I have a confession to make. I have less than three months to go. Sort of.

In a nutshell: my work contract runs out on December 31, and on that day I will board a plane into the great unknown.  But actually, I have received an award and stipend from the Hasselblad Foundation (as in the cameras) to go and live in France for two months before that.  So, technically, I am leaving my home in Sweden almost for good at the start of November – even though the last two months will be work. This is in ONE MONTH. I will pop back up to Sweden for three days (Dec 28-31), but that’s it.

PANIC.

But for some reason I’m not panicking.  Yet, anyhow.  I feel strangely on top of it, and have this weird feeling that it is all going to be ok.

This is not like me.

The only conclusion I can draw is that perhaps, somehow, someway deciding to vagabond was the right choice and it is already getting me away from my panicked, stressed lifestyle.  Oh vey.

Despite this unanticipated calm before the storm, I have still been working hard to button up my real-grown-up-full-time-job style life.  Here is my progress from the last month, and a list of the last details I still need to cover:

What I have done:

• Decided I will rent my apartment out, instead of selling it (and found a renter!)
• Set up 12 months of travel insurance (comprehensive travel insurance & home insurance for one year: $631 – sometimes I love this socialist country)
• Sold a lot of stuff!  (Running total: $947)
• Went to the dentist, the doctor and got a new glasses perscription
• FOUND A LONG TERM HOME FOR WALLY!!!!
• Took my car to its annual check up – and it passed!  Prepped to sell!
• Opened up a secondary ‘just in case’ bank account with Charles Schwab
• BOOKED A FLIGHT!  Cambodia and 2015, here I come!

What I still need to do: 

• Set up my business
• Vaccinate Wally & get him a kitty passport
• Have passport-type photos taken (of myself, not the cat – eesh!) and get them printed up for visas
• Vaccinate myself
• Sell the last things: car, some of the bigger furniture
• Buy a new camera for the trip?  I’m thinking the Canon G16.  Any thoughts?
• Pack up and fill storage unit with everything I’m not selling/giving away
• Cancel my hydro/internet/phone contracts

I still can’t get my head around the fact that almost all of the major prep tasks are done. So now I will spend as much time as I can with my friends (who seem to all be in Argentina at the moment at a conference), fika as much as possible and get a massive amount of lab-work done before I take off for France.