the actual travel blog...

please go to http://trollpilgrimage.blogspot.com/ for the travel blog about the trip... i did not realize it had a separate address...
cheers!

last evening...

I just came from a small dinner party at Malay Satay Restaurant, amazing food. I said my final good bye to my friends from the south end (Beacon Hill and Columbia city) awesome and sad, i was also tired from last minute chores.
So, i gave myself two months, ten days, to get ready for trip and get out of apartment... i can't believe i was cleaning out the apartment until today midday. tomorrow early i go to airport...
i had so much help from so many friends to get to this point of my trip... i am fairly independent but moving, is the one time i really need to rely on others, and i had more than enough help. rides to places. people getting me boxes. people hanging out with me while i was doing tedious sorting and boxing. i got invited out for drinks and dinners as farewells..
and what i liked most is at the end, i got to spend whole days with special peeps to really connect and bond.
my move into storage went exceptionally well and the reports back i got was that it was not too painful for the others. the prices for storage went up a lot. i am chocking at the price. but one year of storage cost as much as many people's monthly mortgage payment, so i am using that to bolster me as travel fund gets a big bite out of it.
then i lived in the almost empty apartment for another week. It was surprising how long those last little bits take. Last time i took only two weeks to get my affairs in order, it was such a frenzied blur i remembered nothing from that experience. this time round i had enough time to be conscious of it all.

when people ask me details about my travel plans, i have nothing to give, since i really havent done my homework. I am kind of winging it, because i find over planning travel more painful. When i first started traveling i used to do so much homework mostly to sooth my nerves. The minute i got a little comfortable with travel i turned into a planning slacker...so tomorrow 8:30am I will fly to Rome

storage finally

tomorrow is the big move into storage.. i will have ten days left after that to play and not sort stuff..nice change of pace.
I basically have too much stuff, especially if i wanted a small storage unit and pay less in storage fees. i think the reasons artist need to sell art is so that it does not consume there living and storage spaces... a project i will worry about when i get back from next trip.. even though i feel i am paying too much for storage... it was another key turn in my mind, unlocking something in me to open up to the trip ahead. once things are in storage, it will be a 'done deal' it will feel irreversible like when i walked away from a safe job... i called it a wonderful kind of choicelessness to my friend today..... each step making reversal more difficult and therefore enabling the causes of starting something new to unfold...so tomorrow, just physical lugging..simple enough

Sorting, tossing...breaks...

so...getting those threads to all come together. got my passport in mail all fresh and new..with the latest techno chip in it...so i am easier to track by powers that be..
my first week off from work, i got a nice little cold.. i fought it all the way..but it took a lot of my steam away...
i am not very systematically ..efficiently etc.. going thru my belongings... and i am throwing out and giving away less than i should, so far.. i keep acting like it's a dry run for the real thing...tisk tisk..
i have had a few friends come over and baby sit...well actually two so far... they sit on couch, we chat, i go thru my boxes and sort..
i also have gotten fresh air excursions away from my piles....
this last saturday.. losing all sense.. i wasted almost the whole day playing on my lap top...feeling duly chastened from that experience i am now, more on track...
but all in all i thought i would have more time? like time to read unfinished books and paint unfinished paintings... and making more tea time with friends... i am hesitating on putting myself on some sort of schedule cuz it will feel too much like work... but i also want the bulk of work done so i can enjoy my last few days in seattle..
well, i am in the fretting stage of my adventure... familiar territory for sure..

good bye party... at work

on friday, i had good bye party after work.. half the peeps that showed up, funnily enough, were ex employees of that agency. Something about that place creates a sense of connection with people who have worked there. I have so many good damn friends that i've meet thru my job in the two incarnations i was there. this time saying good-bye, I really felt i know what that means... the first time i did not hit me. this time round, it all feels a bit deeper.
i got a little too lit.. but i also walked away with tremendous amounts of warm fussies.
then the following night. M's birthday, i got to see more peeps to say good bye to... Ironically i will prob keeping running into everyone for another two months before i really do get out of here.
today i bought my one-way plane ticket to Rome Italy, 3-30-10 unfortunately it is United Air lines. but it is cheapest i could get.
photo album link: http://picasaweb.google.com/troellchen66/LlaaGoingAway10?authkey=Gv1sRgCNzctvW5uq64tQE&feat=directlink

just thinking about prep'ing for travel..sitting on couch

1-14-2010... sitting here on my couch, one week before i quite my job. i tried getting passport renewed today..but misplaced it temporarily.. i've been procrastinating..

i am practicing at work to throw things out cuz i am not good at that yet...

i am advantaging the opportunity of having insurance for half more monthses.. but beginning to find the numerous doctor visits and dental visits a bit tedious... and temporary fears that call backs generate, draining...

Seattle is reminding me of why winters are psychologically tough here... lots of rain... and it is the dark month.. my own lack of energy and motivation is mirrored by the people around me....


finding it hard to concentrate at work... last minute connecting and reconnecting with people.. i wonder how many of them i will meet again and again...if i return to Seattle, and work nonprofits here??..

...........but yes... now it's that time to buy the flight ticket, pick up credentials for the pilgrimage and find out about the long term visa for India... and I've been dawdling ...this time of departure came sooner than expected...I've gotten all this done before, the last long trip.. although that seems like vague dream now and hard to believe it really ever transpired.... i do believe a have a reciept or two from back then to proof it did?.. point is i have some sort of evidence that i can do all this again...