Thoughts of a Nomadic One

First of all, for those who mistakenly came to my site and want to go back to Dana and Andrew's European escapades, visit: http://acollard.blogspot.com

Now, this is my last post before leaving for Europe and my RTW adventure. I can't really explain what I'm feeling except that it is a mixture of anxiety and excitement. The fact that I don't have concrete plans scares me and excites me.

I'll be starting off to London first for half a day to meet up with Andrew and Dana before taking off to Granada where I will start my Tour of Espana. After that, who knows?

I'm not sure what I hope to learn or gain from these 4 months. It will be interesting to see how I feel at the end of this trip.

Thanks a lot for reading, if you wish to hear more from my trip, click on the subscribe link on the top right.
I'd be really happy to stay in touch through email or comments and take care everyone!

Wei Tseng

My convocation ceremony was yesterday, May 25, 2007.
While the ceremony was long and the robes stifling hot, it finally sealed the end of my undergraduate studies.
To me, the ceremony was a mere formality. However, as I walked around beautiful summer Kingston to the 9 Birch pre-party, it dawned on me that this was the end of an era.

There would be no more pre-parties at 9 Birch, all-nighters in the ILC followed by Denny's, summer gatherings in Kingston, using undergraduate status excuse as an excuse when being stupid, etc.

It was especially sad when I couldn't imagine when would be the next time I would see certain friend. As I said my goodbyes at Ale House to friends who are leaving for Europe, back to their jobs or uncertainty, I think about all the joys and regrets that I've accumulated these past 4 years.

Regrets:
1. Never having spent a summer in Kingston.
2. Friends whom I've lost contact, drifted apart from or lost friendships due to reasons I don't think any of us remembers/cares that deeply.
3. Friendships that never got started or didn't have enough time to develop.
4. Bad timing- Sometimes it seems like certain things were meant to happen but something was always in the way.
5. My marks (haha)

Most cherished:
1. Best friends, good friends, any friends (especially Sci '07!)
2. Every moment I spent playing Foosball and procrastinating from doing work.
3. Getting involved with Year Exec, FREC Committee, EngSoc, APSC 100 PM, SOARB.
4. Pick-up soccer.
5. Being able to call up anyone and go out for breakfast/lunch/dinner within 15 minutes.
6. Quality and inexpensive establishments such as: Darbar, Toucan, JJs, Stooley's, QP, Swedish Beaver (I'll miss you Adam), Brass, Cambodiana
7. CSI/Star Trek with dinner (if dinner is Darbar, this event is called 'Starbar')
8. The feeling that your time and effort has truly made a positive impact to someone, no matter how small it is.

I want to thank everyone who I've gotten to know and who've helped me along the way. I wish them all the luck and truly hope I can keep in touch with as many them as possible.

Wei Tseng

B.Sc.E. Mathematics & Engineering
Queen's University

a) Your travel agent starts laughing?
b) The quote is 25% over your expectations (which already included an engineering customary 20% Margin of Safety)
c) You decide that visiting family that you haven't seen in 11 years is less important to you than spending a little more time on the beaches of Zanzibar?

I picked d) All of the above.

So I went down to King St. W today to the travel district of Toronto. I've been in that area a few times but never took a closer look. It's remarkable how much you don't know about the city that you live in until you go looking for it. Of course, in some instances, that can be a good thing.

2:00 PM: So after quickly introducing my concept, my VISION, the agent pretty much started laughing.

2:30 PM: After further discussions and clarifications, a price was approximated. OneWorld 6 Continents + 2 extra flights (Dar es Salaam to Johannesburg in order to connect to Asia and London to Madrid since OneWorld has a 20 flight limit)
Price (aprox.): $6000 + Tax + 2 flights = $7000 + $600 = $7700 !!!

Well, it could be worse.

3:00 PM: An updated itinerary is drawn up with the help of the Manager and tough decisions made by me.

4:00 PM: After an hour of entering destinations, checking dates, availability and finding other ways of cutting costs, a "reasonable" itinerary is sent to British Airways for quote.

And so, at the end of the day, I have an itinerary that is flexible and hopefully economically feasible. I've checked out gears at Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC), Europe Bound, Coast Mountain Sports, Sportschek. Still no clear picks on the backpack front yet, but I know I'll find that special one someday.

So after a lot of playing around with Google Calendar, Star Alliance Mileage Calculator and other destination research, I've been able to pare down certain destinations and get more concrete dates (updated in my RTW travel map and itinerary).

I've decided that I won't visit Morocco this time due to the detour of going from Morocco to East Africa and it's similarity to Europe and other destinations I've been to so I'll postpone that to a future trip. Other regions and destination that I've decided to concentrate on a future trip are certain regions in South East Asia and South America. Due to my time constraint, I can only spend so much time in each regions. I've decided that I'll try to save up my vacations as much as possible so that before I transition between jobs, careers, stages in life, I can take a big vacation or a leave of absence and travel a region of the world for 3-12 months. As a result, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Austria, Romania, Hungary will all be pushed to a later trip.

I'll be meeting with some travel agents from Travel CUTS soon to determine the prices and feasibility of my route as well as booking my Machu Picchu hike. I've also got my GMAT test to prepare for (May 17) and figuring out finances. However, I'm really looking forward to visiting MEC and looking for the backpack that'll accompany my Round The World trip!

• My friend's bachelor party in: 8 days
  
• My friend's wedding in: 16 days
  
• My convocation in: 21 days
  
• Leaving for 4 months of RTW backpacking in: 23 days