Seven days to go: all the boring pre-trip details

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(This post is all about pre-departure details, so if you’re looking for something exciting, please look elsewhere!)

One week from now will be our last night at home. Steve will cook us something wonderful for dinner, and Jaz and I will finish last-minute packing and make sure we have adequate reading material and well-charged iPods at our fingertips. We will check the weather forecast for Burlington, Bangkok and Cambodia. I will be trying to wrap my head around the fact that no matter how cold it is here, I will still be wearing sandals (with socks) when I get on that JetBlue flight Monday morning, because if I wore real shoes, I would just have to drag them around Southeast Asia, never to be worn again until the flight home.

My desk and my head and my wallet are full of lists. Overt the past two weeks in particular, I’ve been ticking items off at a steady pace. There are work lists, home lists, packing lists, list of phone calls to make and lists of pre-departure tasks:
• Transfer money - check.
• Reduce cell phone minutes - check.
• Confirm flights and hotels - check.
• Pay property taxes - check.
• Back up laptop hard drive - check.
• Make appointment for a haircut - check.
• Buy watch battery - check.
• Refill prescriptions - check.
• Make a packing list - check.

The lists are endless, and endlessly reassuring to me.

Plans are still hazy about exactly what we’ll be doing for six weeks in Cambodia, but some things are coming into focus a bit. It looks like Jaz will be involved in something called Bridges to Understanding, a cultural exchange where kids from the Wat Bo Primary School in Siem Reap will learn to do digital online storytelling. (If you want to see what it’s about, check out Bridges to Understanding.) We’ve also bought a pile of elementary-level reading, writing and spelling workbooks to use in teaching English. We’ll certainly keep you posted as things become clearer and more defined!

Jaz is a newly-licensed driver, as of last Thursday, and she’s been getting in as much driving and hanging-out-with-friends time as she can squeeze in before we go. She’s also been playing with the webcam on my laptop and posting Facebook videos, which she plans to continue. If you want a glimpse into her perspective on this trip, you may have to become her Facebook friend - though I will certainly encourage her to post her own occasional entry on this site as well.

Her educational demands while we’re away will be to keep up with her French and Spanish classes via self-study and email, and to continue an online CCV Creative Writing class. (She also has an online Pre-calculus class, but she’s going to start that when we return!)

Thanks to the success of Jaz’s basketball game concession business at school, and to the generosity of friends and family who have made donations, we are very pleased to be able to provide over $2000 to the Ponheary Ly Foundation. Thanks again to all of you who chipped in (and if you made an online donation and I don’t know about it, please let me know so I can thank you individually.) Jaz is ready to resume selling junk food at the baseball and softball games as soon as we return. She’s quite an entrepreneur, and all for a good cause.

I have been busy tying up loose ends at work, trying to leave as little as possible for anyone else to have to deal with or worry about while I’m away. I am full of appreciation for my co-workers, many of whom are taking on additional responsibilities without audible complaint. I would love nothing more than to return and find that everything ran like a well-oiled machine and that no one missed me a bit!

Facing the impending reality of being away from Steve for two months is the most difficult part of all this preparation. I love and appreciate his enthusiasm and support for our upcoming adventure, and I will miss him incredibly! He’ll be holding down the fort, watering the plants, filling the bird feeders, shoveling the driveway, and going to work. (He’ll also be able to sleep diagonally across the bed without anyone complaining about it, play tennis as often as he wants without feeling guilty, and order all the bad sci-fi movies he wants from Netflix.)

And though we will miss each other, thanks to the magic of the internet, we’ll be emailing and Skype-ing regularly. (We’ve already been practicing with Skype - having online video chats between the bedroom and the living room. It’s a riot!) And who knows - maybe I can still convince him to come and join us for the last couple of weeks… (Steve, are you reading this?)

Glad to have you all along for the ride - and I promise that future entries will be a bit more exciting. Remember, you can subscribe or unsubscribe to email notifications of new posts - and comments are always most welcome.

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Comments

[anne damrosch]

We'll remind Steve about the plans and bird feeder. Anything else?

[jessw]

Invite Steve for dinner!
Thanks, Anne. If the opportunity presents, you could invite Steve over for dinner. You know he would be happy to have the chance to cook for someone. (Luckily he won't actually need reminders about all the other stuff - he does it all anyway!)

[alison segar]

This is so cool... I am getting varcarious ( you know what i mean) pleasure from reading this....It inspires me to think about the years ahead with my kids and what we could be doing..... Have fun.... I will read your entries with interest....I love the internet!!! Travel safe

[Lori]

I love lists too
You should have gotten your haircut here. $2 includes shoulder massage! Did I ask you if you want bikes while you're here? Don't forget to call your credit card companies and Bank (for ATM) before you leave or your cards won't work here. But I'm sure that's already on your LIST! Can't wait to see you.

[Jenny Lange]

So I started reading your blog to see what you guys are up to and this is so awesome I am so excited for both of you!!!!! I also had to say I laughed very hard imagining everyone skyping from the bedroom to the living room HAHA!!!! I can just imagine what a riot that is! I hope you guys have a wonderful time and skyler and I will skype you too! Bon Voyage!