Stuff.

How much stuff does someone really need? 

Material possessions are important. I believe that. It changes the quality of your life. Allows you to do things that make you happy. I own six bikes. They all serve a specific purpose. Riding each one makes me feel calm, yet powerful and confident. Our Mini always puts a smile on my face and judging by the looks and smiles and cameras pointed our way, seems like it makes other peoples' days too. I like my clothes. Some make me feel cozy and warm, some allow me to work out hard yet remain comfortable, others make me look professional and project seriousness to my coworkers and potential employers. 

I won't go through everything I own and why it's important, but thinking about stuff has been on my mind a lot lately. First when Nilit and I were packing our apartment into a storage unit, and then again when we were both packing for our trips to Guatemala and India. When we were packing our apartment and doing so was taking longer than expected, Nilit frequently heard from me: "Where did we get all this... stuff!?"

Of course, I can probably really tell you where each thing actually came from or why we bought it. We aren't hoarders, and we readily donate things or throw them away when they're not necessary. Before moving, we gave a few boxes of clothes to a coworker who was giving them to Hurricane Sandy victims through his church. And after we had most of our things packed for storage, we had a whole car full of clothes and other potentially useful things to give to Goodwill.

Still, we had a whole PODS unit filled with our possessions (as you can kind of see in Nilit's picture posted here). These are the things we decided we wanted to keep, for one reason or another. Some things have sentimental value, others have practical value, and a few things are just pretty to look at or remind us of a wonderful person or time or place from our lives. It's stuff that we want with us long-term.

For the short-term though, we spent a lot of time thinking about mobility while we're traveling abroad and making sure we aren't hauling random stuff around the world. I am a planner and an over-thinker. I've spent a lot of time thinking about personal comforts and necessities. First, it was the essential stuff: What practical things are absolutely necessary for the work we will be doing? What do I need to take for everyday hygiene, health, and sleep? 

Here's the other thing: we are absolutely, positively stepping out of our comfort zone soon. Our living quarters are going to be small. We are going to areas of Guatemala and India where we will be uncomfortable in ways we don't even know yet. So for me, it was important to ask myself this: What would be nice-to-have everyday? When I'm a little down, or when things suck and I'm uncomfortable, what will make me happy? What will be a good outlet or make it feel just a little bit like home?...but still not take up much space? 

As it turns out, when you ask these questions and are truly honest with yourself, you really aren't left with much.  

Before...*

After!

*Personal not-for-sharing-on-the-world-wide-web type stuff omitted or hidden

I am sure that I will encounter at least a handful of moments when I wish I had taken that one thing, or thought of how useful some other thing would have been. But, I'll get over it. After all, we are going to places where people comfortably live their whole lives in these towns. Maybe we will learn something about patience and comfort and true necessity.

Until then, I miss my bikes. (See you real soon, Tessa!)

;) 

Shreya

Donations

Hey everyone!
As we're getting ready for our trip we've (mostly Shreya, I'm slacking) been posting on the 'book (of Faces)
about what we are taking and how we are getting ready. Everybody's been like "awesome", "you guys rock",  and "can't believe you're not taking your solar powered xbox so you can be ready for zombie apocalypses". Well, its time for us to turn the tables and say "right back at ya" (well maybe not about the zombie apocalypse). Please donate on our personal (yeah we're intimate like that) fundraising page:
https://maestropay.com/uniteforsight/volunteers/ref/817bc278dc574a19b4b0795c4266933d
This donation will directly help us to get out to rural areas and provide free eye care, check-ups, cataract surgeries and provide blindness prevention resources in India. It helps us, it helps them, and it helps you (tax deductions, yo!). Win. Win. Win.
Also, for everyone who donates I promise to like and comment on every Facebook post you make (yeah, that's right. Every. Single. One. Try me, I dare you!). Also, friend me on Facebook...it'll make that guarantee easier for me :)
Thanks!
~Nilit
P.S. Check with your employer, a lot of them will match your donations!

PODS Diving

What a day. After a night with a giant knot in my stomach, I woke up and took Shreya to the airport. We were kind of in a daze. We had a plan that minimized our losses regarding the packed away passports and were ready to move. For some reason we didn't think about splitting up until late last night. After dropping off Shreya at the airport I was laser focused on getting back to the apartment and finishing up the last bit of unplanned packing. Since we had access to the PODS storage unit, I could drop off some of the miscellaneous items we forgot after I tried to fish out the passports. We were lucky to have a second opportunity to finish up our storage packing . Driving back from the airport proved to be a challenge. DC gave me one last lesson about beltway traffic as there was an accident and Google Maps gave me an estimated time to get home at about 10 a.m. That made the trip from the airport about 2(!) hours. Luckily I was able to take some side streets home, pack up the last of our items that needed to be stored and get to the storage facility by 10:15 a.m.

As I approached the PODS facility I was still going through my head what I needed to do to get our passports. I wasn't sure if I would need to unload most of our stuff to get to the desk, or if I could climb over everything, weasel my way to the desk, and find enough room to slide the passports out of desk drawer. I went to the front door of PODS building and it was locked. Hmm...I knocked on the door and the manager came to the door very cautiously and asked if it was safe to open the door. I gave him a confused look, and he laughed pointing at the pair of scissors in my hands. I didn't realize I was clutching them with blade exposed (oops). I told him it was safe, it's not like I was running with them...

After he cautiously let me in he told me his perspective about the 9:45 p.m. call he received the night before on his work phone (he wasn't exactly jumping for joy). I thanked him to no end that he actually answered the call and helped setup the storage pod for my visit. He was actually very nice and fun to talk to. So far all of the people that I have interacted with at PODS have been really really great.

After the storage pod was brought out, I figured out a plan to get past the loose items in the back and get to the nicely packed heavy items in the front. I had assumed that the table that contained the passports was somewhere in the middle, just past the box spring for our bed, futon frame, and cushion. I climbed over a couple of boxes and squeezed between the top of the box spring and the wood crossbeam at the top of the pod. Check out the final picture of the pod after I broke the passports out of their jail: 

Jail-broken Passports 

You can see the gap between the box spring and wood beam towards the top of the picture. It looks smaller in the picture. I think I breathed a GIANT sigh of relief when I took this shot. Needless to say I didn't let the passports out of my sight after getting them out. There was still a good chance I could leave them in the warehouse, apartment, car, airplane, trash can, and any other place I could possibly set them down. I've made it back to AZ and I still have the passports. I think all of my blog updates from now on should mention the status of the passports.

Saying Goodbye.

The rest of the day was a blur of packing, cleaning, and mounting up the new (to us) bike racks. I took a lot of our left over nonperishable foods (along with pots/pans and some wine and beer) over to my sister's place and they housed me for the night. They are going to be watching over the Scooby and Mini while we are away. The Scooby had already made its journey over to their place. I loaded up the Mini with our road trip gear and bikes, wished our former apartment complex a hearty good bye and left Silver Spring for the last time as a resident...Yep, we'll miss this place for sure even after its last attempt to keep us within its city limits.

Nilit

Ay, Pod.

Well, we havent traveled much yet, but the adventures have already begun! We moved out of our apartment yesterday and put our possessions in a Pods unit. Moving always takes forever and a half. We had been boxing stuff up for days, and were still rushing around to get things done on moving day. The Pod came in the morning, movers came and shuffled everything into it, the Pods guy came back in the afternoon, we locked up the unit, and it was finally off on a truck to a storage facility. With the exception of two backpacks, some clothes, and two bikes, everything got locked up and taken away yesterday. Everything. It wasn't until we were cleaning up the apartment at night that we realized - um, wait. Where our are passports?!?

Sh!t.

"I thought they would have been in this yellow folder here!"

"Crap, I kept them in the other folder in that one drawer in the desk!"

"Crap, THAT is the ONE drawer I didn't check was empty!"

Both of our faults, really.

The folder they were in also had our other important documents like birth certificates, SS cards, and marriage license. Two of which we would need to get new passports....

Double sh!t.

Our flight was the next morning at 9:15. And the Pods unit, while accessible to us, wouldn't be available until 10am.

AAAHHHHhhhhhhh.

I will make a long story short, but it turns out that in order to get two super expedited passports (we leave for Guatemala in 2 weeks) and have them look up your US records (to ensure citizenship without documents) costs nearly exactly the same as changing two flights to Phoenix arriving right before Christmas. Which is to say, it is VERY expensive.

So, we changed plans. I took the flight in the morning to avoid having to pay for 2 changed flights, and Nilit dropped me off then went to the Pod in the morning to fish out the passports & papers. The desk was one of our heaviest items so the movers took it out early, which means it was alllll the way in the back of the Pod. We weren't sure if the drawer would be accessible without unpacking the entire rest of the apartment from the Pod.

Turns out, it was all the way in the back like we thought, but there was a small gap to open the drawer. Good thing Nilit is light and a good climber.

Picture Nilit sent me from the Pod. SUCCESS!

He's headed to Phoenix tomorrow morning, passports in hand :) We are both looking forward to some  laid back time with family for the holidays before leaving for Guatemala right after New Years.

2013 is going to be epic.

T Minus 4 Days

Well its getting down to the wire. Less then one week to go. It's definitely going to feel a lot shorter than that. Holiday parties, final happy hours, and the "lasts" are going to be littered throughout the week. Last "case of the Monday's". Last bus ride to work. Last preparations for packing, storing, and shipping. Last goodbyes "see you soons". It is definitely going to be an interesting ride from here on out.

This past weekend (the last weekend before a working Monday! At least for the foreseeable future) was a weekend for trying to get to some of the sights and sounds of the DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) area that we've always wanted to see. We had a list of museums and places to go, a willing travel partner visiting, a local get together, and some decent weather. Our plan was to drive out to the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and check out the SR-71 Blackbird and the space shuttle Discovery. We were told that you could probably see everything in about 2 hours. That was a slight under estimate as we wondered the giant hanger for 5 hours taking in some of the most amazing aerospace engineering on the planet. We didn't get to see everything, but had some great discussions about the technology, speculations as to how things work (so the thruster nozzle does rotate: F-35B STOVL Takeoff/Landing), and laughing about "holy high-altitude flying mittens, Batman!." We may not have made it to some of the other places we wanted to go, but the time spent there was quality.

This week we had our holiday party and white elephant gift exchange. Both events were a lot of fun, and we got to hang around with all of the great people we know here at work. The rest of the time here is going to be spent running around getting signatures and packing. I feel we have a lot packed, but it is always amazing what is lurking inside closets, drawers, and cabinets. I know it will get done, as there is no other alternative. Flights are booked, moving people are hired, storage pods are empty and waiting to be delivered.

Deep breath.... 

Nilit

The First Post

We recently decided to embark on a new adventure. After spending a little over 3 years in the Washington, D.C. area it's time to move out west. One of things that we recently talked about was doing some volunteer work abroad and this seems like the perfect time to do it. As we transition from east to west, it seems that a small detour to explore the world and contribute to the well being of others fits well into our plans. So this is the beginning of the latest adventure. We've started packing up the apartment and the bittersweet feelings of moving are really starting to set in. We love being in this area. The rich culture, history, and the amazing people we have met here has given us a great adventure in and of itself. Our work serving the public health has been enriching and our co-workers are some of the most dedicated and fun loving people we have met. We are reminded everyday of how lucky we are to know the people around us.

We are coordinating with an organization in Guatemala called Maya Pedal and expect to be there in January and February of 2013. After that we will travel to east India to work with Unite for Sight for two months. These organizations fall inline with our interests and desires to help. We're hoping to pick up some unique skills, challenge our selves to live in changing environments, and give back to those in need. It will definitely be different not to have a "home address." That prospect is exciting and scary at the same time. I know its going to test us in ways we haven't even thought of yet, but I know we are up for the challenge.

I'm hoping this blog will help us document our trips, thoughts, and ideas. It will also let our friends and family know where we are and how things are going beyond just "likes" on Facebook and a couple of sentences. I hope you guys like (and follow) the blog. I'm going to give it my best effort to put in updates and keep topics relevant. Please comment on posts, give critiques, and advise; it lets us know you're watching ;)

It's Always an Adventure.