap. Every day I would take piles of stuff out to either the dumpster, recycling bins, Goodwill, or gracious friends (who were nice enough to make me feel I was doing them a favour by giving them my crap) and then I would come back to my apartment and think "How can there possibly still be so much stuff left?!". I managed to whittle it down to just the things I really wanted to keep and moved them into storage. I've also solemnly sworn to never buy anything else ever again (which is of course a complete farce. I threw out my pillows and while I'm not sure where or when I'm coming back, I am sure I'll be getting new pillows. Plus there were those two books I bought on Saturday...).
Anyhoo, while Scotland gets sorted out or canceled, I will be bunking with my parents in Toronto (thanks Mom and Dad!) and working out of the company's Markham office. It will be nice to spend some time with Toronto area family and friends but I'm also hoping for a fairly quick departure date (to wherever).
Wednesday, 28 August 2013
Friday, 9 August 2013
What I'm Doing
So, I've quit my job, given up my apartment, am in the midst of getting rid of bunch of my stuff and will soon be leaving to travel until I get sick of it or my money runs out. Yay!
Deciding to do this was probably the easiest big decision I've ever made, the hardest one to come to terms with and the one I've been most excited about. It was an easy decision because I had reached a point where my life got too stuck in a rut and I was craving more of a challenge. I had a bunch of money saved up with no plan for it and I've always enjoyed travelling so it just made sense. It was hard to come to terms with my decision because I knew how good I had it. I had a job that I didn't hate that paid more than enough to cover my needs and wants, I lived close (or close-ish) to great friends and family, and I was generally happy, healthy and stress-free. But I got to the point where I felt like I wasn't living life to its fullest and knew if I stuck around, I'd regret it. Even though it was an easy decision, I'm proud of myself for making it and, frankly, I'm impressed that I'm actually following through with it.
My plan is to first drive and camp my way from Toronto to Tofino (on Vancouver Island), stopping at cities, parks and sites and making a few detours along the way. Then I'll fly to Argentina, spend about a month at a Spanish language school and then go around South America (I'm thinking of heading down to Patagonia and then up the west coast of the continent). Then maybe Central America before heading off to Asia and doing Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Nepal. After that, if I have any money left, I'd like to go through Europe and it would be nice if I could fit in a trip to Morocco and Iceland. I have the trip across Canada fairly planned out (the route and how far I want to go each day) but after that, I have no real plans - just ideas and lists of places I'd like to visit and things I'd like to do. I don't have anything booked and I figure I'll just sort it out as I go, which will give me more freedom to change plans to suit how I'm feeling.
I figure I have enough money saved up to travel for about a year or a year and a half, depending on what I get up to but if I get sick of being on the road all the time, then I'll come back early. I have no idea what I'll do when I come back. I don't know where I'll come back to or what I'll do for work but, as someone who has no idea what she wants to do next Wednesday, I know that if I waited until I knew what I was going to do when I got back, I'd never go travelling.
Anyhoo, I've started this blog because apparently it's obligatory to start a blog when you go travelling. I have the best intentions of keeping it up-to-date with where I've been and what I've been up to but, if my track record with keeping diaries when I was younger is any indication, I'll probably lose interest after a while. So maybe enjoy it while it lasts. Oh and also, please don't assume I'm dead if I haven't posted in a while - I'm probably just having too much fun to have time to post, or I don't have access to the internet, or I just can't be bothered. If I am actually dead, I'll be sure to post it so that there's no confusion.
Deciding to do this was probably the easiest big decision I've ever made, the hardest one to come to terms with and the one I've been most excited about. It was an easy decision because I had reached a point where my life got too stuck in a rut and I was craving more of a challenge. I had a bunch of money saved up with no plan for it and I've always enjoyed travelling so it just made sense. It was hard to come to terms with my decision because I knew how good I had it. I had a job that I didn't hate that paid more than enough to cover my needs and wants, I lived close (or close-ish) to great friends and family, and I was generally happy, healthy and stress-free. But I got to the point where I felt like I wasn't living life to its fullest and knew if I stuck around, I'd regret it. Even though it was an easy decision, I'm proud of myself for making it and, frankly, I'm impressed that I'm actually following through with it.
My plan is to first drive and camp my way from Toronto to Tofino (on Vancouver Island), stopping at cities, parks and sites and making a few detours along the way. Then I'll fly to Argentina, spend about a month at a Spanish language school and then go around South America (I'm thinking of heading down to Patagonia and then up the west coast of the continent). Then maybe Central America before heading off to Asia and doing Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, India, and Nepal. After that, if I have any money left, I'd like to go through Europe and it would be nice if I could fit in a trip to Morocco and Iceland. I have the trip across Canada fairly planned out (the route and how far I want to go each day) but after that, I have no real plans - just ideas and lists of places I'd like to visit and things I'd like to do. I don't have anything booked and I figure I'll just sort it out as I go, which will give me more freedom to change plans to suit how I'm feeling.
I figure I have enough money saved up to travel for about a year or a year and a half, depending on what I get up to but if I get sick of being on the road all the time, then I'll come back early. I have no idea what I'll do when I come back. I don't know where I'll come back to or what I'll do for work but, as someone who has no idea what she wants to do next Wednesday, I know that if I waited until I knew what I was going to do when I got back, I'd never go travelling.
Anyhoo, I've started this blog because apparently it's obligatory to start a blog when you go travelling. I have the best intentions of keeping it up-to-date with where I've been and what I've been up to but, if my track record with keeping diaries when I was younger is any indication, I'll probably lose interest after a while. So maybe enjoy it while it lasts. Oh and also, please don't assume I'm dead if I haven't posted in a while - I'm probably just having too much fun to have time to post, or I don't have access to the internet, or I just can't be bothered. If I am actually dead, I'll be sure to post it so that there's no confusion.
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