Monthly Archives: March 2024

Mar28

The process of leaving – Part 2

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March, 2024 – Creating a Sketch


How does one plan out a three-month trip through Europe? If I want to visit 14 countries, how the heck do I make that happen?

Slowly and methodically, just like any other complicated project. Taking your time, accepting when mistakes are made, and going step-by-step.



I’m starting in Greenland.

Then, I’m going to Iceland, followed by Norway, Sweden, and Finland. From the Nordic States, I’m moving South into the Baltic region – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. From there, I’ll move into Central Europe – Poland, Czechia, and Austria. Then, I’ll hit Germany, Switzerland, and France… after which I’ll take the train direct to Ireland.


It sounds both simple and insane when listed out like that – alternating between “Ohh yeah, just go between and make it happen. Easy peasy.” and “ohh my god I have to plan places to stay in all of those! What border rules are there? Should I take a train, or a plane, or…?”

Thankfully, this is what I’m good at. Methodical planning, contingencies, and step-by-step logistics. It’s why I’m going for my MBA – I know I’m good at this, and if Raytheon feels the need to stymie me… well, I’m confident I can find someone who’ll appreciate this attention to detail.


I started with a map. The Eurail map, specifically, showing train connections throughout Europe itself. I started with that map months ago, and it’s where I got the general idea of taking a clockwise circuit around the continent – I knew I had ~3 or 4 months, and the idea of 1 week per city seemed good at the time… with longer stops in a few. Thus, 14 countries.

Since then, I’ve streamlined the time down to 3 months, to give myself extra time to plan. That led to either cutting countries, or shortening them… and since the travel time would remain the same, I figured that shortening some of the visits would be a fair sacrifice.


My first week off work, I sat down at a local cafe with my laptop and looked at the calendar. I created a very vague sketch of the trip, going one by one to see where things would land.

At the end of my brunch, I had a general plan. First steps complete.

Mar27

Daytime meals around Wilsonville

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March, 2024


As a quick departure from the words-heavy posts that I’ll be making, regarding my preparations and move out of the United States, here are a few quick pictures of some of the more interesting meals I’ve been having during the days while I’m not at work.

I have a lot of planning to do, but I’ve learned that cerebral work like that requires time away from the screen to succeed. Time for my brain to process what I’m working on, notice patterns, and connect dots to find inconsistencies or weak links in the plan. When I don’t, things go wrong. To make sure they go right, I take walks and eat sandwiches. Or gorge on dinosaur chicken nuggets.



I sip Lattes too, of course. I am still in Oregon, after all.

Mar26

The process of leaving – Part 1

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March, 2024 – General Thoughts


How does one pack up their life, and move to another world? The same way I packed up my life the last time. Or the time before that, I guess.


In 2011, I left the United States to travel South America and New Zealand.

In 2015, I left Massachusetts to build a new life in Oregon.

Now, in 2024, I’m leaving the United States again – this time for Ireland, an MBA, and… I don’t know what else.


How do I do it? Sequentially, methodically, and with a lot of compassion for myself and my mental need to disconnect and flit between projects.

I started the way I start any project; getting my arms around the task at hand. Defining the problem, understanding the moving parts and confounding factors, and locking down the critical details. All great words, of course, but what do they actually mean?

I started with confirming the critical details:
– Do I have updated passports?
– Can I actually live abroad in Ireland?
– Do I have a confirmed acceptance to my MBA program?


Once all of those were confirmed, I moved on to the longer-scope parts of the project:
– Deciding what to move, what to sell, what to store, and what to throw out.
– Finding a moving company who can both move and store my things.
– Finding a relocation expert in Ireland.
– Getting my finances in order.


All of those are still in-process, of course, but they’ve at least been kicked off – the budget has been set, money is moving, emails are flying around the world, and progress is being made.

Next steps are to start planning the details of my travel to get to Ireland… I have a general plan in play to start in Greenland, and go clockwise around Europe, but the devil’s in the details as we all know… so locking those details down are my next steps.


Slowly but surely, I’m making it happen.