Catch-Up - Pre Website Planning (2004-Oct 2005)

By Nithin Coca

Now that I've explained the phases, let me fill you in on the planning process thus far. How the trip started, and how we got the wheels spinning.

- Fall 2004 - Entering my last year in college, I finally started thinking about what I want to do after graduation. My ideas were varied - I didn't want to develop into getting a job and working. I looked at programs, like teaching English abroad in Korea or Thailand, or joining a Peace Corps-esque volunteer program. Peace Corps itself was too much of a commitment for me. At the same time, all my friends started panicking and went through a "college crisis", though I was okay because I'd had my college crisis freshman year. But, as the year ended, I still was clueless.
- Dec - Jan 2005 - I go to India and Thailand with my family. The Tsunami hits in the middle of the trip, right as we are on the southeast coast of India. The sights we saw the day before were hit, the sights the day after too, but that day, we were shielded by Sri Lanka and got nothing. Saw the damage firsthand, but what was more shocking was the lack of compassion or caring by the Indian media and middle class (almost all the dead were poor).
- Late Jan 2005 - Return from Asia, immediately go back to school. USC crushes Oklahoma 55-19 (FIGHT ON!). Ryan calls me, and proposes this idea of an around the world trip, something he had discussed with Aaron. We talk about it for over an hour, one of the best phone conversations of my life.
- Feb 2005 - Because I didn't get to come home at all for Christmas, I come back for President's Day weekend. We have our first major trip planning jam session, drawing out first map of the trip (a map that looks nothing like the current plans)
- Mar 2005 - The five of us take a roadtrip from Kansas City to Los Angeles. In Vegas we stay at an international Hostel where we meet tons of people from around the world who give us places to go. In California, we finish map #2, the definitive map (link) until Nov. 05.
- May 2005 - I Graduate from USC, and travel around Cali a bit before heading back home to Kansas for the summer, where I lounge around for 2 months, seeing old friends. The trip becomes refined, as we explore working options, and set into stone that we will be going to Spain/Port first. Ideas about website begin at this time.
- Sept 2005 - The fears climax, and I apply for jobs outside of Kansas City, ending up in Washington DC. I fly there Sept 1st, with no car, and stay with a friend till I find a decent room. Work for Peace Action, a progressive, non profit Peace Group. It is during this job that I find the time to create and edit this website. The four others book their tickets to Europe on Aer Lingus.
- Oct 2005 - I finally find out that my brother is for sure going to Italy to study abroad in the Spring of 2006. My family and I begin to make plans to visit him during his spring break, the last week of March 2006.

From Oct 2006 on is when the website was made live, so scroll up to see what we've done since then.