Getting ready and wrapping things up

Everything feels much, much closer today. I think this is in large part to Greece being just over a week away (!) and knowing that when I get back it's all going to just fly by - there are only 4 weeks from when I get back until my last day.

As I believe I've mentioned, a friend gave me his old iPhone, to use as an ipod, after my old ipod was stolen (he had upgraded to the current gen of the iphone). Sadly for me, he's an idiot and went swimming in the ocean with his phone in his pocket, which means he needs his old one back. 

I really, really don't like to travel without my iPod so there's no time to spare. I ordered one today, it should be delivered no later than next Monday. I got a refurb, current gen 64 gig.

As long as I was shopping, I also, finally, applied for the health insurance I'll need next year. And then I scheduled all my remaining days off (I have 16 to burn). Between that, buying boxes and getting ready for farewell party #1, it feels very much like I'm wrapping up everything on my to do list.

Looking at my list of items to purchase, I'm down to just the computer, the phone and a suit. And the Euorail pass, but that can wait, if it needs to, until I'm in-country. That's .... shocking, actually. It doesn't feel like I've been chunking through my list, but there it is.

This weekend I also went shopping for a trunk, but Target won't have them in until later in the summer, probably mid-July, as people start their back to school shopping. Unfortunately for me, the tax holiday won't occur until after I leave, but that really just means I don't have to wait to go shopping. The use of a trunk to ship oversees is still an item of some debate, in my family, but I really think it's the way to go: it'll get the vast majority of my stuff there without my having to schlep it through airports or pay fees for extra bags (I don't have any 'free bags' so one will be bad enough, two would be terrible). It has been suggested I plan to live as a 'poor student'. My retort is: what student, poor or otherwise, do you know who went to school with one checked bag and one carry-on?? Impossible!

Still, yes, I'll be taking the bare minimum, and am curious to see how that translates into packing. 

I'd really like to get all my sweaters packed up this week, to get a sense of how heavy they are, and how large a bundle I'm looking at. That, some pants and stuff like giant shampoo bottles are what I plan to ship in advance.

After experimenting with that, I think a trial-run of packing for Greece is probably in order, to see whether carry-on will work as planned, and, if not, to pre-pay for checking my bag. Either way, I'll check-in this week for the EasyJet portion of the trip.

Then, on Friday, it's girls' night / drink my wine! And then ... packing begins in earnest.

9 days to Greece

23 days of work

30 days off

53 days till last day

55 days till departure

Progress

With the countdown getting scary, I'm starting to work my lists and wrap up my life. Here's how that's going. 


Packing
So, the plan to use the box recycling place hit some hitches: the visa debit card didn't work, and when I re-placed my order I never got any sort of confirmation. So now I've gone and re-re-placed my order. Actually looks promising, this time? But, since I needed to use my own card, I went the paypal route, which I'm not generally a fan of as it means endless spam. 


Also I'm a week behind ... sortof. I also scheduled my "Drink my Wine" party, and turned it into a girls' night. Honestly, most of the previously scheduled girls' nights have ended up being 3 or 4 people, total. Mine ... looks bigger, so far. Like, 10 people bigger. Everyone get's their own bottle of wine! Or something.


I also checked out Ikea, so I could see what my shelving collection is selling for now, to get a better sense of what to ask when I attempt to sell. ... The entire line has been discontinued. Also, apparently it is all solid pine. So in addition to looking nice and being mid-range expensive, it apparently is decent quality. So now I don't really want to sell it. Or at least not the big bookshelves. So my current thought is to disassemble the three and the table I want to keep, at a minimum, and put them in storage. Yay?


So my current plan is to leave everything as-is until my party, then start packing that weekend. Yes, okay, that Wednesday I leave for Greece (woohoo!), but I want to put the stuff I'm keeping into storage, except probably a few dishes, July 16th or 17th. So ... packing.


Shipping
I suppose that also means I need to firm up my shipping plans. I intend to pack the majority of what I want to bring to Germany and ship it (SLOW ship it!) in advance. I need to find out if a traditional trunk (well. The current version of a traditional trunk, which has wheels) is shippable via UPS or USPS or whether it'd have to go into a box, in which case not much point to have the trunk ... well. Except when it comes to getting the shipped items to my new residence. Then it'd be really, really handy to be able to unbox and roll. Hm. Thoughts.


Augh
I suppose I also need to get on buying my health insurance, setting up my car-custody (for insurance) and reserving my storage space!


Weight
I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped but frankly, between people visiting me, me visiting them, (possibly) herniating a disc in my back debilitating me for 2 weeks, and, of course, general laziness as I fall out of the groove, I'm really not doing too badly. I haven't gained anything, and in the 6 or so weeks my body has done some re-distributing of weight so I actually look pretty okay. It is impossible that I'll reach my initial goal-weight before I leave for Germany. I may, maybe-possibly, lose another 10 by then, but with 2 weeks in Greece in the middle, I rather doubt it. Still. 


I went clothes shopping the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and was quite pleasantly surprised to be back in clothes that are carried in the store now, instead of only online. Even better: I can squeeze into some clothes the next size down, even if I wouldn't yet leave the house in them. That means, to me, that soon (SO SOON) I may be buying that size. That was kindof the reason I went shopping when I did: I don't intend to be in these clothes for long, so 30% off everything, including clearance, makes purchases reasonable even knowing that.


All that, however, obscures the fact: I am officially 3 full sizes smaller than I was this time last year!! Jeans that I couldn't wear last year are now too big! And I can no longer buy anything from Womens Plus - I'm back into Women's proportion-wise, if still at big sizes. Super exciting!


What's Next
I have started my application for the Peace Corps. It sounds like I want to get that completely squared away by the time I leave for Greece. That can be done. And then when I get back I'll need to start my GM application. 


My sister asked me how serious I am about the Peace Corps. It's hard to say, honestly, but I was thinking last night: this is my life. I want it to be a good one, and an interesting one. I want people to talk about me and how neat I am or what I've done is. Sure, going to school in Germany is a start. I want to find myself interesting, and for that to happen, I need to do things that make me think "wow, that's really cool". That would happen with a stint in the Peace Corps. It would also probably happen with GMs ECLP program - it sounds like the projects are fast, intense and informative.


So I guess my ideal would be to do the GE thing for 2 years and then do the Peace Corps? Glad I worked that out!