Ok I lied

One more last last thing:

Here's the "kit" I got about 10 seconds ago:
1 ultra hydration for men inflight moisture boost
1 set of earplugs
1 eye mask for sleeping
1 pair of airplane socks
Toothbrush and toothpaste

Pretty darn comfy

Here's a picture of my seat.

One more thing before takeoff:

When these kiwis say Auckland it sounds like Oakland and it keeps making me do a double take as if they're sending me to the ghetto of the bay area.

Funcy schmuncy (british accent)

Crazy stuff! Check out the first class lounge I get to sit in before every flight!!

All the business class lines were super short, which saved me like an hour of standing, and I got to make a couple of phone calls.

I'm now in my seat in row 4. I feel like I'm a VIP that's for sure. I'm already sipping on champagne. I asked for chard but the attendant told me she can't open the wine bottles before takeoff. What stupid bar rules huh?! :)

Sweating

I've been sweating for the last hour out of nowhere, probably from nervousness of forgetting about something. Hehe

Health Insurance

I ended up purchasing 2 insurance policies.

I purchased the regular 6 month travel insurance from World Nomads, which is supposedly the standard for backpacking world travelers. It looked like a pretty good policy all around, and it was super cheap. It came out to like $500 for the whole year.

I stopped the COBRA health insurance from Boeing because it's too much money to pay for on my own. Something around $400 a month just for the medical + dental.

Instead, with my dad's recommendation, I opted for a BlueShield plan called the Vital 2900 which has a high deductible but very low premium and basically just covers hospitalization. This one is just in case I get seriously injured while I'm traveling and I have to have major surgery or something like that. That one is going to be about $650 for the year. It's not too much considering the peace of mind I'll get from having it.

I sent in the application form for the BlueShield insurance last night on the web. Hopefully they'll be able to start the policy for me on Monday after I've already left the country. If they require me to get a physical..... well they and I are out of luck. :) I guess if worst comes to worst I could get a doctor in NZ to give me a physical and send the results to BlueShield.

My stuff

Here's a picture of my bag mostly packed with a bunch of stuff around it that still needs to go in.

The bag holds 3000 cubic inches of items but it fits into the carry on limit. It's really efficient. That's the reason why I waited 2 months for this bag. Hopefully it will pay off.

Butterflies

So I'm leaving in 8 hours for the airport and I'm getting a bit excited or nervous. I can't tell which one it is yet. I've been feeling this way since about noon on Thursday.

I'm a little worried I forgot something in my bag. I'm more worried I might have forgotten to take care of something at home.

I'm also a little worried that I won't be able to live on the low budget that I've set for myself. I don't think it's really gonna be a problem because hell I've camped a lot in the past, but I'm still a little nervous about it for whatever reason.

I'm trying to finish up a couple last minute things here today, including washing my car once so that I can cover it with the car cover.

Oh yeah I just realized, I won't be touching a computer for a while. I wonder what that's going to feel like.

Trip schedule

I've been meaning to post this for a couple of days now but never took the time to write it all down and format it.

I bought my plane ticket last Thursday and they arrived Wednesday via FedEx.

Here's my current schedule for the year:

5/31/08 Fly from LAX to New Zealand
6/30/08 Fly from New Zealand to Australia
8/4/08 Fly from Australia to Thailand
While in Thailand I am going to try to visit Cambodia
9/1/08 Fly from Thailand to Japan
9/22/08 Fly from Japan to Korea
10/20/08 Fly from Korea to China
11/20/08 Fly from China to India
12/13/08 Fly from India to Egypt
12/30/08 Fly from Egypt to Spain
1/29/09 Fly from Spain to Brazil
2/19/09 Fly from Brazil to Argentina
3/12/09 Fly from Argentina to Chile
4/2/09 Fly from Chile to Peru
(unsure date) Fly from Peru to Costa Rica
(unsure date) Fly from Costa Rica to Puerto Rico
5/31/09 Fly from Puerto Rico to LAX

Whew, that took a while to write down. But there you have it folks.

If you want to meet me somewhere, just let me know about it.

Car news

I have been debating where I should go to get an oil change for my vehicle for a while now. I couldn't make a solid decision between driving really far to a dealer after setting up an appointment a week in advance or going to the nearby Jiffy Lube or going to a garage.

Well yesterday I decided to make the leap and do the oil & oil filter change myself.

I completed that today after downloading a step by step how-to guide that another fellow Subaru Legacy owner had written up.

For the last couple of years I've been meaning to get to know how to maintain cars better than I used to. I can fix almost anything related to computers if I want to so I figured why not? Also, since most people feel that many people in the auto services industry are a bunch of scammers, it would probably be a good investment financially as well.

Autozone is having a sale on their Mobile 1 Synthetic oil + oil filter so I picked those up for $25 and completed the job in about an hour. It took me longer to find a store that had the gasket (washer) I needed when I retightened the drain bolt. I didn't even need to raise the car up, which was excellent because that meant there was no real safety risk.

I've been debating whether I should flush the radiator fluid and the transmission fluid before I leave, but right now I'm leaning towards no, so it probably won't get done unless someone changes my mind.

I ordered a Covercraft Evolution fitted car cover a couple of weeks ago and it arrived a couple days ago, so after I wash my car on Saturday I'm going to park it in its final spot and disconnect the battery, then put the car cover on it and lock it down for the year.

Korean Friendship Bell

My family and I have visited this bell at least 5 times or so over the years. It's symbolism is important to our family history.

Kites!

This isn't kite hill in Seattle but it's close enough. I'm out at Angel Hill Park today in San Pedro, CA to show my dad how to fly my kites. He got the hang of it pretty fast.

Wind is around 15mph. If it was any faster I think my dad would lift off with my 9 ft. Thunderfoil..

This park is famous for being the location of the Korean Friendship Bell, which was given to the city of Los Angeles by Korea back in 1976.

Looks like Miami

Another picture from last night just to show you how nice it was..

Hollywood

I'm hanging out in Hollywood tonight at the famous Hotel Roosevelt. Leo got me in because he's staying the night for the LA Games Conference.

Typical Hollywood: actors and artists everywhere.

My looks must scream "nerd"

While I was waiting in the waiting room for the acupuncturist, the front desk lady asked me if I was good with computers. ??? Totally random right? How did they know?

Apparently their computer isn't booting up properly and she wanted to see if I could help them.

I ended up trying to boot it a couple of times but Windows XP won't even start in safe mode so there wasn't anything I could do for them. They didn't even have a windows cd because they got it at some small korean retailer (like always).

I just told them to go take it back and ask for help because I couldn't fix this issue inside a day without any tools.

Bad luck or good luck?

I called the American Airlines RTW desk this morning in an attempt to finish off my itinerary and book the reservation but their computer system went down temporarily before we could finish. I have to call in again later today to finish it off.

My departure date will be May 26th.

It's like body art but not

I'm currently waiting for my acupuncture appointment in Koreatown LA. I've been coming here regularly since I've been home because my parents think it will help me fight my allergies (congested nose and loss of sense of smell).

I don't know if it would really work but I've been doing it anyway to make my parents happy. Some things are not worth fighting about with them.

I've experienced positive effects before but I don't feel like it's good with any reliability (for allergies). I've heard it's amazing for physical pain though.

Oh yeah, you also have to take a bitter liquid medicine they make for you on a regular basis too. It is downable but having to remember 3 times a day kind of sucks. And sometimes cut out certain foods like chicken and pork (for me).

Recap of San Jose

On Friday we ended up driving to Half Moon Bay on our road trip. Here's a picture of my brother-in-law Shash in front of their vehicle:

We stopped at the Whale City Bakery on the 1 to eat where I witnessed the miracle of giving a metal spoon to Ezri so that she won't make a noise the entire meal. She just chews on that thing with her 1 tooth the whole time. What a gift!

Here's a picture of James with his fiance Jenny while we were in Santana Row on Sunday:

And here are the baby pics:

Checkmate

Stopped by Santana Row (an outdoor shopping area with some nice stores and nicer looking restaurants) yesterday with James, a good buddy of mine from Boston who lives in Alameda now.

I'll post a picture of him later but here's one of the cool looking chessboard in the outdoor seating area.

When you beat someone on this chessboard you get to throw your winning move at the other player. :)

100 octane gas!

I'm visiting my sister, her husband Shash, and their baby this weekend in San Jose. We're going driving around Woodside heading to La Honda and then the 1 freeway.

We stopped at this 76 gas station and I never realized this but there's 100 octane gas available here!