Where in the World Is Rosie Hunerwadel (Nov 2010 - Sept 2012)

(Yes, you should have sung the title of this post like in the show)

I'm gonna start using this blog as a rough planning ground for my travels to help me make sure I'm not double booking things and also if anyone has friends in the places I'm gonna be feel free to let me know. I like meeting new people and its always nice to have someone who lives in a place to give you the local view on a place.

Nov 2010: I'll be going to Moloka`i, and Lana`i for 6 days over Thanksgiving break with my friend Jordyn

Dec 2010: I go back to Tennessee for a week over Christmas

March 2011: I will be going to O`ahu for Spring Break

April 2011: If we can raise the money I'll be going to NYC for the Model UN collegiate conference

May 2011: I am going to Kaua`i to visit my friend Jenni

May 2011-June 2011: I'm gonna ship my car from Hawai`i back to the mainland so Scott(my brother), and I can road trip across the US back to Tennessee. We'll definitely stay in LA for a while, then go to Vegas. Then maybe to Fort Collins, Colorado to see one of my best friends from high school, Morgan. After that off to Texas to visit my friend Beau, if he's not deployed. Then down to New Orleans to visit Scott and I's honorary cousin Marcia. After that we might go to Panama City, up through Atlanta, and then back to Chattanooga, TN.

June 2011-July 2011: I recently applied to volunteer at the 2012 Olympic games in London so if I get selected to interview then I'm gonna go to London for the interview then do a little backpacking in Europe, visit some friends there. The countries I really wanna hit while I'm there are Spain (and maybe go down to Morocco), France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (maybe hit Amsterdam on my way back to London.) If I get the volunteering gig then I'm gonna try to get a work visa and live in England for the year up to the Olympics.

Sept 2012:  (optimistically assuming that I get the Olympics gig) I want to go into Americorps, or I want to WWOOF. If I don't get the volunteer position then one of these things will just be moved up.

So if all this goes down according to plan then my new backpack should rack up quite a few miles.

The Dark Horse

The Wild Card: I don't think this pack is as pretty as the Crestone but I think I like the Lowe Alpine more on an operational level. It has everything the Crestone has but also has nifty little zipper pouches on the waist strap which is great for me. And I like that it has a removable wall in the middle, so I can have two smaller sections or open up the whole backpack space if I needed to.


http://www.sierratradingpost.com/p/311,2161X_Lowe-Alpine-TFX-Cerro-Torre-ND-Backpack-55-plus-15-Internal-Frame-For-Women.html

The L.L.Bean is totally out of the race now. It is definitely down to these two.

Why?

This is a question I get asked a lot when I tell people my plan.

The best way I know how to answer is that I've never really fit in. I've been a little off ever since I was a little kid. Most people are able to find at least one or two other people who are just like them. I've never found anyone like me. I like moving from place to place, never putting down roots because when you first move to a place it's normal to be different. You are given allowances for being off because you haven't figured out how things are done yet. After the year mark people start to wonder why your not fitting in better. It doesn't help that I get bored very easily, so moving around suits me in that respect as well. I also love to learn. Especially about other cultures, and the best way to do that is to live in whatever country you want to learn about.

I know I'm young, but I don't ever see myself turning into the kind of person who wants to settle down somewhere. This is why it would greatly benefit me if I only had as much stuff as I can fit in my backpack.

Searching for the Perfect Pack

The Leader: I like this pack because it's made of waterproof cloth, it has top, side and bottom access, and it has a pouch in the front. On the down side, (the very minor downside,) it does not have an easy access pouch for my water bottle, sad. I also like that it's black, it won't show up as much when I get it dirty.

http://www.thenorthface.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=149579&langId=-1&storeId=207&catalogId=10201


1st Runner Up: This pack has more pouches and pockets than the Crestone, but I'm so short I have to get the youth size which only comes in red. I could get over this if it was an all around superior pack, but it doesn't appear to be. It also has side pouches which are nice on the storage front but suck in making it easy to fit in over head compartments on trains, plains, or any other place I might need to store it on my journeys.


http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/50496?feat=50495-ppxs&dds=y#ppMoreDetails

I'm not sold yet so if anyone has any suggestions I welcome them.

The Project Begins

I am what some would call a pack rat. I keep anything I think I might even need a piece of at some distant, unforeseeable future date. When I was 19 I moved to Hawai'i for college. At the end of my first year I had to go home for the summer. This meant I had to store all my stuff. This was one of the major turning points in my life. I realized that day that I had entirely to much stuff. I never realized this before because I lived in a house, and had a big room, and never had to move so far that I couldn't easily take all my stuff to the new big room.

At this point in college I already knew that I would spend the rest of my life roaming from place to place, it's just the way I am. A lot of people call me a free spirit, I don't see myself that way. I just love learning. The funnest way to learn new things is to go live in a new place, and surround yourself with new people. But I digress. Rewind to life turning point; I decided that day when I had to pack up all the shit that was tying me to this place (don't get me wrong, Hawai'i is great but it is just a stop on the highway of my life.) I really needed to downsize. At first I just thought I'll get ride of all none essential things, like clothes that no longer fit, or silly trinkets that have no purpose, basically the junk that we collect in our everyday lives. This idea snowballed after a few trans-continental flights between my home town in Tennessee and Hawai'i.

I came to dread packing. Firstly, because it meant making the decisions of what to take with me and what to leave behind (not to be seen again for the next 6 months till I was in Tennessee again.) Secondly, because I had so much stuff that I always went back and forth with 4 bags (2 checks, a carry on, and my school backpack.) All this stuff is really hard to manage when its all over wight and you're by yourself in the airport. I started to think about my future, traveling from place to place and how hard it was going to be to get all my stuff to where ever I am. That's when I decided, knowing as I knew the kind of life I wanted to lead, I should not own more material things than I can carry comfortably on my person. I thought about roller luggage but this seemed to bulky and not comfortable to carry around if I didn't have a residence yet, so I decided on a backpacking pack. It has the advantages of being much bigger than a regular backpack with the perk of still having straps that make it easy and comfortable to carry. at least this is my logic.

So here I am in the senior year of college, about to graduate in spring, about to go out into what will be the rest of my life, and its time to put my plan into action.