Thursday, February 28, 2013

What the Fuck Do I Pack?

Do you hear that sound?

It is the sound of my mind ceaselessly whirring, as it has been for the past 4 days.  Finally the terribly disjointed sleep (which amounts to about 4 hours) caught up with me and I passed out after work yesterday.  12 glorious hours later, I'm awake - but still churning.

Why?  I don't know what the fuck to pack for my trip.

I wrote an uncensored list of every possible thing I could take and the sheer amount of stuff made me want to walk out the front door with just my keys and figure it out as I go.  And trust me, there is no shortage of packing lists available, should you choose to google it.  Everyone has an opinion, including the guy who says all you need is a phone, a debit card, and a passport.  (Fair play to him, you're not getting far without a passport or access to cash.  The phone seems debatable.) 

Let's look at this semi-rationally for a moment (that may be the only amount of rationality I can handle).  I am going to a fully industrialized nation.  There will be laundromats and discount chain stores where I can buy underwear and shampoo.  Tampons!  I hear they have tampons!  So, it's not the end of the world if I get to the end of the world and realize I forgot something.  

While I fully expect my time there to fly by, two months is not an insignificant amount of time.   And here's the bigger problem:  in a way, I'm actually packing for 3 different trips.  Bear with me.

Trip the 1st: Urban Australia
I'm not a fashionable person per se, but, like most people, I do prefer not to look glaringly awful.  I figure this is the easiest portion of the trip to pack for, since Australia seems very like minded to Southern California - casual and cute.  Fine, I've managed to pull that off for seven years - just wear what I always wear and be done with it.

Here's the thing about that: I want to take as little as possible.  The idea of a 50 pound pack and another 50 pounds of crap in a wheelie bag is too ungainly to contemplate.  So I will be dealing with a severely diminished wardrobe (which is funny I'm even worried about this, since my actual wardrobe only has about a weeks worth of clothing) and wearing the same things over and over and over and over.  But who cares how many times I've worn an outfit, it's new to the people around me, amirite?

That women are judged so much more harshly for their appearance is a whole other issue - and this is why I don't care what men say in regards to packing.  I believe a guy could survive with a pair of khaki pants, button down shirt, and hiking boots for 2 months.  I don't believe that would be acceptable for a woman.  So I'm back to where I began: the desire for minimalism at war with the societal pressure to uphold a bullshit standard.  

Trip the 2nd: Hiking in Tasmania
Whenever anyone asks me why I'm going I always say 'I want to hike the Overland Track in Tasmania' and that's true enough, because I do.  But realistically the trip has been such a distant thing for so long (a year, people, I've been working and saving for a year! not to mention the seven or so I've been daydreaming about it), that I actually don't have a lot of concrete plans for what I want to do while I'm there.  (In my head: I'll just go!  And... be there?)  I like the idea of hiking the Overland Track - I've never done anything like it - but I'm not sure I can bring about the reality.

It's intimidating!  7 days, pooping in the woods, having to carry everything I need - and no one to help me.  Granted, the Overland Track is kind of the perfect hike for someone who's never done that sort of thing before: there are huts and potable water along the trail, and composting toilets at the huts.  The trail is hugely popular with about 9000 people hiking it per year, so odds are I wouldn't be alone alone. Because it's so popular, and the huts are first come, first served, you are required to carry a tent (don't have) and a cookstove (no fires) while you hike.  Also, Tasmania in the mid to late fall (when I'll be there) means RAIN.  Guess who has no water proof hiking gear?  Yup.

And suddenly my packing list grows exponentially.  As does the expense.  While the easy thing to do would be to just can the idea of the trail and just do day hikes (true facts: you can do most of the trail as individual day hikes), I'm still drawn to the challenge of hike.  But I don't want to spend a ton of money and have to heft around a ton of stuff I'll only need for about a week.

I had the idea to just buy what I need for this portion of the trip when I get down there - and then sell it.  The Australian economy is currently very strong ; it is one of the few countries that was largely unaffected by the financial crisis of 2008.  Coupled with the fact, that it is far away from a lot of the world, everything is imported and expensive there.  So that might not be the most feasible plan.  

ARG!  What to do?  What to do?

Trip the 3rd: Seoul, Korea
I've been so AustraliaAustraliaAustralia blah blah blah, that I may have forgotten to mention I'm also going to Seoul, Korea.  One of my favorite people in the world is currently schooling the youth of Seoul about the intricacies of the English language and since I'll be in the same time zone (justification!), I figured why not swing by and see her?

Korea was never on my list of places I was hard pressed to go, but three years of hearing her stories, seeing her pictures, and getting to experience life in Seoul through her eyes has made me excited - not to mention the possibility of biking part of the DMZ.  The problem:  the ladies of Seoul are no joke when it comes to style, and I will be a hot, dusty mess at this point in the trip.  It also should be noted that the friend I am going to visit is one of the most social people I know, with a huge group of friends.  There will be a lot of going out.  Like, possibly every night.  (She's already warned me that I should start training my liver for the alcohol consumption.)

The thing is, I don't care so much about being fashionable so much as I hope to just not be so unfashionable that people notice.  Yes, my goal every morning (or afternoon as the case may be) when I get dressed is to fade comfortably in the background.  People love me for my mind anyway!

I can't even, I fully give up on this before I even leave.  I will be the tall, awkward white girl wearing dirty jeans and sneakers everywhere.  I'm sorry Korea, that's just the way it has to be.  


The really hilarious part about all of this is even if I knew what I was taking, I would have nowhere to put it.  That's right folks, I don't actually have a bag to pack.

Methinks I might have bigger problems.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Officially Official

Soooo, I did it.

I told my job.

And it was the most anticlimactic thing ever.  I don't think the chef even blinked, he just thanked me for giving so much notice - a month.

Where was the gnashing of teeth, the beating of breasts?  I mean, it's not like they can survive without me.

(I  kid - they will be more than fine, and so will I.)

The funny thing is, even after all of that, it still felt like my trip was a pipe dream.  I've been dreaming and saving so long, it doesn't feel like it's ever actually going to happen.  And this is after I purchased the plane ticket, secured the visa, sublet my room, and told my job.  What's it going to take?

Now I know: yesterday, one of the managers came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder and said 'Is it true?  Are we losing you?'  

And that's when it hit me - I'M GOING TO AUSTRALIA.

It certainly isn't a secret anymore, but having someone I didn't specifically tell come up to me and ask me about it made it real in a way it hasn't been yet.  This is happening; time continues it's relentless march forward and I will be getting on a plane very soon.  

I mean, it's not like I'm going forever.  Two months only seems long when you're waiting for it to happen.  I fully expect to get there, blink, and then be on the plane home.  But holy shit, it's officially official.  

Oz are you ready?  Because I'm about to commence freaking out.