Wrap-up

I want to share some fun stats and key learnings over the course of my 8 week sabbatical.

1. Over 56 days of sabbatical, I slept in 21 different beds. That’s way more than I would recommend, and far more than I ever care to do in that period of time ever again. While our AirBnB experience was mostly positive, we realized that staying in a private, comfortable room with strong wifi at a place that is used to housing foreign guests is far more our cup of tea. We feel a lot more refreshed when we can go to a front desk and encounter someone who speaks English and can direct us to where in the building we can get ice, or do our laundry, or use any other such amenities we take for granted at home. Call us prudes, or spoiled, or whatever. We can deal with the alternative as we did in Iceland and Peru, but on our next trip we’ll try the other side of the spectrum.
2. I racked up more than 30,000 miles in the air and more than 3000 miles driving. Total time spent traveling was on the order of 120 hours (if I did my rough mental math correctly). I was surprised that I was not more tired or jetlagged. Perhaps that’s the result of not working and not worrying about work for weeks on end. 🙂
3. I dislike writing. I dislike blogging. I dislike culling through photos and choosing which ones to put on Facebook. I thought I’d be fine with all of it, and I thought I wouldn’t mind writing about stuff that I wasn’t being told to write about (unlike in school), but nope. I always ended up getting in the groove once I started writing, but I still never really liked it. I don’t think I do it very well; certainly not in an entertaining way for people to read. My posts are more like timelines – a boring chronological record of what happened each day. That’s the way my mind and my memories work though. That’s why you have the option of not reading my posts if they bore you. 🙂 Having said all that, I’m very glad I did it. I really like having this record of my trip because it’s very easy to forget, especially with all the wonderful little things we did and experienced along the way. Also, putting my writing out there is probably good for me or something.
4. We saw lots of animals! Not always in the places I expected, and not always the animals I expected, but nonetheless I really enjoyed it. In Banff we saw an elk/moose-type thing up close and personal, a few deer in the distance near the highway, and some mountain goats. We saw about 16 jack rabbits and 4 bats in Utah. We also saw 3 rabbits in Calgary. We saw a heron-like bird in Bend. We saw a bajillion llamas and alpacas and quite a few vicuña in Peru. We saw a bajillion and one sheep in Iceland. I’m probably forgetting some along the way, but it was a good safari-like adventure!
5. Out of the 56-day sabbatical, I spent just 10 full days at home. Of that, 2 were spent before any of the travel started and 3 were spent after all the travel ended. So just 5 total home days between trips. I thought it was going to be super hectic and exhausting, but it actually worked out great. The time at home was perfect to stay on top of the yard and bills and to replenish supplies so that I didn’t have to pack for 8 weeks of traveling straight. It was also a good chance to catch up with friends and family for a short while before heading off on the next adventure. For example, I’m really glad I spent my birthday in town and got to catch up with Steve and Shara and hang with Sehej and Tara on their visit to PDX. The number of days at home were short enough that I didn’t even have the opportunity to think about getting bored.
6. Everything went fantastically well. No lost baggage. No real concern of missed or nearly missed flights. No drama with airport security. No lost or stolen items or feelings of danger. I got sick just for a couple of days, but the worst of it was spent at home, resting and recovering in my own bed, and it was just over a cold and a bit of a fever. I couldn’t possibly have asked for it to go any smoother.

Now that I’m back, I’ve been enjoying my new job at work and taking a new view at life. Like I said at the end of my last post, I had a very nice transition back into work. It was even better than I expected because my new job wasn’t busy for the first two weeks. In fact, it almost felt like I got to extend sabbatical for two more weeks! My new projects are just starting to pick up steam, but even still I’m having way too much fun at work. I really like the projects I’ve chosen to work on as a Freelancer, and I’m having a really good time connecting with the people on these teams. My new view on life at the moment is to slow down and enjoy some free time. I’m not committing to standing tutoring or coaching for this school year/season. I’m going to take the opportunity to catch up on some house projects that have been pending, do more reading, work out, socialize, and keep my calendar open for impromptu plans. I feel refreshed every day, and it’s easy to get up because I’m not tired, and I’m not loathing the work that the day will bring. So far so great!!

That’ll do it for this installment for my boring timeline/travel blog! A huge thanks to everyone who followed me, commented, and/or read my blog posts even after I returned. Also, a big thanks to everyone who encouraged me to write this blog in the first place. I can’t forget to thank Intel, and be so very grateful for this wonderful opportunity that I had, and was very fortunate to be able to take full advantage of. Thanks to Erhardt Physical Therapy, without which this sort of travel and experience would have been very difficult to so thoroughly enjoy. The biggest thanks to my family and Khivan especially for their support throughout this adventure.

Stay tuned for the next expedition…It can’t be that far away!!