The Peanut Butter Incident

Peanut Butter is very important to me. You see, I am a very picky eater and Peanut Butter is my main source of protein. One of the things I was worried about on the trip was food. I don't try new foods very easily and usually, I don't like the foods I do try. So I was bringing a jar of Trader Joes Creamy Peanut Butter. We were going to see how far I could go without opening the Peanut Butter. I thought I would start using it in Tanzania. When we went through security at the airport to get to our plane to Dallas Fort Worth, the evil security man didn't give me back my backpack right away even though I told him it was mine. When my mom came over, he asked if the backpack was mine. I said it was. Then he said something about having liquids in there. He started digging around in my backpack and soon discovered the jar of Peanut Butter. He said I couldn't take it and I could only take it if it was in my suitcase which for your information, was already checked in. So he took away the jar and put it behind the counter. I was sad the whole plane ride. When we got to Dallas Fort Worth, we ate lunch at Denny's and then stopped in at the Shell gas station convenience store and picked up a jar of Peter Pan Crunchy Peanut Butter. It wasn't quite the same but then again, I have Peanut Butter again!!! (And this time, it goes in my suitcase!!!)

A FOND FAREWELL

A small Farewell Soiree was thrown by several friends giving the Shusterman/Greenwell family an opportunity to say good-bye to some of our friends. It was a lovely event with the most befitting cake. Thank you Irene, Sarah and Valerie for all your work. While we said good-bye to many people that night, it still had not quite felt real -- that was over a week ago. Now this weekend, with only two days before departure, as we say good-bye to friends who were not at the party, it all seems too real. Tears well up in our eyes with each farewell as we know that we will miss our friends greatly. We love you all. Know that we will be back, as we already have the tickets, and we will pick up just where we left off.

I figured we should publish this nice "before" picture from the party. It will be good for looking back after a year of traveling to see how we have physically changed. I imagine that Marty will have a little less hair (or no hair at all if he lets the monks shave it all off in India). I will be grayer but sporting my chic haircut from Buenos Aires. Both Avocet and Siena will be taller and wearing the new clothes and shoes that we had to buy them after they grew out of what we had brought for them. (Please let that occur in a country where the dollar is stronger!). And all of us will be looking a little more worldly.

Are You Ready?

With only 24 days left before we take off, the question that everyone asks when I see them is, "Are you ready?" And each time I pause wondering exactly what that question means. Does it mean, do we have our passports, visas, and airline tickets? Yes! Does it mean, do we have our bags packed? Yes! Does it mean are we ready for the sticker shock that will occur when we arrive in The Netherlands and see how little our US Dollar will buy? Probably not! Or does it mean, are we ready to live our life on the road for a year; have our worldview permanently changed; or to begin an odyssey that will most likely change who we are for the rest of our lives? Yes and No! How can you possibly ever be ready for that and yet, if we weren't prepared for that to happen, would we have ever planned this trip in the first place?

Practice Makes Perfect?

Over Spring Break we decided to take a trip to Chicago using public transportation. First of all, it's the "green" way to travel and second of all, we figured it would be good practice since most of our travel over the next year would be using public transportation. We boarded the double decker Megabus at 8:45 AM with smiles on our faces. About 6 1/2 hours later we arrived in Chicago, during a snow storm ,not as enchanted with Megabus as when we started out.

Riding on the top deck proved not to be a good move as 3 out of 4 of us felt motion sick. The family movies that were suppose to be showing the "whole" ride made no appearance at all, and we discovered just how rude people can be with their cell phones in close quarters. Lessons: Prepare for the worst case scenario; you don't always get what you are promissed (even in the US); ear plugs are good to have in your backpack just in case!

On the way home, we had a departure time of 10:00 PM. Megabus has no terminal so you just have to stand on the streets (cold/wet streets) until the bus gets there. There is no signage to indicate which buses go where so hoards of people run for an arriving bus only to discover that it's not the bus they want. Only the kids were able to sleep on the bus so I decided that I would be productive and read only to discover that my overhead light did not work. We arrived in Cincinnati at 4:00 AM and had to walk over to our car parked in the garage to drive home and crawl into bed. More lessons: We will have lots of inconvenient departure and arrival times so buck up and get use to it; only those made of rubber i.e. kids can sleep on public transportation so plan for a down day after an overnight trip; ear plugs would come in handy once again; and our kids are real troopers!


We had a fun time in Chicago -- American Girl Place, Field Museum, John Hancock Tower etc. All in all, this was the easiest trip that we will be taking over the next year so hopefully the lessons learned here will transfer and that they will continue to accumulate over the next year. This time next year we'll be pros!

More Worldly Already

I'm driving down the road one morning and I hear on NPR Morning Edition that there has been a coup in Bangkok. I immediately call Marty to ask if he has heard the news. Unrest in Kenya after the election causes us to rethink our routing from Rome to Tanzania and to fly through Qatar (get your map out)instead of Nairobi. And a city I had never even heard of before this trip, Dharamsala, suddenly is in the news as 100's of people from this city in India cross into Tibet to help the monks protest. (The people actually came from McLeodganj, the exciled home of the Dalai Lama, but that is even smaller than Dharamsala). My point exactly? Without even having left home yet, our World View has already changed dramatically. All of our geography skills have increased substantially and suddenly news that would have gone in one ear and out the other, now has meaning and significance to us.

I think that the rest of the world operates this way most of the time. But we Americans have a much more ethnocentric view of the world and often tend to ignore that which does not directly affect us. I remember when I lived in Washington, DC that local news was national news. Well now as we listen to the news, world news has become local news for us. It will be interesting to see how we are affected by news when we are on the road.

Two months to go from today and counting! Check out our calendar at the bottom of the blog page. Now you can see where we are or are going in calendar format. Thanks Jen for your help in setting it up!

T-Shirts for Short Memories

Maybe it's because we grew up in the Rock and Roll era where bands went on tour and we bought the t-shirts. Or Maybe it's because we have short memories and we needed a convenient way to remember where we are going next. Or maybe it just seemed like a fun family thing to do for the adventure we are about to undertake. Either way, here's the results!

Where in the World is the Shusterman/Greenwell Family

With less than 6 months before we leave, the countdown is on! We have about half of our accomodations booked and half of the VISAs that we need before we leave in our passports. We have a stack of Euros stashed away (assuming that the dollar will drop further) and we hold a FREE one way ticket to Amsterdam for all four of us (Thank you Delta Frequent Flyers).

So now you ask, "Where are we going?" If you're planning that once in a lifetime vacation (I know we are) and want to hook up with us, you'll need to know where we will be when -- so here's the rundown. If I ever figure out how to put a calander on this Blog, I'll repost the itinerary in that format.

June 10-11 Dallas/Ft. Worth (Only way out on those FREE tickets)
June 12-July 2 Netherlands
July 3-July 21 Poland
July 22 Czech Republic (Only way to get to Dubrovnik cheap)
July 23-August 7 Croatia
August 8-August 25 Slovenia
August 26-September 25 Italy
September 26-October 18 Tanzania/Zanzibar
October 19-November 8 India
November 9-November 24 Thailand
November 25-December 8 Laos
December 9-December 20 Thailand (We had such a good time the first time -- We're back)
December 21-January 9 China
January 10-February 8 Australia/Tasmania
February 9-March 8 New Zealand
March 8-March 12 Tahiti
March 13-March 17 Rapa Nui (Easter Island for you plebians)
March 17-April 5 Chile
April 6-April 22 Argentina
April 23-May 4 Uruguay
May 5-May 25 Ecuador
May 26-June 1 Sun City Center, Florida (Bubie Stop)
June 2 Home

17 Countries, 40 Cities and One Year!