A Little Background Information Before We Leave

Dear Family and Friends,

For those of you who might just know Christine or may just know Kim, we will take some time to tell you about both of us. We both went to Spencerport High School (Kim being a year ahead of Christine). We knew each other, but were not terribly close. We both started college at Monroe Community College and then transferred on to SUNY Geneseo. When Christine was preparing to go to Geneseo, Kim had already been there for a year.

Christine went to the movies one night, where Kim was working in the box office, and had a friendly chat with her. It was a random encounter, but Kim was interested in what Christine had been up to over the past few years. To Christine’s surprise, she found out that Kim was in the same major, had the same concentration, and would be in the same education block as Christine at SUNY Geneseo. Kim gave Christine her phone number and said if she had any questions about Geneseo, not to hesitate to call. That was super nice, but Christine never called.

School started and Kim and Christine were in some classes together. We didn’t really talk much our first semester, but still acknowledged each other. We would occasionally see each other at the library after doing all-nighters to finish schoolwork and realized that we had the same work ethic. So once senior year approached, most our classes were the same and we did all of our major projects together. We spent MANY hours under a large amount of stress working together, and tolerated each other very well.

After so many long hours completing work to graduate from Geneseo and to be certified teachers for special education and general education for grades 1-6, a friendship was inevitable. We both officially graduated this past December. We work for the same two companies. We both work in classrooms through BOCES (in different schools). We started as subs and prior to our trip got hired for long term positions. Christine worked with a 6 year old boy with autism and Kim worked with a 6 year old girl with autism. We also both work at the movie theatre. Yes, after all these years Kim still works there!! She got Christine a job to get some extra money for the trip, and it makes Christine all the more thankful for having her degree in a field that she truly loves!

How did the idea of this trip get stated? Well, Christine and Kim LOVE to travel and will often times look up random places on the internet to go to. This past summer, Christine traveled around the US for a month and then after summer school for BOCES went on a cruise with her mommy to Bermuda. We had thought about doing a volunteer trip to somewhere with no real idea of what, where, and how. We looked into alternate ideas, just hoping to somehow go somewhere as a gift to us for making it through undergrad school. Since the cruise was tons of fun, Christine looked to see where else she could cruise to around the world. She found a super cheap transatlantic cruise to Europe and that is when the whole process went crazy.

We have spent hour upon hour planning this trip. We did not use any travel agent (Sidenote: Christine’s other career calling in addition to being a special education teacher is that she wants to be a travel agent). We researched the internet and books for months. It has been about 6-7 months in the making for a two and a half month whirlwind trip. We will be traveling by cruise boats, regular boats, ferries, planes, trains, buses, vans, and our feet. We might have a donkey and camel ride in there somewhere too. We have not figured out how to post our full 18 page itinerary, but we can give you all a rundown of places and dates so that you can keep track of us. We have some AWESOME tours booked and would like to share their descriptions with you if we can figure out how to post this document.

Fortunately we both have some travel experience. Christine has lived in Spain for a month and has been in the Caribbean for some long trips. Kim has been to Spain, France, Scotland, and Ireland. We both have traveled around the US as well. Kim will be leaving this August for nine months in Shenzhen, China to teach English, and Christine plans to continue traveling throughout her life, so this will be a great experience for both of us.

How did we pack for 2 and a half months? Very carefully! We are backpacking so we will only have a 4,000 - 4,500 cubic inch backpack each and another smaller backpack. We have all sorts of special clothes that are quick drying, special laundry soap, shampoo and conditioner that are in solid form, and other fun doo-dads to make this trip a hopeful success. It is difficult to pack for a trip that goes as far north as Norway to as far south as Egypt. Our clothes are pretty versatile and thoughtfully chosen.

We will try to keep you all informed of our whereabouts, progress, and experiences. Entries to the blog will probably be sporadic depending on where we can get to a computer. It is quite likely that our entries won’t usual be this long!

Keep checking the blog for updates! We will try to post our itinerary soon to give you all a heads up of where we will probably be from day to day.

Christine and Kim

P.S. Fun Fact: The furthest eastern point in the US is West Quaddy Head, Maine. The furthest western point in the US is Eureka, California. There is a distance of 2,877 miles between the two. Our trip will allow us to travel at least 19,500 miles as we go from one country/continent to the next. This means that it would be equivalent to traveling coast to coast round trip three times and then going about three quarters of the way across the US again! We will be well-traveled .

---

---