17 Jul 2012: Setting Off

Pretty much the entirety of my life for the next 20 days has been put into these bags.  The exception, of course, being Nikola, as I'm not very good at typing on a keyboard inside a backpack.  What a weird thought.  You might not find this so extraordinary, you people who do outdoorsy things and commune with nature and whatnot, but for me this is rather abnormal.  It may shock you, but I tend to overpack a bit.  I once went to quiz bowl nationals (a weekend quiz bowl tournament in Chicago) with a bag I would've had to check if we had flown, because I decided I was somehow going to sort through all my college spam that weekend.  (Instead, I went to a Mexican restaurant that I didn't want to go to and was grounded for it and, unrelatedly, played Mafia with Mississippi girls.  Long story.)

In any case, I'm going to be doing laundry in sinks and stuff, which will be an exciting and new experience.  I largely followed the advice of people who had done it before online.  They all say to be sure to fit everything in a single carry-on and leave at least some of your bag empty for souvenirs along the way.  I'm not exactly sure how they managed to do that.  My bag is pretty much full, and I followed their instructions as well as I could.  The only exception is clothes; I have a couple extra long-sleeve shirts because it's so much cooler over there than here, and my clothes are a bit dressier (--> heavier) because I'm presenting at a conference and everything.  (current temperature here: 36C.  current temperature in Glasgow: 13C.  also, sorry this blog is in metric, so there.)  They must have magical powers of cramming stuff into suitcases or something.

Speaking of advice, one thing I remembered from my Europe trip four years ago was to not wear anything with English writing on it or else you'll be branded as an awful tourist.  (Well, maybe not in the UK, but it just so happens that almost all of my clothing with English writing has an American placename on it.)  So the only non-collared long-sleeve shirt I have that doesn't have English on it is this one:

Aww yeah.  I don't know if I'm going to be brave enough to wear it like that, but luckily it's easily reversible - the only tag is on the side.  Alternatively I'll just buy something over there, but given my extreme distaste about entering clothing stores I'm not sure I'm going to be brave enough to do so.

Also, speaking of four years ago, we were also misinformed then to the purposes of a travel belt - we were told to use it for everything, but instead you're supposed to wear it somewhere inconvenient and store petty cash in your wallet.  Huh.  Funny how that works.

So, anyway, this will be my travel blog, and hopefully I'll update it about on a daily basis.  In less than an hour, I'll be being picked up by the incomparable Mark Bogner to head to the Lansing airport.  I'll be flying from there to Detroit, where I have about an hour between flights.  From Detroit I head to Amsterdam.  It'll be interesting flying trans-Atlantic again.  The last time I did, I only got about an hour and a half of sleep.  Maybe I'll get more now because I'll have a window seat and can lean against the window?  Also my sleep habits have definitely gone downhill a lot since high school.  In Amsterdam, I have about a four-hour layover.  Then I go to Glasgow.  (pronounced /glæz.gow/ - "a" as in "apple", "s" as in "is", "ow" as in "tow")  Oddly enough, despite being only a half an hour longer than my flight from Lansing to Detroit, lunch will be served on the plane from Amsterdam to Glasgow.  wtf.  Hooray for living in America, where we get budget service for big-name carrier prices.

The next time I'm sure I'll have internet access will be afternoon EST on Thursday, but I'll try to write down something tomorrow so you don't get two days in one post?  Maybe?

Flails,

Chris