One Week Out - Pack Review

One week from today I will be in Mongolia.  Kind of hard to believe now that I think about it.  This last week will be filled with tying up loose ends, seeing friends for the last time for a few months, and starting to plan out things to be sure to see on the trip!

This will be part one of my posts covering the gear I will be bringing.  This time I will tell you about my pack pictured below.

That is the Osprey Waypoint 85.  It is an 85 liter pack that has a 15 liter detachable (pictured on the left) which leaves the main compartment 70 liters.  I think the detachable day pack will prove useful when I have to carry all my stuff since it can easily zip back on to the main compartment.  Another handy feature is the strap protector.  This is basically a zip up sleeve that covers all the straps that make it a backpack.  When travelling, if a strap gets caught in the machinery or on anything else, the baggage guys usually will just cut the strap.  This attempts to cut back on the likelihood of that happening which will be nice since this bag will be going on many planes in the near future.

So that is the pack that will carry all of my stuff for 4.5 months.  Hopefully it holds up! My dad found it for $45 at the REI used gear sale.  I think it was marked down so much because it was missing the day pack.  That was easily replaced by Osprey for another $40 which still placed the pack at a very reasonable price compared to most of the brand new options.

Well that's it for now for my gear review.  Stay tuned to hear more about the rest of the stuff I am bringing!

-WG

Summer

It is finished! One of the most difficult semesters of my educational career is finally done! Time to relax and recuperate for a while before starting up at work for the summer.  So here is where the trip stands as of the beginning of summer.

There have been a few changes over the course of the semester that will change the trip significantly.  First of all, Dr. Norton's wife will be having a baby this September!  Needless to say, she and the kids will no longer be joining us on the trip unfortunately.  Dr. Norton will only be able to join us for certain countries now rather than joining us for the whole trip.  I believe that there will be certain classes or portions of classes that we will wait to take until Dr. Norton is with us.

Also, there has been another slight change to the itinerary.  We have added Bolivia to the list of countries we will be visiting!  After landing in Peru we will be bussing over to Bolivia to do some work there.  That will put our country list at nine: Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Hungary, Peru, and Bolivia.

Now begins the summer of waiting and prepping!  Time to begin accumulating the small amount of gear I will need and getting that all packed up.  Time to begin working so I can cover the extra travel costs.  Time to spend time with family and friends that I will not get to see for a few month after I leave.  This summer will be a time to reflect on God's grace and all the blessing He pours out on us,  especially the blessing of this opportunity to "See the World and Share the Word," my new personal motto and mission for this trip.

So this is where we stand at the beginning of the summer.  Hopefully things will not change too much between now and August 5th, our departure date.  If anything changes before then I will be sure to let you all know here!

Blessings in Christ!

Tickets

The tickets have finally been purchased!  After working everything out, the itinerary has changed a little.  We will no longer be going to Israel but all the other countries are still on.  Now we will just be spending a little more time in each of the other places instead which is fine!  That leaves the country list at Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Hungary, and Peru.  We will have layovers in some neat cities as well so hopefully we will get to check those out for a little!  Those include Seoul, Frankfurt, London, Dubai, New York City, and Vienna!  We might even get to take a ferry through Slovakia on the way to Hungary! That would be awesome seeing as I am Slovak!  If we do I would touch down in all countries that my ancestors have come from: China, Slovakia, Germany, and England!

Now comes the time to start looking at vaccinations and such.  Getting all the logistics figured out can be confusing but definitely worth it! Still working on fundraising so if you would like to help me shoot me an email!

Beginnings

If you are reading this, you have probably heard that I will be studying abroad next semester on the Around-the-World trip offered at Concordia!  This is a great opportunity and I am thankful I have been blessed with the chance to participate in this!

Now some of you may be wondering what this trip entails.  If that is you, read on!  If that is not you, read on anyway!  Basically, in one semester, a group of Concordia students and faculty will circumnavigate the globe.  The students have been selected and we have a big group!  There will be 28 students, 3 professors, 2 wives of professors, 5 children of professors, and 4 graduate assistants putting the total travelers at 42!  As of now, the trip is as concrete as it will ever be, meaning that things will not change unless something drastic happens (ie political turmoil in one of the countries, natural disasters, etc).  We will visit 9 different countries over the course of 4.5 months (August 5th - December 17th).  We will visit them in this order: Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Ethiopia, Israel, Hungary, and finally Peru.

Here is a video put on by the group that went last year:
http://www.cui.edu/admissions/undergraduate/aroundtheworld.html

We have already met as a group at Dr. Norton's house (one of the professors on the trip) for ethnic desserts and fellowship.  Getting to know the group is an exciting process!

So what exactly will I be doing on this trip you may ask?  Well it will not be all fun and games to be sure (though both fun and games will still be included)!  While traveling, I will be taking 15 units of courses including Foundations of Language, Travel Writing, Postmodern Novel, Epic Literature, and Service Learning Practicum.   These along with three 1-unit classes (Global Cultural Studies, Understanding Cultures Anthropologically, and Cross-Cultural Communication Awareness) which I will take next semester will give me a minor in Global Cultural Studies when I finish.  There will be a mission component in each country as well.  This can span anywhere from helping to teach English to helping run a Week-of-Welcome for new students at the Mongolia International University.

A trip of this magnitude will obviously be more costly than a normal semester at college.  Leading up until the time I leave, I will be trying to raise funds to help cover the extra cost of the trip.  If there are any odd jobs that I can do for money let me know!  Also if you would like to donate to help me go on this trip send me an email and I can give you more information on how you can make it tax deductible!  If you have any other questions about the trip, let me know and I will be happy to answer them to the best of my abilities!