Perseverence

Our plans become reality step by step. We bought $105 per person tickets for New Zealand from Kuala Lumpur, we just have to figure a way to get there. Mihai checks daily for cheaper airplane tickets. I continue to study Chinese (today I finished the first course with 102 hanzi, the squigly signs) and the children continue to live unperturbed, despite our commitment to make them interested in our plans.

We bought merino clothing from Icebreaker and jackets from Scottevest (they have plenty of hidden pockets). Ileana’s was little for her size so Ioan inherited it. He is happy to have a vest, but couldn’t he have one for men? (the smallest in men would have the sleeves up to his knees).

We started telling people our plans. The vast majority of reactions were of joy, we had offers to have our luggage caried or to be chaperoned. Our parents were initialy schoked, but they passed over it and now they are going to join us in China. This doesn’t mean that they are not going to be worried (with all these earthquakes in Christchurch or Japan and the revolutions in the North of Africa). For Mihai it was a little bit stressful to inform his boss and his collegues, but they were happy for him.

We don’t know if we are going to rent the house or not, but in May there is a whole village sale, so I’m selecting the things we don’t need so we can sell them (and in case that we are renting, it would be easier to pack).

Two Hundred Twenty Five

Guess what? You can only have an accurate countdown after you decide on a target day. We had some days counted before but we really didn't know when we leave. But now we know.  Since my last post we went back and forth between leaving October 23 or November 27, with two different plans. We were waiting for an answer from my job and checking some plane tickets and waiting. And waiting. I don't know for what, maybe for the right way to define the question. One day I realized that in the process of planning for this trip we ended up upside down. We knew the end but not the beginning. But since we actually don't know the ending, maybe we should just start at the beginning. Even though it would be a nice idea to end in Romania in December 2012, we might end our trip in September, or in June or in November. We'll know when we are done and when we are ready to come back. Or we'll just find out that the money is over and we'll have to come back.

I explained this to my director and during a five minute conversation he told me that I should just go ahead and decide. Looking at a calendar he had on the wall we chose my last day - October 15. Neither one realized that it's a Saturday and we don't work weekends. It just sounds good. October 15.

Saturday morning we bought our first tickets. It is amazing. Tickets for February 29, 360 days from now. Flying from Kuala Lumpur to Christchurch for less than $105 per person. Taxes, lunch and luggage included. It's a distance longer than from here to Europe. If I would find this ticket price for Europe we might just go every other weekend. Before this we had to decide on Asia or Australia first. Our parents were still undecided on coming to China. I asked if they might consider coming in November. They said no. But they said we should just make our plans as we think best. Started from Japan the trip could be 8000 miles shorter and at least $2500 cheaper. We don't have yet the plane tickets for Japan and we only have 225 days to get them and get on the plane... I'm working on it.

Crossing Into The Other World

Our secret plans are becoming public. We were living in a fantasy world for some time and now everything is becoming real. For us that was reality and the other world was living in its fantasy. In the real world there are a lot of people that we love and care about. They had no idea that we were planning for this. They never heard of anybody to do this. They say that this is everybody's dream, but nobody does it. They praise us and envy our children who might not know how lucky they are. They wonder if there would be anything left after that. How does somebody return to work and keeps going after they've accomplished their lifetime dream? They are scared for us and silently hope that we will come to our senses. They are excited for us and want to join us. And they are mad and hurt because we didn't share and kept this hidden for so long. They are worried about my job and the school. And on and on it goes, I love this range of answers to our disclosure. There will be more and more people to learn about this and hopefully more reactions to remember. We are working getting our story strait, some details need to be clarified. It might also help to have a script of how to start a discussion, how to break the news that we are leaving, how to say that we will go for 14 months.

For those who might start our blog here, let me make a short summary. We are a family of five Romanians from upstate New York and we are going around the world. We always wanted to travel, even thought about going around the world and we were waiting for the kids to grow and go, or for us to retire. After learning of some families who traveled extensively with their children we started to talk about it. In July 2009 we decided to do it. A few months later we realized that we have to do it. We can pull this through and we owe it to ourselves and to our children. Jokingly or not we can make it part of their homeschooling. We kept this hidden, just among the five of us, we waited to break the news face to face to our families in Romania. We did it in December 2010 during our winter vacation and they took it pretty well. After we came home we started to share the news with some of our friends and with the people I work for/with. We are counting the days and starting to wrap things up. We don't know yet when we would be leaving but we are clarifying our choices and moving forward.

As my daughter put it, we want to discover a "slice of the world", not just monuments and resorts, but people and cultures from four continents. For now the plan is to go west, we know the end, Maria's 18th birthday in Romania in December 2012. We will leave sometime this fall, before December 1st. We will have just the hand luggage and a limited budget and we will work our way through looking for shelter, food and fun, making arrangements and plans as we go. We are not talking about a long vacation, it is actually travel and it will not be easy, but we are ready for it.

Nightmares

I woke up last night with a terrible nightmare: I already bought the first two tickets of our RTW trip, I spent almost $7000 and I got tickets to a J....-j.... place somewhere in a colony of Brazil and from there to Surinam. We already decided to skip South America for this trip and this had been hard to accept. I had to justify it somehow, but this became easy when we realized that these places were on a different continent that was somehow hidden from the others (that's why we missed it the first time). There was a major issue getting from the hidden continent to the not hidden ones but at least it wasn't my fault. Having resolved this I felt a bit better but then I came to the worst part of the nightmare when I realized that I spent all the money for these places without having read about them and without knowing the weather! Eventually I woke up, I was relieved to realize we don't yet have the tickets. We are on vacation in Romania spending Christmas and New Year, we are letting families and friends know about our plans and making our secret plans public.

So far so good, people take the news pretty well, there is no secret that it is kind of crazy, especially for the life in Romania. We told my parents, Ileana's mother and sister, other people that are close to us. Some cheered, some got scared, obviously scared, but most people took the news very lightly and polite and moved the conversation to more pressing matters (like the daily life issues).

I am writing a draft letter to Airtreks trying to summarize our plans and our questions so far. We are now 301 days away from the planned departure and we could even buy tickets if we want to! This is something I played with last night and this would fully explain my nightmare. If this is what it takes, I'll take it...

Galápagos

This is a short summary of our trip in the Galapagos:

• Day 1-2 - Just travel 

We left our home on Thursday morning, 14 hours before the plane departure. We stopped for a few hours at the BMW dealership for the maintenance service and then kept driving toward JFK. We made it a couple of hours early, this was good because we had time to get back to the car and recover the forgotten water bottle. The kids were very good on the plane, slept almost all the time. We landed fine in Guayaquil and even stepped out of the airport for a couple of minutes. It looked to be a fine and interesting city, but no time for that. We were almost late for the Galapagos connection because Ileana wanted some ice-cream. We landed in Baltra just on time, and just in time for us to realize that we do not have the permit. We were among the first off the plane, but by far the last ones getting in because it took forever to fill the permit. After $500 and a long wait we were through, the buses left, but Freddy was there to offer us one of the cheapest cruises and some of the finest hotels. We passed on those, but got boat tickets. Of course the last ones, I didn't believe that, who would? Except that he was probably right.

Galapagos

Momeala a funcționat: suntem prinși, fără nici o putință de scăpare!

Am plecat cinci oameni cu patru bagaje de mână, trei schimburi fiecare, două subțiri și unul gros pe noi. Un bagaj era doar din scule, iar altul din cărți și caiete. Trebuia să verific dacă putem să mergem în jurul lumii cu atât de puține lucruri. Ce obiecte sunt bune, ce trebuie să schimbăm.

Înainte să plecăm ne-am făcut temele și am învățat despre Galapagos: istorie, geografie, păsări, animale. Am citit cărți și ne-am uitat la filme, am căutat pe internet informații despre ce trebuie să vizităm pe ce insule, în ce agenții să ne încredem, ce hoteluri să evităm. Pe scurt: ne-am dus pregătiți. Mental...Restul ne-a luat pe sus.

Another update

Getting ready for Galapagos. Emma is coming to Romania. Maria is taking the SAT. We spent $500 on swimming suits. Next week my old highschool friends are meeting in a restaurant in Bucharest and I cannot go because I will be in Puerto Villamil. Nobody knows and nobody asked and nobody cares where is that. It is at one of the ends of the world...
We spent a lot of money buying various things, a new videocamera, battery and memory sticks, headlamps, special towel, special sleeping bags, ear plugs, medicines and sunscreen. Then Ileana saw a book in the library and reading something there I found Coolibar, special clothing for being in the sun. And yesterday we got our $500 swimming suits. We didn't take it out of the house (we have freezing temperatures here now) but it was so cool to try it and we had one of those moments "How could we live without it until now?" There are three pieces each, long sleeves, long legs and a hat, but they are rated UPF 50+ sun protection, we are going to use it in Galapagos and in Australia and in Bali.

Maria is a bit stressed out with the SAT this week but she did a fantastic job preparing for it and she's going to do very well. She even sacrificed some of her time for Nanowrimo! Then Emma visited us last weekend, we talked about her life and her plans for travel, she's saving money for her Turkey trip and maybe also for Romania, she had no idea when she might go and how much she'll need. After spending a few minutes on the internet she had some clear plan and information and four days later she had a plane ticket. She is going to take the train from Istanbul to Bucharest and join us for Christmas. Today I asked jokingly if I should go and pick her up in Istanbul and Maria immediately wanted to come. A moment later she asked herself surprised: "When did I start to get excited about travel?" And we didn't even start yet.

We learned a lot about Galapagos and probably we are going to do very little and try to be very frugal. Land accommodations and day trips. We are saving for the big trip and cannot afford to blow our money on cruises or scuba diving. We booked a house for 5 nights but we don't have the first few days or the last week and we will leave it open for when we get there. We will get to the port, get on the available boat and find out then on what island we'll go first. We might go West to Isabella or go East to San Cristobal. And then when we land we'll look for a place to stay and stuff to do. How crazy is that?

Întrebări

Aseară ne-am uitat la "A Map for Saturday" un documentar făcut de un tip care a mers în jurul lumii (pentru el) și a intervievat pe cei cu care s-a întalnit, care si ei mergeau in jurul lumii, despre ce inseamna pentru ei sa treci printr-o astfel de experienta. Foarte bine facut documentarul (autorul lucrase in televiziune ca producator de emisiuni sportive). Ne-a spus despre faptul că s-a hotărât să plece, despre reacțiile celor cărora le-a comunicat decizia (variind de la șoc la încurajare), despre euforia care te cuprinde când îți începi călătoria, de senzația de sâmbătă permanentă, de relațiile pe care le faci, la început te legi foarte tare, apoi pe măsură ce înaintezi în timp, te bucuri de relație în prezent, apoi realizezi ca viața fiecăruia a mers mai departe și comunicarea devine superficială; de locurile și civilizațiile pe care le întâlnești, de curiozitate, de oameni, de progresele pe care le faci în a te descurca în această viață de nomad, de zidul de care te lovești, când cea mai frumoasă cascadă ți se pare obișnuită, pentru că ai mai văzut încă douăzeci, și cumva toate ți-au ajuns, de siguranța și sentimentul deosebit pe care îl ai când depășești zidul, de faptul că nu vrei să te mai întorci acasă și totuși o faci, te bucuri că ești acasă si ești trist, pentru că deși te întreabă cum a fost, nu sunt interesați de răspuns, pentru că n-ai cu cine să împarți experiența prin care ai trecut. O vreme continui să comunici cu cei pe care i-ai cunoscut in călătorie, apoi din ce în ce mai puțin, pentru că ești din nou preocupat de o viață sedentară și un serviciu cu program regulat.

Ne-a prezentat și faptul că nu avea un răspuns potrivit pe care să-l dea celor care câștigă aproximativ 300$ pe an cum a renunțat la un serviciu de zeci de mii de dolari pe an doar ca să se dea prin lume. Și imediat mi-am pus întrebarea: eu ce aș răspunde?...
Motivul inițial să fim împreună cu copiii, acum avem timpul, suntem sănătoși și cred că aș putea să mai lungesc lista. Dar pe măsură ce ne apropiem și mă gândesc cum voi face față, găsesc răspunsurile personale. Plec ca să învăț despre lume, dar de fapt ca să mă cunosc pe mine și ca un exercițiu de creștinism.
Viața mea de zi cu zi este protejată. Am un program pe care mi-l fac singură, sunt propriul meu șef. Am mai multe tichii: de soție, de mamă, de profesoara a propriilor copii, de bucătăreasă, de studentă (învăț chineza în vederea acestei călătorii și corespondez în italiană doar pentru a face efortul de a mă exprima într-o limbă străină)și de directoare la școala de duminică (tichie proaspăt achiziționată în această săptămână). Contactul meu cu oamenii este limitat și dacă ceva nu-mi convine, am timp să întorc pe toate părțile evenimentul, până fac pace cu el, dar nu înseamnă că am ajuns la concluzia corectă. Vezi lumea așa cum ești! Eu vreau să ajung să o percep așa cum este, fără prejudecăți, făra așteptări, să iau ceea ce este în prezent, să dau ceea ce am pe loc, un zâmbet, o mână de ajutor, un sfat bun, să mă bucur de toate ca și cum ar fi ale mele, știind tot timpul că nimic nu-mi aparține. Vreau să fiu mai bună, să nu mai judec lumea și pe ceilalți după măsura mea, să învăț să ascult, să mă interesez de alte persoane, să văd din punctul lor de vedere, să nu mai fiu egoistă. E cam greu să fac toate astea când stau acasă și mă ocup doar de familie.
Am luat hotărârea că vom avea doar bagajul de cabină. Asta înseamnă un total de 3 schimburi de haine, inclusiv cele groase si de ploaie! Lucrurile de toaleta vor fi doar în bagajele adulților, pentru situația în care vom dormi pe sexe (trusa de toaletă este încă în procesul de proiectare: vreau să fie ușoară și să conțină toate lucrurile de care ai nevoie când te duci să te speli, va fi special pentru familia noastră)
M-am gândit ce am putea să luăm cu noi să oferim celor care ne oferă ospitalitate. La ce ar putea folosi cineva o monedă de 50 centi cu chipul lui Kennedy pe ea sau o vedere cu New York? Sau cum poți să ajuți pe cineva care te-a impresionat cu povestea lui?
Nu am răspunsurile la aceste întrebări, dar sper să le aflu. Sper ca în drumurile noastre să ne întâlnim cu acele situații în care să fim buni, să vedem și din punctul celuilalt de vedere.

Shakira and us in Montreal

We are in Montreal on a 4-5 day vacation. Staying in a hotel on Rue St. Denis, I am typing this as Ileana, Ioan and Maria are playing a cards game. We left home yesterday morning and made it here 10 hours later after a pleasant drive, a couple of stops and one hour in traffic for the last 20 km. We wanted to come here for some time but never had the chance. Several things happened. Shakira announced her first concert of the new world tour. Ileana and the kids only cared about their two-week camp, initially they didn't see a need for another vacation. Then they had the camp and came back exhausted and begging for a trip. I used their time away to work more and I needed a break. We didn't buy tickets for the concert at the beginning, even thought of not buying at all, or just trying to get one at the door at the last moment. Anyhow, they had a good deal online and we got cheap tickets.

First Post!!! (Ileana's first post)

Ever since I was little, I have wanted to travel. I never really had an actual reason for this, and was quite put off when my daddy told me to invent one. So after he hounded me for my little essay for a couple months, and after I realized he wasn't going to shut up about it, I sat down and wrote it. Here it is:


WHY I WANT TO GO AROUND THE WORLD

I want to go around the world for a number of reasons. I haven’t yet figured out which one first made me decide to travel the world, but all in all, these are my motives

• I like vanilla ice cream :-)
• I was hit by a car
• My name is Ileana Dascalu
• I was born that way
• I want to travel and see places
• I am secretly planting atomic bombs (just kidding)
• And I want to!

Explanations may be given.

I don’t see the connection between traveling and vanilla ice cream, but it is very important, I’m sure.

Being hit by a car made me realize that life is short and I could die any second. So with this in mind, I want to do something crazy!

What does my name have to do with this? It’s my identity, it’s who I am, and travel is part of that.

I’m pretty sure “I was born that way” is self-explanatory, as is “I want to travel and see places”.

Um... The atomic bombs were a joke, so I won’t go into that....

And, again, “I want to!” pretty much explains itself.

So, yes, I am going around the world, whether or not it’s this year, or the next, or when I’m 64, I have decided and, as Maria put it,

“Ileana is like a cat. She does what she wants, when she wants, if she wants.”

And you can’t change that.

So... yeah, that's pretty much it. This is my first post!!! Yes, we're going around the world!!! Eventually.... and I just lost terribly in a game of Whist!! (just when I was getting off my losing streak...)

The First Year

It's been a year since I started this blog. It's been a little over a year since we decided to do this. How we changed and how our life has changed.  How much did the kids grow during the last few months. It is hard to describe the specifics but it is impressive. We have a goal, we are building a plan and in the same time we are still living our lives. Everybody works as hard as possible and we spend our free minutes talking, reading, learning, dreaming. 

Almost every word and every action is marked by the thought of our trip. Ioan's 10th birthday in November was the last one that he spend home until his 14th. Maria's next birthday in our house will be as an adult. We will not be home for the next three Christmases. Yesterday we installed the window air conditioners and I only have to do this once until we get back. So many major and minor things. Ileana has worked so hard on her garden, but she is getting used with the idea that it might all be lost. We had our first garage sale last month and we got rid of many things with a mix of various feelings. We made $435 (after Emma got her 10%). With Emma's help, Ileana and the children did all the work and knew all along why they did it. It is July and finally summer, it is hot and hard to work. My children had 2 weeks of vacation last month and started their new school year with determination and without any complaints. Everybody else is on vacation but they will have their time "when we go".



Maria contributed her first post to this blog and was surprised: "You had this for a year and you never said a word???" She is now the third author and the third person who knows about this web site.

A Slice of the World

So we're going around the world and I'm supposed to write an essay about why I want to go, so that people don't tell our parents that they're crazy.

Truth be told, I can't think of a single good reason. I have lots of mediocre ones though. Who said a reason has to be 'good' anyway? This fact alone: the fact that I don't have one single reason to go around the world-- probably makes me the least willing person in the family.

But I'm stalling at this point. So here are my reasons:

I want to drive in a camper in the Australian outback.

I want to visit Christchurch; excepting for the fact that it is in New Zealand, I have no idea what it is, but Dad's mispronunciation of the place's name and subsequent surprise over the occurrence have aroused my curiosity.

I want to relax in Malta.

I want to see the Hayao Miyazaki museum in Japan, no matter what I said when Ileana first suggested it.

I want to taste Indian food.

I want to smell a Sahara.

I want to touch an ostrich or a rock in Africa.

I want to hear the silence in a temple or the noise in a Turkish market.

Looking over the list, I suppose I want to experience the world. Not just see it-- I want to smell, taste, hear, and touch it. Because just 'seeing' is what's on the front of every postcard. I want not only a postcard, but a slice of the world.

And when I've had that slice, I want to write about it. I want to share it with the people who can't have that slice firsthand. That's my reason.