Yes, a new phase. I believe this is phase 5 that Aaron has entered. Quick review of the phases.
Phase 1 - Seriously considering trip, Jan 2005 Phase 2 - I go to KS for President's Day Weekend, Trip planning moves in serious stage, Mar 2005 Phase 3 - Ryan and Aaron books tickets to Europe, July 2005, Mike and Brandle follow suit, late Sept 2005. I follow suit, in November 2005. 3.5 - Book tickets all the way to Spain - Ryan and Aaron. Phase 4 - The five of us book our first hotel, for Spain, Sept 2005. 2nd hotel yet to be booked (something we really should look into) Phase 5 - Website Launched, October of this year. All five members posted and thus are in this phase. Phase 6 - Aaron gets a backpack.
So you see why its so confusing. Everyone is in different phases. Like me, I'm in phases 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but not 3.5 or 6. Ryan is in phases 1, 2, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, but not six. For you passive web surfers, ignore all this and click here for some relevant information about travelling.
I wonder what Phase 7 will be?
In other news, I am nearing the two month markdown period, and let me tell you, time is moving so damn slow now that the departure date is nearing. Like today. It's only 11:24AM!!! Less than 70 days till I depart! A big HA HA to you late departers.
Oh the woahs of being a 22-year-old, preparing to depart for a trip around the world. It seems that once again our eyes were bigger than our wallets. (A common symptom I have). Naturally when you plan to span the globe for a modest $15,000 USD, you have to sacrifice a few things on your trip. For shame - no daily spa treatments, or dining on fine caviar for us. But now our plans to go to the World Cup are in jeopardy.
As you may or may not know, the World Cup will take place this summer in Germany, roughly around the time we will be in Spain. And in our very-American way of thinking, we thought, "Hey Germany-Spain, they're pretty close, that'll be like making a Thursday night beer-run to Missouri." Truth be told, it's a little more costly than that. Most of the matches (at least USA's matches) take place in smaller German towns, which don't have a lot of hotels/hostels (at least not available on-line). To aggravate the situation further, most of the cheaper airlines (RyanAir, Germanwings, Air Berlin) offer, at best 100 euro roundtrip flights, and most of those fly into cities which are at best 100 km from where we will be staying/departing from. Combining all the expenses to travel to the airport to take the expensive flight, just to take another bus/train to the city where the match is, to check into your over-booked, expensive hotel to watch your +$50 match, to go back home and pay all those same travel expenses again would easily cost each of us 300 euros.
So for obvious reasons, flying to the World Cup is out. But there another option. The two best words in the English language for 5 boys to hear. "ROAD TRIP." This was a recommendation made by Nithin long ago, and it still may be plausible. It seems that Europcar has reasonable rental rates (when renting for a week and split between 5 people). To rent a van (or large car) and drive to our shut-in little town of Kaiserslautern, Germany, watch our match, sleep in our van (I promise to be safe mom), have a blast for a week and save some money. Now this option would still be expensive ($150-$200, for tickets and travel). But it would be for a longer period of time, a lot more fun, and would allow us to see more of France, which has very little time on our itinerary.
Obviously we need to be very thrifty with our spending, but now and again we also need to splurge and create some stories we can still tell when we're 80! This is merely the first of many such decisions - shall we be practical, realistic, wise with our money and not go to Germany? Or shall we devote ourselves to the sense of adventure, be smelly, uncomfortable, and risk having an incredible time going to an event we will probably never get to see for the rest of our lives, and take any short cut we see to get there!?
I've just finished the last of my pre-World Tour traveling, taking a trip up to NYC to visit a lot of friends from back in California. Great guys, had a blast, the funnest part not being that we were in NYC, but that I got to hang out with these guys again. I'll post some photos later.
But, for those in the "know", I've been biding my time in Washington DC, the nation's capitol (for you idiots). I'm a SoCal/Midwesterner at heart, so the East coast is more foreign to me than France. DC even more so, the pinnacle of heirarchial power of the world. I like power, so I came, and here I am.
<--Me and my good friend Kohei Natsume (who visited all the way from Japan) at the National Mall.
Hanging out with the Pandas at the National Zoo. They didn't have any Koala bears :-(
My UCI (anteater statue) and USC (red t-shirt) pride together. Zot! Fight On! (PS...i hate Texas)
