going mobile-less

Well it's official - I just got off the phone with Verizon and they have very nicely agreed to suspend my cell phone service for the duration of my stay overseas. For the first time since pre-junior year of high school I will be cell phone-less! Starting May 14th I will not have cell phone service until I am back in the States on July 30th. There is a chance I'll invest in one in Europe, but more as an emergency-only thing rather than something I plan on using daily. Though I won't be abandoning technology completely, I think this will be a good thing in that I'll be forced to rely less on a phone and more on my own intelligence to navigate places and other methods to keep in touch with people. Meaning, I'll be communicating with you all via this blog, gmail video chat, and emails. No more texting!

T-minus 30 days

In exactly 30 days I'll be on a plane to Barcelona, Spain! I can hardly believe it. Less than a year ago I came up with the idea to do research for my thesis in Europe and spend the summer living there, about 6 months ago it started to become a reality-in-the-making, and 3 months ago I was buying plane tickets. Now all that is left is to put my clothes into storage, finish my final projects and exams, and decide which 3oz items are coming in my quart-size ziplock (look up the 3-3-1 rule...I only get to bring 3 things!) So far everything is coming together swimmingly - I even got the address of my apartment in Rome today. I've been making a list of things to do before I leave (like having my mail forwarded) and I'll be checking it twice to make sure I don't leave anything major left undone.

Any last tidbits of advice would be welcome in the coming 30 days. Can't wait to finally get there and start posting blogs about my travels in lands yet unknown instead of boring ones about my pre-trip planning!