Resignation & Vaccinations

Resignation
Well, next Friday April 8th will be the day I submit my 2 weeks resignation notice. My final day of work will be Thursday April 21st.  This gives me just over a week to get all my final preparations ready.  As well, I look forward to spending some quality time with my family (especially my adorable nieces) and friends during the final week before I leave.

I also look forward to the relief of letting go of this "secret".  Only a few friends at work are in the loop regarding my travel plans, so I haven't been able to discuss the exciting things happening in my life at work.  As of Monday, my lips are free!  I can openly share on Facebook, get travel advice from friends, recommendations on what to do/see, etc.

Vaccinations
Since the last post a few months back, I have had my travel vaccinations.  I was poked with Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, MMR, Tetanus and Polio.  I also got prescriptions for Malaria and Diarrhea (Lord, please protect me from traveller's diarrhea).  The doctor warned me that the vaccinations might cause me to be sick (ie. cold symptoms) and she was right.  Almost immediately, my left arm swelled up  after the injections and felt like someone sucker punched me.  Exactly 6 days later, I was hit with what felt like a flu bug. My nose was running like a leaky faucet, I felt chills and ended up missing 1 boot camp session and 2 days of work.  I rarely get sick so I knew that this was definitely the result of the vaccinations.  Thankfully, all is better now and I can stop being such a baby about being sick.  Thanks to my mom for taking care of me and making me lots of ginger tea!

Other Travel Updates
Matt and I...actually Matt booked our London hostel for the first 4 nights.  We are staying at Astor Hyde Park in London.  Here's the website if you want to see where I'll be hanging out while in London: http://www.astorhostels.co.uk/#/en/page/hydepark/About/

We also received our Eurail passes a few months ago as well as our flight confirmation.  We leave at approximately 1pm on Tuesday May 3rd!  I keep checking the airfares to make sure that we got a good deal and boy did we! When we booked our flight in January, we paid $199 + taxes for a total of $399.  The fare for the past 2 months has been hovering at about $300-400 plus taxes and currently is at $949 plus taxes.  I am so thankful that we booked at the right time! 

I've also done some shopping for the trip. I bought a new day back pack, a hydration pack (it's going to be so hot in some countries, 40+ degrees celscius), I've loaded up my ipod with a lot of my music (over 175 albums and over 2,000 songs) and podcasts.  I still need to do some clothes shopping as none of my summer clothes fit (thanks to Resurrect Your Body Boot Camp - http://www.makersbody.com/ and eating less), shopping for other meds (ie. lots of Gravol, Advil, Imodium), new ipod headphones with a microphone for easy Skype use, need to purchase travel insurance, more Compact Flash digital memory cards, a USB wall charger and other odds and sods.

Keeping in Touch
While I'm away, I want to remain in touch with all my friends & family.  While you will have this blog to check to see what I am up to, I would love to hear what's going on in your life because it is important to me.  Any new love interests? Career prospects? Family news? or just general updates on how you are doing.  Please send me e-mails, leave comments on the blog, add me to Skype or keep in touch via Facebook. 

28 days remaining until departure!!!