Yel Kaye – Travel Blog, Writing and Photography

People keep on asking me: “How do you feel about leaving Ottawa so soon?”

There was a time that I’d get really choked up when I left home or moved. A time when setting out to places unfamiliar was emotionally upsetting and draining.

Now it feels like par for the course. In fact, I’m feeling content and relaxed settling in to that same old, familiar feeling of getting ready for the unfamiliar. I don’t even have to think much about the stuff that needs to get done… I’m checking off the following list on auto-pilot:

1. Get extra bank card – The bank will put up a fuss but yes they will do this for you!
2. Call VISA and tell them “yes that person charging my card from some far-off country is me.”
3. Buy stuff that is impossible to find anywhere, like contact-lens solution.
4. Sell off as many worldly possessions as possible. (Anyone want a futon?)
5. Drink that disgusting traveler’s diarrhea vaccine and gag melodramatically.
6. Wash three continents off the smelly backpack and watch the water run brown.

Yes, this is a very comforting routine.