Our house is a terrible junkyard. We are stretching our finances so that we’d have more cash to support us later. We are tired since preparing for the most insane thing we’ve ever done requires so much to do, there’s not enough time to sleep sometimes. I look like a miserable wreck thanks to not having the money for a hairdresser in ages (if you’re reading this, Anniina and Jasmina, I’m so sorry 😦 ).

I’ve lived on noodles (got 6 bags for 2€!!!) the past weeks and my mom equipped us with extra food when we left their place the other day. The enginerd just lives on whatever he finds in the back of the fridge. Every day brings us something new we forgot to take care of, and no matter how much (and we are talking about a lot here) stuff we sell, give away, donate and just simply throw away, our place is still filled with bags, piles of junk, old furniture that no-one wants and, of course, a petting zoo of dust bunnies. I think soon we’ll have to start giving them names.

I look around in our place, and all I can see is just another task. The engineer is taking care of booking hotels, buying flight tickets, carrying things from place A to place B according to my instructions and calculating if we could afford certain things or not. We knew this would require us a lot. We knew, from our past experience, that if you decide to go, it takes a ton more to prepare than to actually leave. We are not, by any means, surprised by this situation. Actually, this is kind of fun.

Okay, to be honest, it would be even more fun to not have all these things to do. But every little thing we do brings us closer to the take-off. Yes, it was an emotional shock to sort out my clothes, but now I can finally start packing for the trip and check if all I need will fit into my bag. Our books are almost gone, but hey, now there is more time to write this blog. Our kitchen table is gone, as well as our flat-screen, which means there is more empty space for our already packed and ready to go boxes. I spent most of my time off last week doing laundry and ironing stuff, and now we have packed all the sheets (two sets) and hand towels we’re keeping(handmade by my late grandma, top quality I’d never throw away), and most of our rugs are clean and taken to my parents’ place. Going through our old stuff has taken forever, and it turned out we had our closets full of good stuff we never use or had simply forgotten about, but now we have Christmas presents for all our family, for free!

I actually thought I’d need four different shampoos. I finished all but one of them, and I’ve been doing just fine. Surprisingly, the enginerd did not die after selling his DVD’s. Oh, and after spending hours online, he has now booked us flights and accommodation until mid January 🙂 Our insurance is all good, and what do you know, even the dust bunnies are starting to look kinda adorable (no, not really, but they are there, we’re too lazy to vacuum, so Jessica and Roger and Bugs get to stay for now).

We’ve had endless conversations on what we’ll do next year, where we wanna go, do we have to plan too far, and what happens if it all fails. Doing this with someone who shares most of your ideas and ideals of the future, is one of the best things ever. The few times we have not agreed on what happens next, we (well, mostly the enginerd) have been able to come up with a compromise, that’s probably better than any of the original ideas. For example, I wanted to go somewhere to study Chinese, and he thought it’d be fun to go to Beijing to do so. However, I’ve been there, I love the city but wanted to try something new, so we opted for Taiwan. We have several plan B’s, as well, secured by the emergency fund we’ve saved for unplanned events. We’ve talked about the worst case scenarios, and in the end, nothing could go any worse than it could if we didn’t go.

Next thing is getting our e-TV’s (electronic Tourist Visa) to India, getting some more vaccinations, and getting rid of rest of our stuff (anyone need a TV station?). And of course, enjoying the winter which caught us although we thought we’d leave before it gets here. Not complaining, though, it’s ♥pretty♥.

PS: We’ll be gone in three weeks and one day. Before that, it’s work, working out, cleaning, packing and studying. A lot. And getting rid of the petting zoo, I guess 😦