Tag: Packing Posts

One More Week

 Journal

At exactly this time in one week, I’ll most likely be heading down to Vancouver International Airport for my flight to Tokyo, Japan. That means I only have five or six more days to get everything sorted again before I take off – I’m starting to feel the pressure! The most pressing issue is packing up my room and taking everything down to my storage locker. My brother in law is coming on Friday to help me move my bed back to Chilliwack, and I need to have everything sorted and boxed up by then. That means the next two nights are likely to be busy. But the bright side is that I should be mostly done in time to enjoy the weekend. On Monday or Tuesday (I still haven’t decided yet), I’ll make my way to a hotel and have a little breather before I leave. Back in January […]

Some North American Shopping

 Journal

I have this fear, especially as a guy with a bit of meat on his bones, that it’ll always be hard for me to obtain clothing in other countries. It is probably unfounded, as not everyone in Buenos Aires was rail thin, but it’s still one of the things I worry about when abroad. It’s frustrating enough buying clothing for myself in North America and having things not fit my Ukrainian physique, but when you toss in a language barrier as well, it’s not something I’m entirely looking forward to attempting one day. That’s why prior to all my trips so far I’ve made a point of buying some new clothes that will (hopefully) last the duration of my trip. A few weeks ago I bought a few new pairs of shorts, something I haven’t done in about a year. I actually tried to buy some summer clothes before going […]

Building Or Rebuilding A Storage Locker

Tips

When I returned from Europe in April, I went down to my storage locker to grab a few items. Unfortunately, five months of boxes sitting on each other had taken its toll, and a few of them had shifted and fallen. Thankfully nothing was broken, but it was pretty clear that I needed to spend a bit of time rebuilding my locker at some point this summer. Yesterday I went to the locker and spent about two hours rebuilding everything. Based on the experience, here are a few pointers I would give to anyone putting their stuff away into a storage locker for an extended trip: Use high quality boxes. It’s easier and cheaper just to use whatever boxes you can find around, or that people bring you. But almost as a rule, all professional storage boxes I had in my locker were fine when I returned, and many of […]

12 Days Left Until To Thailand

Thailand

I’m down to 12 days until I leave to Thailand, and it’s definitely fast approaching. My friends Scott and Samantha leave tomorrow, so I’ll get to starting watching their Facebook stream in the next few days to see my first glimpses of Thailand. I spent the last few days camping up at Cultus Lake, which is one of my favourite summer activities. It was pretty much perfect weather, other than being a tad cold at night, and was really enjoyable and relaxing. I have all my camping gear in my car right now, and am going to start getting it ready this afternoon to put back into storage for probably another year. Tomorrow I plan on spending the entire day sorting out my storage locker out in Chilliwack. It’s been almost nine months since I put the first few boxes into my locker, and some of them have started to […]

The Countdown Is On For Thailand

Thailand

I just got back from a four day whirlwind trip to the Toronto area. That means I have another 4,000 miles of flying under my belt this year, putting my grand total somewhere around 50,000 miles since January I believe. The trip back to Vancouver was pretty rickety with turbulence, but I was working on my laptop which helped distract me from the fact that I was hurtling through the atmosphere in a big pressurized pop can. Thailand is fast approaching, and I’m down to only 18 days to get ready. While I’m looking forward to seeing a new country and meeting up with some friends, I can’t say that I’m terribly excited about the three day journey to get to Koh Samui. I think I leave Vancouver on Wednesday, August 31st in the afternoon, and end up in Koh Samui on Friday morning. All in all I think it’s […]

Homeless In Two Weeks

Preparation

Today marks the two week mark before I’m officially homeless. It’s the first big milestone for my adventure, and I’m looking forward to finally hitting that point. I have about 80% of my apartment boxed up, with only the kitchen to go. I’ll slowly box up the remainder this week, and hopefully start transferring everything into storage next weekend. Tomorrow my landlord is bringing some people over to look at the place and hopefully rent it out. He hasn’t seen the apartment in about six months, so hopefully he doesn’t find anything wrong with it. I’m counting on getting my full damage deposit back to put as a deposit for my place in Buenos Aires, so I’m going out of my way to make sure there’s no fault when I’m out of here. That’s why I’m also paying for house cleaners to come on the 29th and do one final […]

60 Days To Go

Preparation

Today is November 4th, and my flight to Buenos Aires leaves on January 4th, 2011. That means there are only 60 days left to go until I depart on my big adventure. It wasn’t that long ago I was doing a post in celebration of 150 days to go, and now here we are at the two month point. I’m heading to Mexico tomorrow via WestJet in Vancouver. I spent most of last night packing my suitcase and trying to get my apartment as clean as possible in case my landlord decides to show the apartment while I’m gone. In truth, there really isn’t too much more to do in my apartment when I return. Other than the kitchen and a single closet full of hanging clothes, I’m pretty much packed at this point. Which is good, because I’m anxious to get everything into storage when I return. I return […]

Making Progress

 Journal

I haven’t blogged about my upcoming trip in a while, so I thought I’d do a quick update. I have one room officially boxed up, and the living room is mostly packed as well. The next big chore is to go through all my old clothes and get rid of anything I no longer wear. After that, I can box up what’s left of the bedroom, and then start working on the kitchen. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t take me too much longer to get the rest all boxed up, but at this point if I go too much further it’s not going to be very exciting living in my apartment anymore. I sold my TV a while ago to someone who was interested, and have been using my laptop to watch movies ever since. That’s fine and all, but it seems strangely quiet in my apartment while only watching TV […]

Things To Take Along

Preparation

My goal on my trip is to get myself down to a single backpack when I leave. It’s obviously going to be a pretty technologically heavy backpack, but it’s still going to be pretty light. Most people I know who have traveled say that the amount you enjoy yourself on trips is inversely proportional to the amount of stuff you bring along, and I can totally believe that. That’s not to say you can’t purchase items when you arrive, because that’s what I plan to do. But in terms of what I take along, here’s a short list of what I’m planning on taking: 13″ Macbook Pro (just got it — nice and light) Apple iPad Mini-DV to Composite Cable (I have to buy one yet, but for $20 it means I can hook my laptop up to any TV and watch movies) A few pairs of jeans and t-shirts, […]