Ready, steady, go!

My backpack is now packed, and I'm just about to step out of my home and catch a bus to the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I feel calm and determined - even though that I also feel like I'm just about to jump off an edge of a mountain, and have absolutely no idea into what substance I'm going to land. I don't feel sad at all. I know, that I have to go now, and there's nothing to cry about that; my dream is just about to come true.

But what did it actually take to get to this moment? Here's the story.

March 2008

I arranged my summer holidays so, that it was possible for me to go and started going through options on where to go and what could I do there - where ever it would be.

July 2008

I made my decision on the destinations, booked flights and the projects that I'd be volunteering in.

September 2008 ->

I went on a Swahili course. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to concentrate on that properly, which means, that I will have to carry my Swahili studybook with me in Africa.

December 2008

I started taking inoculations. By March 2009 I have been vaccined against hepatitis A & B, polio, meningococcus A & C, cholera, typhoid, salmonella and yellow fever. Atleast those. I'm not sure if I remember them all now.

January-March 2009

I competed my TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course and got my TEFL teacher's sertificate, got visas, got an international drivings licence, rent my place, and did all the other arrangements that still needed to be done.

11.3.2009

My first day off from work. I woke up with an acheing back, having fever and cough. Regarless of that I got up, went to the hairdresser (a girl would never travel away for a long time without having her hair cut...), went to meet my dad and brother, came back home, went to see a doctor (got antibiotics against an unidentified illness), came back home, cleaned up, and did some last minute arrangements.

12.3.2009

Did more laundry, carried a lot of things into a cellar (to get space for the person who is living in my flat while I'll be away), went shopping for necessary items to take with (and don't even want to think about the amount of money that I spent), had lunch with friends, did some more laundry, packed a bit, went to the sauna and almost burned my skin there (I thought that it's better to do it properly since I won't be having sauna for a long time).

Now

I'm going. Bye!

P.S. If you like singing karaoke, or like to watch cartoon characters make a fool of themselves, or like to learn funny dance choreographies, you'll love this: In the jungle.