It is my daughter’s 9th birthday today (May 21)! As I sit
in this indoor play area, Funarium, (complete with bikes, roller blades, slides, trampolines,
climbing walls, etc.) WITHOUT wifi, I
have a rare moment to reflect on our impending trip without much distraction. It’s T minus 40 days and
counting down to our planned one-year Worldschooling adventure and I am losing
quite a bit of sleep over it. I wake up in the middle of the night & my
mind focuses on something I have yet to do – something I still need to buy,
shots I still need to get, visas I still need to apply for… Or I simply worry
about possible dangerous scenarios – losing my daughter in a crowd, being robbed,
not getting a visa, getting malaria, running out of money and not finding a job,
or even getting kidnapped by a terrorist group! There are so many scenarios to
keep a mother awake at night!
Although I would love to be able to travel exclusively with carry
on, I am simply unable to cut down to such few items. My initial intention was
to stick to areas I am familiar with or well-traveled areas with many other
tourists, but there are a few places that will be rather remote which have
malaria, therefore I am packing a pup mosquito tent as a precaution. This takes
up quite a bit of space. We’ve packed & repacked our back packs multiple
times, but they are still heavier than ideal. However, we will be carrying some
souvenirs and teaching materials that we will leave with children and teachers
along the way, which means that these items will not be with us throughout the
trip. So, my daughter will carry her small backpack with personal items, I will
carry a large backpack with day pack and we will have one suitcase that is
small enough to be used as carry on when necessary.
Europe and North America are easy, but as we will be
traveling through Asia and Africa we have had to get many shots. Fortunately
for my daughter she was on schedule and only had to have 2 extra shots for this
trip. Unfortunately for me, most shots expire after 10 years, so I have had to
have 8 shots!! Of course, these are not covered by insurance & are costing
me hundreds of dollars. Not to mention, I’m trying to get anti-malarial drugs
(Malarone). This may not be an issue for people in the West, but I live in
Bangkok, Thailand, and I have been cautioned that it is very difficult to find REAL
Malarone here due to the prevalence of fake drugs in these parts.
We still have a number of hurdles to jump before we're out of here... My daughter's birthday pool party next weekend (can't wait to get THAT out of the way!)., finishing up the school year (always a hectic time for teachers), packing up and storing my stuff, closing accounts, & saying good-bye to name a few. Phew! Always something to stress over.
But today it's my daughter's day. She's made the itinerary and we have a number of stops to make. After this there's ice skating at Central World, then dinner at Swiss Corner. She already opened her "presents" which consisted of stickers with her name on it to tag all her possessions, a Friendship book, to have all her new friends along the trip sign, and a coupon book of experiences I made for her to cash in on along our trip, such as a camel ride, a snorkeling trip, a picnic hike, etc.
Happy Birthday, Lovebug!! It's going to be an eventful year!! :)
