Posts tagged leaving

I’m going to California; the Bay Area, specifically. I’m taking a route through Austin to grab a couple items I left with friends and then through a few more cities to spend time with friends and family while I make my way toward the coast.

Google tells me that it will take me 3,084 miles and 50 hours of driving. I told a friend about it and she asked how much time I had planned for it to take.. I said about 1 week and she said that was crazy. I realize now that with all the visiting included, this is going to take me a lot more time. Also, I’ll be working my regular job during the whole trip (not while I’m driving, of course).

I’ll leave around January 16 and probably wind up in the Bay sometime late January or early February.

If your city is on my path and you want to get food or something, let me know (contact info on the sidebar)!

Is it permanent? I don’t know. Do I have a place lined up to stay? No. Is there a job or a girl out there waiting for me? No.
I’m just.freaking.going.

10 hours left here. What an amazing journey it’s been. I’ve spent almost 4 months here. 3 birthdays, 3 going away parties, 2 weddings.. a mugging.. a hospital trip.. a romance.. a month straight with my relatives.. a month straight in the sand, sun and ocean on the remote island of Palawan.. a month living in Cebu.. a month living in Manila.. local friends.. friends from every corner of the world.. met family I never knew I had.. amazing food.. amazing people.. and a culture that I could have never experienced through books and movies alone.

I did what I set out to do: discover more about the world and discover more about myself. This trip has brought me more clarity of mind and peace than I had even hoped for.

People ask me if I’ll come back - you bet I will. I don’t know when, but this is not my last trip here.

I feel like I’m ready to return to the US. There are tons of things that I miss, but I still wonder what all I will miss from the Philippines. Will culture shock happen the other way around? I remember arriving at the apartment of Arbie, my couchsurfing host, on my first night after one of the wildest cab rides of my life and thought, “What the fuck am I doing here?”. Hardly any of it seems foreign to me anymore though. My lifestyle, having sold most all of my things, feels familiar and comfortable now.

I’m all packed. Had to buy an extra bag. I’ve acquired some extra things and my extremely generous relatives have given me various gifts to return to the States with for me and my family.

Ready or not, United States, here I come.

Particularly if you have small, loose items, use ziplock bags all the time.

• Get a few different sizes.
• Pack multiple smaller sets of bags into larger gallon-sized bags.
• Never try to squeeze stuff into one; always use a bag that is bigger than its contents.
• Other uses for ziplock bags: trash, wet items (I put my travel sized umbrella in one so that when I put it in my bag after use, it won’t get my other stuff wet; good for toiletries too), food.
• Good for electronics because they create a mildly water resistant cover. If you really care about your stuff though and plan on getting wet, get a dry sack.

watching Into the Wild for the second time (saw it around when it came out). It’s a movie about adventure, getting rid of all your possessions and leaving everything you know behind. Plus, it’s got both Jena Malone AND Kristen Stewart. I can’t lose.

Also, hello aesthetic voyager ;)

Some will say I left
Some will say I ran away
The truth: I sprinted

——

this morning I got back to Springfield, Illinois - the place that I grew up. I’ll be there for about three weeks hanging out with friends and family.

I lived in Austin, Texas for almost 4 years exactly. Yesterday was my last day in Austin.