Tickets: booked!

So it's been a busy/stressful few weeks, but I'm happy to report that I have tickets in hand for my fall trip! I'm going out of the country (and taking more than a handful of days off) for the first time in over seven years! As I mentioned two posts ago, my sister and I had gone from thinking to go to India to thinking to go to Japan. Then we got a reality check when we found out that one woman we were thinking to stay with is now living back at home (she's in her early 20s), doesn't have the room to put us up, and is 45 minutes by train from Tokyo. Not really ideal!

Our planning/research languished for a couple weeks, but then my cousin in Cali, D, called me up to chat. I mentioned our latest trip-planning speedbump, and she said "You know Uma [D's sister] is working in Amsterdam right now, right? Why don't you go visit her?" Genius! I sent mail to Uma, got the greenlight from her to visit (and stay in her apartment), and then I had to try scaling the next speedbump -- buying the tickets. It took a week or so, and lots of consulting with various friends who travel a lot more than I do. But we finally have our tickets! We'll be heading to Amsterdam in mid-November (not really ideal, weather-wise, but cheaper, tickets-wise) and staying there for nearly two weeks. On the way back home, we'll stay in Reykjavik, Iceland, for a couple days. We may take the train from Amsterdam to elsewhere in Europe -- Belgium, Germany and even France are relatively close by -- but we haven't figured out those details yet.

I haven't been able to get fully excited for the trip just yet, as I have A TON of preparations to do before I can even start thinking about what to pack! Namely, I have to write up a bunch of how-to documents for my team on what I do for work, as none of them are really familiar with any of my tasks. On top of that, I have to do a pretty in-depth cleaning and decluttering of my condo, as a friend of mine from work will be staying at my place while I'm out to take care of Buster. But the biggest hurdle, buying the tickets, has at least been conquered!