J and I finalized our itinerary this week and made reservations with American Airlines for the 5-Continent OneWorld Explorer RTW ticket. We originally thought the ticket price corresponded to the country of origin. So, we were all happy, thinking that we beat the system by starting our trip in London to lower the overall cost of the RTW ticket. However, we were mistaken and the actual price of your ticket corresponds to the country of sale. For example, the same 5-Continent ticket costs $5100 if purchased in the US or 1909 GBP ($3600) if purchased in the UK. We really didn't want to pay an extra $3000 between the two of us so we started scheming ways to purchase the tickets in London, including (I kid you not) flying one of us to London over a weekend. That would've still been at least a savings of $2000! However, upon careful scrutiny of the terms and conditions of the OneWorld Explorer program, J found the following clause: "When travel originates in a country for which a specific local currency fares is published and the ticket is sold in another country, the fare will be that published for the country of origin converted to the currency of the country of sale at the bank selling rate. The resultant fare must not be lower than from the country of sale. Exception: Not applicable for sales made and/or travel originating in Canada." In English, it means that if we purchase the tickets in Canada we can pay the price that corresponds to the country of origin. This was verified by an American Airline representative. Luckily, we live 3 hours from Vancouver International Airport. Guess where we will be this weekend! Bless those Canadians!
Can you believe that at 27 years of age, I have never owned an iPod or a Zune? The closest two times I got was 1) owning a (at the time) state-of-the-art Sony Music Stick predecessor which held 16 songs during the pre-iPod era. 2) in 2005-ish I got an iPod original (mechanical wheel and all) from an unnamed friend who used to work for an unnamed company. The iPod was a research device owned by unnamed company but was SO old that they either lost track of it, or didn't care. What is one man's trash is another man's treasure.Anyhow, J came home last night and shoved a brand new Zune in my face as I turned a corner in the house. SURPRISE! Needless to say, I was bouncing off the wall for the rest of the night. There was no occasion. I love J! =)
J has never wanted to lug around a honking big camera during vacation. However, now that he has to working 4 days per week during our trip, I will have a chance to play with an SLR while exploring the cities on my own. I'm not the type of girl who's afraid to roam the city on her own, but at the same time I'm not stupid enough to think that there's no additional risk in being a single female traveler in an unfamilar city, especially a single female traveler lugging around a digital SLR. To minimize this risk, I decided to purchase a low-profile carrying case for my new Rebel.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Lowepro Flipside 200....
Other than the fact that it says "Lowepro" on it, it looks like a regular daypack. Also, access to the main storage compartment is on the side of the bag facing my back. Therefore, there's no way that someone can unzipper it and steal the contents. According to the Lowepro website and various user reviews, I can actually access the contents without having to set the backpack on the ground.
The other serious contender was the Crumpler 4 Million Dollar Home, but I couldn't imagine myself carrying the Rebel around all day on one shoulder. Though, it is much more attractive-looking.
J and I have been tweeking our trip itinerary. We realized that some of the things we've chosen to do is a definite stretch of our mission statement, but we were so excited at the prospect of doing these things that we couldn't let a silly guideline bog us down!
Major Changes
- Trip starts in London (a savings of $800 pp when compared to starting in Rome)
- Traded Madrid for Barcelona
- Added Buenos Aires stay to the itinerary
- Eliminated Singapore stop.
- Eliminated So. Cal segment
Trip Highlights
- South America cruise around Cape Horn from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Valparaiso (Santiago), Chile
- Extended beach house stay near Cairns, Australia
- New Zealand North Island vacation
On the domestic front, my freshman year roommate, IL, has graciously agreed to be a live-in house-sitter! This is a tremendous help for us - knowing that our house will be looked after while we're gone. IL will be starting at her new job at Microsoft in September. Watch-out you single Microsoft men!
My sister, M, is taking BubblButt (my car) while I'm gone. This will free up a garage space for IL to park her car while she's living here. My parents are coming for my Ph.D thesis defense in mid-September and have agreed to drive BubblButt cross-country to Boston. I think they're pretty excited about this road trip since they've never done it before. My mom enthusiastically told me about how she used the AAA website to create a detailed itinerary for their trip, but then later found out that she reversed drive and got a Boston to Seattle itinerary. We will also be transfering our Blockbuster Total Access to M which will help us keep our awesome grandfathered account - $18 for two-at-a-time, unlimited in-store exchange and one free game/movie per month.
Just one more month until my defense and two more months until we say "Good-bye, Seattle!"
J made a really good point yesterday. He said that I'm the type of person that if I know what product I want and I don't get it, I would waste more time trying to find the best deal, reading reviews, talking about it or thinking about it than actually playing with the real thing.
Here's the inaugural photo. Yes, it was actually the first photo it took. I even Windex'd the mirror. As you can see, I have already put in way too much thought. =)
I'm the type of person that once I know what I want, I'd immediately set the ball in motion to get it. However, in this particular case, I've had to say to myself many times, "Not until after the defense." So far, I've practiced an enormous amount of self-restraint. It's killing me!
On the up side, I just saved $100 because Costco now sells the Canon EOS XSI for $700 when it was selling for $800 less than a week ago!Not until after the defense!I got three needles stuck in me today. One for Tetanus, one for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) and one for Typhoid. Yes, that's right… Typhoid.
In preparation for our trip, I went to my doctor today to get immunized with pretty much whatever they had in stock. In addition to the three vaccinations I received today, Dr. L recommended I get a shot for Hepatitis A (pending the transfer of my health records), a flu shot and Malaria pills before I leave. Furthermore, I was also advised to be immunized for Yellow Fever and Japanese Encephalitis when I'm in the US during the Christmas holiday. My immune system will be having a party for the next three months.
It's amazing that despite the fact that I commonly perform injections during my graduate studies, I still have an inexplicable fear of needles. One look and my heart begins to race, my stomach gets queasy and I start hyperventilating. Couple it with blood and my knees gets weak. It's a good thing I'm not becoming a real doctor.
..... as they are locally during our visit.
Fall - Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, London, Amsterdam
Winter -Boston, San Francisco, LA, San Diego
Spring - Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai
Summer - Auckland, Sydney, Cairns, Singapore, Rome, Venice, Athens, TBD Beach House
Thanks to the tilt of Earth's axis, we'll be enjoying two summers in 2009!
Our trip started off as a joke between two deamers, but, somewhere along the way, it materialized into reality. In three months, I will have my Ph.D in hand and will be jetting off to all corners of the world! I can't begin to describe how excited I am!
As I said to J, planning this trip has been the most stressful thing since planning our wedding. I have 8 months and (literally) the world to work with. Where to even begin? And so, we thought it would be appropriate to have a mission statement to channel our focus:
To see the world in ways you can't do in two weeks, with kids or in your 60s+.
Yes, yes. Very dorky, but it works. Since discovering the OneWorld RTW Fare three days ago, we have slightly revised our mission statement:
To see the world in ways you can't do in two weeks, with kids or in your 60s+ while fully maximizing and exploiting the value of the OneWorld RTW Fare.
Yes, yes. Very Asian, but how can we resist?
Overall, we plan to stay in a couple of cities for longer periods of time using it as a hub to explore surrounding areas. We'll probably rent a furnished apartment for 4-6 weeks in each stop and do side trips on weekends. J is planning to keep his job and work remotely 4 days per week. I will be bumming around doing absolutely NOTHING! Ok, so I have a few projects in mind, but I usually don't have the discipline to do things on my own.
One of our biggest fears for this trip is loneliness. We will have each other, but we will know almost no one else! I have some family and friends in Sydney and Beijing, but we know absolutely no one in Europe! We hope to make some good friends along the way, but, we're hoping our friends from the U.S. will join us at various legs of our trip!