Pre-departure madness.

As a product of the UC system, I never got the opportunity to really embrace the college life. That is, my parents were always an hour away, so I always had a safety net of some sort to bounce back on should I, say, run out of clean clothes to wear, or run out of frozen foods to eat. Thus, the idea of leaving for Taiwan for three months is a little more scary for me than it should be to a normal college student. Besides learning to wash my clothes for the first time, I'm concerned about other more important things as well. These include but are not limited to: exchanging money, having enough money, finding somewhere safe to store said money, finding an unlocked cell phone to use in Taiwan, buying a SIM card without citizenship (which apparently you can't do?) etc. etc. etc. Luckily I have a proficient command of Chinese so I can figure this all out when I get there... oh wait! I don't!

Anyway, let's worry about that until I actually get there. Now, I'm still sitting home in West Covina, surrounded in a sea of half-packed suitcases. The handbook told me that whatever I wanted to pack, to only take half. So that's what I did: I packed all my stuff and threw out half of it. So, here's a list of stuff I threw out, just so future me can look back and be like, "Damn it past Justin! I need that ____ right now!" Here goes...

1. My small camera. Carrying that would have involved another charger, and another set of memory cards. The small camera would have been nice for those several instances I didn't want to carry around my large DSLR, like at the night markets or something, but alas, I am only bringing the D60.
2. My suit. Essentials lists says I need formal wear, but mother says I don't. Thus, not bringing a suit. Also getting chucked: fancy shirt and tie. I think I will go to formal events in my birthday suit, heyo.
3. Half of my shirts. Only THREE of my Threadless shirts are crossing the pond with me. I know, right? What will Taiwan think of my 'Pillow Fight'? My 'Pandamonium'? My 'Loch Ness Imposter'? My 'Nuts!'? The world will never know. Not to mention, all of my button-down shirts, cardigans, blazers? Staying home, along with any pants not made out of denim.
4. My po-jim, aka my hugging pillow. Can't sleep without that thing.
5. Formal shoes. Too heavy, not waterproof enough, kind of a pain in the ass to walk in. Besides, I'm not bringing my suit anyway.

...and just a bunch of other stuff that I can't really think of right now. Besides, packing isn't the only pre-departure madness I have to put up with. I've got to go to the temple to pray to the Buddhas for a smashing good time in Taiwan, go eat my fix of American food (In-n-out, anyone?), get a hair cut, etc. I probably won't be posting again until I land and settle down in Taiwan, so until then, zai jian!



-Justin