If You're Gonna Jump, Stretch First!

I couldn't find a movie clip.
This is the best picture I could find.

In preparation for The Jump, I'm doing all the leg stretching in the world to be well prepared.  Cramping up before propelling myself off the cliff would be a bad start, especially if I don't jump high and far enough to clear that dead tree jutting 5 feet below the edge of the cliff.  Worst case scenario, I freak out and turn my jump into a cart-wheel and end up dangling in the cliff brush like Marshal in Forgetting Sarah Marshal.

Eastern Europe, here I come!

Aaah cheap, beautiful Eastern Europe; where all the food, drinks, lodging and entertainment can be acquired for a few pennies!  For those of you under 25, the movie Euro-trip might come to mind.

Now I know enough about Eastern Europe (and am a rational human being) to know that a few US coins will not get you personal concierges, lodging at a 5 star hotel and VIP service at posh nightclubs in Bratislava  .  EE is significantly cheaper than her Western European twin but by how much?  If I was to travel the eastern side of the gorgeous continent, an estimate of travel costs was necessary.  For this I looked to my fellow bloggers out there for guidance.

Travelling in the backpacks of giants

By far the three best resources for calculating trip expenses of an adventurous, experience through the former Soviet bloc were Nomadic Matt, Lonely Planet and Nomadic Mike.  Below is a quick run of each source and the relevant information found on their site.

Nomadic Mike 

A quick Google search for "cost of traveling Eastern Europe" found me this excellent blog!  Nomadic Mike is a serial nomad whose goal is to inspire others to travel and show people it is possible to travel first class on a budget.  If his superbly built blog and amazing articles aren't enough to believe him, just read one of the many articles written on him by major media companies.

Nomadic Mike offers guides, shares experiences and offers first class advice on traveling.  I used his post "The Cost of Travelling Far Eastern Europe" and similar ones to calculate my travel costs through EE.  He does a wonderful job of breaking down the costs and then totaling them up for you.  His fondness for sushi drives up the price of his estimates.  Travel while not on a sushi kick and your costs should be fewer.

Using his estimates I should spend roughly $40 a day for food, lodging and other expenses.

Naughty Nomad

Naughty Nomad is exactly that, a very naughty nomad.  A self-described globetrotting, border jumping, drug smuggling, adrenaline-seeking, international debaucher (his words, not mine), this Scottish adventurer lives to travel the world on the fast - and near lethal - lane.  Naughty Nomad, aka Mark Zolo, keeps a blog replete with his adventures, travel routes, experiences and advice to other travelers.  Oriented towards a younger male audience looking for sex, drugs and fun, he focuses on advice and experiences to create an adrenaline-pumping site that rivals most action packed sports.  That is not to say there isn't any non-hooking up and getting high advice.

Naughty Nomad has a quick facts sheet for each city he has pillaged.  At the top of each city guide is an average cost section.  The average cost of beer, bed, bud, board and other are listed.  Very useful to estimate costs!  His Top 5 Destinations in the Balkans post inspired me to visit Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo, Hvar Island and a tour of Montenegro.

By his estimates, I should expect to doll out around €45 a day or USD 58.75 a day if using today's conversion rate.  And I overestimated my expenses.  Not a bad price to pay to enjoy life in new and exciting places!

Lonely Planet

While not a blog, Lonely Planet is the absolute authority on globetrotting. Suffice it to say you can find pretty much the answer to any budget or backpacking travel question ever asked in our modern age!  Lonely Planet has published several guide books.  I suggest looking at them if only to see the stunning pictures and read the comprehensive country tips!  Seriously, take a look at Lonely Planet.  Their forum section is almost as informational as the site itself.

Using Lonely Planet I estimated my expenses to run at $40 a day in EE.

Not so cheap after all

I guess travelling to Eastern Europe isn't as cheap as the movies would have us believe.  Cheaper than Western Europe?  Definitely! Staying at an ok hostel alone will cost at least 25 euros a night and food is crazy expensive there!

Roughly having an estimate of my expenses is great!  I definitely feel my legs stretching out.  I know what I am looking at (cost wise) and can plan ahead for it!  

Stretching has just begun, but I can already feel my legs loosening up.

On Not Regretting Life Decisions

My life has been turned upside down ever since December 2012.  The holiday season was at its peak and I was at my low.  Unhappy, sad, depressed but worse of all in denial, my terrible state was obvious to no one, not even me.  Around friends I was smiles and always talkative - when I had the time -.  I was no different around family.  My life a success after college, nothing could possibly be wrong in my life.  That's what we all thought.

Working life is great...unless you don't like it

From the first day of my job search up until, well, recently, was all about following the acceptable and "natural" progression of life.  College, internships, a job with benefits after college that pays well (that's were I'm at) I was following the rule book step-by-step.  Attending college had been a no brainer; a good education and a fun experience, it put me in an advantageous position over many people.  A job was part necessity part fitting in.  I wanted financial independence and stability (need) but I also wanted to fit in with my peers who were either looking for a job or applying to grad school (fitting in).  The problem was there was no want or absolute desire in the equation.  While the job sounded exciting and I believed in the mission of the organization I had no burning desire to work 9-5 at a cubicle.  This realization did not come to me until December.

Life with no regrets.  Not yet.

College I don't regret.  Getting a 9-5 job isn't a regret either.  I believe that those life experiences that impact you the most are the ones to learn from the most.  Had I never worked a 9-5 I probably would have never decided to take this new life path, or even written this blog.  It taught me what I don't like to do in life.  I learned something new about myself through trial and error.  Mistakes (or as I like to call them, life experiences) shape us, teaching us more about ourselves than the happiest experiences.  The key is to learn from those experiences and take the necessary steps to change accordingly.  Without change, life stays the same and when our path remains unaltered we are prone to regretting our choices.

The next step

My next step is to take steps towards a life more of my liking.  Here's what I've learned these past two years:

1) Waking up at 6:30 am M-F is not for me.  I may have adapted to it but I hate it.  I could do 8 am.

2) I hate sitting in a cubicle with no sunlight.  Whatever I do next, there will be windows where I work.

3) My butt cheeks don't like to hold my weight up for 8 hours a day.  They like to stretch.  Less sitting and more standing please.

4) Independence in my work is a whole lot better than working for someone else.  I want to work on my projects in my fashion.  Advice and constructive feedback I can take, even working with others for joint goals is fine.  I can even work for someone I just want a freer hand in how I do things.

These are not very specific at all.  Most people would agree with me on these points.  The majority of people don't have the luxury or taken the steps to accomplish their working goals.  I will try to.

Taking these points into mind, I will use it as a guideline in life.  Reverting to this list will hopefully keep me from working a cubicle job again.

Calming Your Pre-Separation (Pre-Partnum) Fears

You've made your decision to leave.  Now you actually have to plan for it!

I am leaving for good in June.  Ticket has been booked!  Yet there is a lingering sense of apprehension for my trip.  Nothing compared to how I felt 5 am the very morning of  (and three weeks before) buying my ticket.

The Fight to Flight and Pre-Partum Fears

Before I go into how to stop feeling so nervous let me explain one thing.  There are two types of pre-Jump fears.  First is the decision phase.  Should I quit my job and follow my path to freedom or should I keep the status quo?  I call this the "fight to flight" because of the instinctive (and logical) reaction by the smarter side of you to keep your stable and comfortable life.  The second is the pre-separation fear.  It is the how am I going to quit and follow my new chosen path?  Our second fear I call "Pre-Partnum", a reference to postpartnum depression.  This post is on the second fear.  Mostly because I dealt with it most recently.

Pre-Pertnum

Or before parting with your life as you know it now.  Not a scary thought at all, is it?  Move out of the house with a lovely backyard and bubbling Jacuzzi, maybe sell the head-turning M-series, or maybe it's not the material things you'll miss.  The early morning coffee with your roommates from the same coffee maker you've had since college, Friday night hang-out with your friends at a local bar the list goes on and on.  How is this different than Fight to Flight?  You have made your decision and you know you must follow through with it.  There is very little fight to revert your decision back and more sadness and fear of the consequences of your impending trip.

How to ease your pre-partnum fear

Fear of parting will never fully go away until you strap on the ridiculous airplane seat-belt.  I say ridiculous because wearing the seat belt will not magically stop those strapped under it from plummeting to the ground at hundreds of miles per hour to an almost certain death.  But don't let my skepticism  discourage you from traveling.  Airplane crashes are rare.

From my experience and my experience only, here are the following remedies to ease your pre-partnum fears.  These fears include, but are not limited to, waking up at 5 am with a savage stomachache, constant nervousness, extreme fluctuations throughout the day between euphoria and a nervous breakdown, a nervous breakdown, diarrhea, constipation, cold sweat at night, inability to concentrate, a loss of appetite.  I had these all within a three week period and I still get a few of the above once in a while but at 5% of their former strength.

1) Take the first step.  Buy the ticket.  Buy it!!  Purchasing the airplane, bus, rickshaw, boat ticket is the very first step to alleviate symptoms.  Once I bought the ticket and let an electrifying jolt of excitement thunder through my body I felt a total sense of relaxation.  Clicking the "submit" button after entering my credit card information was my commitment to my plan.  Like anything else in this world, once you actually do it, everything else follows.  You're actually there, on the spot focusing on actively planning your next steps and not just thinking about it.  It is the same with writing an essay in college, working on a project for work or buying a car.  The task appears overwhelming from a distance.  Start working on it and the immensity of the project cuts down to smaller, manageable pieces.

2) Share your plans with more people.  One person isn't enough.  A marriage is not official unless others recognize it.  If no one knows of your plans, retracting from the plan is an easy thing to do.  Telling more people about your plans forces you to work towards your goal.  Friends and family will press you forward. Plus, saying your plans out loud helps organize your thoughts.  Enough verbal repetition and the plans and goals become believable.

3) Monitor expenses and savings.  Keeping track of finances reassures you are on track with projected savings for the transition period.  Checking the savings account every hour is not advised.  If this is happening, you may want to postpone your adventure.

4) Go to bed early.  Falling asleep at 1 am makes the body feel tired and puts it in a subpar mental and physical condition increasing anxiety and depression.

5) Go to bed late.  But that contradicts point 4!  If the previous point has no positive effect on your body or you simply cannot go to bed early for whatever reason, go to bed late.  Sleeping late exhausts the mind and body to the point that waking up frequently throughout the night or at an inconvenient time (think 3 minutes before your alarm goes off) .

6) Eat plenty of yogurt.  Stress can either loosen the bowels or cause your intestines to back up like a clogged sewage pipe.  Yogurt keeps those pipes clean and strangely enough helps reduce the times you go to the bathroom (at least for me it does).

There are many other stress-reduction strategies.  Some I have tried others I haven't.  Right now I'm just too exhausted to continue writing.  I'm following my own advice and practicing point 5.  Goodnight!