Preparation Process
Passports
So a few months ago we started to passport process. Question: why do they, for a photo you're going to have for ten years on a pretty important document, make you go to Costco or Walgreens or whatever other bad lighting place to take the photo? No one looks good.
Passport: check
Visas
Next step - visas. We decided that sticking with the English speaking countries as our home base would be the easiest. So our plan is UK for six months, Ireland for six months. Both of those places don't require us to have visas beforehand since we are from the US, however we plan on getting them anyway because it will make the weekend trips to the continent much easier and it'll allow us to easily extend the standard 3 month visa into 6 months. But we can't get that until three months before the trip. But I doubt it'll be a problem
Visas: pending
Boss cool with it
Anyway, the last piece of the puzzle was confirming with our boss that it was ok. So we met with our boss yesterday and he was totally cool with it as long as we make ourselves available for the team at the proper times. And that's not a problem at all since Jeff and I dont usually start working until noon anyway, which will put us in line with US 8-5 time.
Boss cool with it: check
Plane tickets
So I wouldn't let Jeff buy the plane tickets until we confirmed with the boss, so pretty much the instant we got off the phone with our boss, Jeff bought the plane tickets. He had already scoped out the day and the times for the right price so all he had to do was click the button.
Plane tickets: check
Remembering things
I've decided that this blog is going to become our memories from our year away. I have these grand plans that I'm going to post every other day about random things we learn about a culture that isn't ours (for instance, how to live with a tiny fridge?), but it'll probably end up being like twice a week.
Remembering things: check (with a dose of reality)
So this trip is officially happening! Jeff and I are super excited, however August is eons away and we have a million social and prep things to do before then so we got time...until we realize that August is only like three months away and we have a million things to do before then!!
