Pack(ag)ing

So the time has almost come when I get to actually do some traveling (it will be here this Tuesday at 7:00pm to be exact).  Although I am obviously excited to be embarking on a journey that has been many months in the making, but I was a bit unprepared for the sadness I feel to be leaving Newton.  I don’t feel any attachment to the city per se, but I certainly feel connected to the people (my friends and family) and all the memories I have here.  Not that I am leaving for good, but it’s still a big step for me.  I want to give a special shout-out to Gaul, my “brother-lover-best friend” who I will miss dearly while I am away.  He has always been my go-to guy when I need a cheering up, so I’m a bit nervous to be without that support for a while.  O well, I’ll make do.  I always have! J

Sadness aside, I am in full-on packing mode from now until Tuesday.  It’s a tedious process to cram a month’s worth of my life into a backpack, however big the backpack may be (which is one of the benefits of making, and then cancelling, plans to hike the Appalachian Trail).  When I was in Iceland, looking at our guide’s pack, I realized why I had so much more stuff than him:  It wasn’t the clothes; as my friends will tell you with a cringe, I have no problem wearing the same shirt and pants for many days on end.  Instead, it was all the stuff that I am so used to having in this wonderful country of ours that people from most other nations do fine without: The contact solution, contact case, glasses, floss, sets of silverware, bug spray, sun screen, and iPod (and all its accessories).  Not that all of those things are useless, but everything we have seems to be bigger and covered in more packaging.  Just an observation.  Don’t know where I was going with this, but hopefully I’ve contributed to the general knowledge pool of the world.

I’m off to go pack.  Look for updates while I travel (and hopefully some pictures too). 

Cheers,
Ben