Yacht School II: Stew School + AEC

I can fold toilet paper into a little fan. 

I can set a table with 12 pieces of silverware - per person. I can create a lively flower arrangement with some grocery store flowers and crowns out of crisp linen napkins that would shame Martha Stewart into eating McDonalds take out for life.

I am the champion of fancy shit. 

Where did I learn these game changing skillz you ask? Stew School. Known officially as ‘MegaYacht Interior Operations Course’, Stew school is a yacht stewardess intro course. It teaches everything from cleaning and laundry to table settings and silver service. It’s a fun, but expensive (around $1000!) 5 day course that I took at the same school as my STCW. 

While it’s not necessary to get a job, and redundant if you have one - I would recommend it for green stews who are looking to get their first job. Not necessarily for the specific skills (you’ll have chief stew who will tell you how she likes it, trust me) but for the confidence and connections. The instructors of this course have been stews, and they know the game. Here’s your chance to ask aaaaalllll the questions and meet other girls just starting out in the industry. It’s fun, and it was the first time that I actually got my head around the level of service required in this industry. 

StewFact: Did you know we clean the bathrooms EVERY SINGLE TIME their used? 
Yep. We do that. 

THE GUYS: Deckies and AEC

While I was off learning how to fold fitted sheets, Juliano was learning how engines work. This industry is still quite gender segregated. While there are notable exceptions of female deckhands and male stewards - it’s not the norm. 

Stews : girls. Deckies : guys. 

The career path for the exterior crew is also clearer - there is a long series of courses and qualifications available for Juliano to take as he moves forward in yachting. For the interior crew there are course you can take (ex wine tasting, bar tending, service, etc) but no specific certifications that pre-qualify you for advancement.

Back to the engines... Juliano took the AEC ‘Approved Engine Course’ which is an intro engineering course. It’s a 5 day course as well, also quite expensive ($1000). 

Not my picture of a yacht engine room:

While hands on learning is the best for this, it’s a good general overview of the mechanics of boats - including jet skis and tender, the items typically required to be cared for by the deck crew. Additional, taking extra courses like this can show a bit of commitment to the industry - and differentiate yourself from the backpackers that fall into it looking for a quick season of cash.

Yacht School I: STCW + RIB

Numero Uno question I get asked when strangers find out what I do: 

How did you get a job like that? Did you have to go to school?

Well my friends, I did. I fought fires, I practiced CPR, I swam into a life raft. 

Despite my usual glib-ness about yacht life, safety is a huge factor. Boats burn to the water line in minutes, storms happen, and people fall overboard. Yacht crew are a relatively small group people charged with the responsibility of the guests, other crew members and the boat itself - everyone on a crew list needs to be informed and able to perform in emergency situations.

THE BASICS: STCW ’95

This is a must have to work in the yachting industry. It’s a 5 day course and costs around $900 US. It’s a really fun and informative week, you learn lots about the industry, safety and firefighting.

International Crew Training - STCW 95 from ICT Fort Lauderdale on Vimeo.

THE BONUS: RIB Powerboat II

RIB is a Rigid Inflatable Boat... aka dinghy. Every yacht has (at least) one, and this course will give you the license to drive one. Note I said license, not necessarily skill. This is a quick, 2 day course that will teach you the basics of driving a simple tender. We didn’t really get enough time to be confident drivers, but.... it’s a rubber boat.

ICT Powerboat II from ICT Fort Lauderdale on Vimeo.

Where to go?

We took all of our courses at ICT in Ft Lauderdale. They were great there - friendly and helpful, especially going in a newbies. MPT is the other big school in town, and while we don’t have any personal experience there - we’ve heard good things as well. What ever school you choose, just make sure that its recognized by MCA, USCG and/or PYA.

We're on our way!

Early morning flight, stop over in Dallas and we're in our way... So excited to finally be going!

Yep. That is ALL OF OUR LUGGAGE {we're both wearing small backpacks in this pic}. We're travelling carry on only - and I'm stressed already that I've brought waay too much stuff! It's going to be an adventure.


Ps. We're having a debate on the value of upgrading to first/business class. I vote it's worth about $100/hour of flight time. {So a 2hr flight is worth it of its a $200 upgrade.} Buuuut... I haven't quite shifted my mindset to someone with no job! What do you think??

Long Term Travel Insurance for Albertans

The mixture of being Canadian residents and full-time employees with additional health insurance has afforded us the luxury of never really thinking about our health in terms of money. Everything has always been free. We pay nominal fees for some prescriptions and travel immunizations, but not much.

To be honest, I can't even really relate to having to pay for healthcare. You have to pay if you get hit by a car? You have to pay to have a baby in a hospital? This doesn't make any sense to me. I'll keep my politics to myself, but my views are based on my experiences with this system of healthcare.

Venturing out into the world, we had to consider our health coverage internationally. We're both certified SCUBA divers and plan on continuing to dive - so that was a concern as well. Luckily, through the power of the interwebs, most of the research was already done for me.

Yeay to blog friends! Yeay to being lazy!

Steph over at 20 Years Hence, wrote an amazingly detailed post Better Safe than Sorry about her experience with Canadian, American, and International health insurance. I won't even try to recap what she has to say, because most of my posts are rambling diatribes about drinking too much, not information packed learning experiences.

Point is: I agree with all of it, and have had many of the same experiences looking into insurance.

There are only a few differences we have as Albertans. AHCIP requires that you be in Alberta for 183 days out of 12 months to maintain coverage. Since we will be gone for longer than that, we can call to extend it out. But even that will only bring us up to 12 months of coverage for AHCIP basics {this is free coverage that all Albertans get}. If we lose this coverage, we will have to insure all of our coverage independently, and not just the additional insurance that we would get with most plans.

World Nomads and Bon Voyage are two companies that provide international insurance. After some comparisons, World Nomads looked more like the insurance that we would need, as it included more extended diving and 'adventure travel' coverage.

However, we had two more factors to consider:
{1} We wanted to add onto our current AHCIP coverage, not double it up
{2} If we do end up working soon, many boats will include medical insurance as a part of their package, and we don't want to pay for something that could be offered for free!

We went to check out AMA Travel Insurance options, and they provide some shorter term extended coverage. This is what we went with in the end. We bought insurance until December, which is 71 travel days and cost us $486 for both of us. Not the cheapest, but it's what works best for us.

**Side Note: All of these policies are health insurance that we carry on top of a personal life insurance policy that we pay monthly. Look how grown up we are! Multiple levels of insurance!**

When our AMA coverage runs out, we'll most likely purchase the World Nomads package if we still need it. What about you fellow travellers? Did you purchase any insurance? Have you had any experiences making claims worldwide?

If you have any specific questions about Alberta/Travel insurance - let me know!

Do Not Lose your Safety Deposit Box Keys.

As I write this, I have a countdown clock open and ticking down in front of me. 40 hours until departure. We've been busy having drinks with friends, and fussing about our packing list - as expected.

Buut... every plan has kinks doesn't it?

Here's ours: I lost the keys to our safety deposit box. Yep. With all this moving around and packing, they're gone. I do not suggest this.

Turns out that the bank can't just please let you into the box, even if you ask. You must pay. You must book a locksmith - who usually books out up to a week in advance. But if you beg and plead and let them know you are moving out of the country at the end of the week!! you can get in. For $200 we had a lovely visit with Wayne the locksmith who literally DRILLED our box open today.

Less that one day to go and we're chasing our tails and running all over town in cars we're borrowing from friends and family while trying to solve problems that shouldn't even exist.

Silver lining: we got to move our box to a bank branch thats more convenient to us now. 39.5 Hours. Losing my bananas.

Have a good day and don't lose your stuff! ha ha...

We Don't Have JOBS!!

Yep, You are looking at a bunch of unemployed vagabonds for the time being!!

My last day of work was Friday, and it feels soooo weird to not be at work today. No matter - I scheduled us some massages to 'ease our pain'.

[Budget Note: Yep, I knoooow we're supposed to be cheap when we have no jobs and we're planning on travelling. But seriously, we booked with students at a massage school - so it's cheap! And we're helping someone get an education. Who doesn't believe in education?? Exactly.]

We had one last run to the storage locker yesterday, and have some banking and shopping to do to get our last minute packing done... I'll get a money post up in a bit now that we have a solid handle on our pre-adventure finances...

Have a great day - 3 more sleeps to Florida!

Eye can see!

Soo... after I blasted out my blog to my friends and family here, my mom helpfully pointed out that there are things on the Champagne List that are done and you haven't blogged about them! Thanks Mama.

Anyways, remember the Champagne List? It's a list of things that we'll drink Champagne to celebrate as we get closer and closer to our departure date. And on the list... DANA GETS EYE SURGERY. I'm quite blind, and I don't want to have to deal with contacts and glasses and eye exams while I'm out and about in the world, so here we go. My last day with glasses:

I signed myself up for a consult, asked my brother (who got it done last year) how it goes, and put my name down for surgery. After about a billion people poking and prodding at my eyeballs, getting a million different drop that did weird shit to my eyes and vision... the doctors spoke. Implantable lenses it would be for me. With some very generous help from my Mom (full disclosure: 100%), I can now see!

Something funny? They filmed my eye surgery. I'm not posting it here because its just freaky weird medical stuff, and really - we are that kind of friends yet...

{Okay, fine - since you asked. Actually I'm too lazy to upload my video, so here is my brother's if you really need to see it. You've been warned.}

Have a good day - enjoy seeing the world around you in whatever way you can :)

Dana

Ps. I got my eye surgery done at Gimble Eye Centre in Calgary, Alberta. I highly recommend it for anyone looking into the same thing. They were great with everything and I have better than 20/20 vision now! Despite our awesome Canadian heath care system (not being facetious) You still have to pay $$ for this unless you have cataracts or something. It's not cheap so have your mom pay for it if you can..

Road Trip: The Drive

Hey Bloggy Friends,

{I hope all my Canadian Blog Friends had a great long weekend!}

Remember that time I said we were going on a road trip? And then I told you we sold our house while on a road trip? Except I never really told you anything ABOUT the road trip? Yup, it's because I'm a crappy blogger. As it turns out, keeping a travel blog about preparing to travel comes a lot easier to me than a blogging about actually traveling. Strange.

Anyways...We did it. We went on a road trip! The first leg of our journey was from Calgary down to Sandpoint, ID for one night. It was a gorgeous drive through the foothills and into Rocky Mountains. Turns out I might not hate road trips as much as I was expecting to... {so cynical, Dana}. Here are some fun facts about our trip:

3350 Km driven

6 Face tattoos spotted

5 Nights in AirBnB homes

3 Nights with friends

2 Professional sports games attended

1 Sorta hitchhiker

Waaay too much beer sampled...

On the way there...

USA border security confiscated a bag of oranges we had in the car. Sad, because I was hungry later. The cheap motel we rolled into late that night was 50s themed. It was hilariously amazing.

On the way home...

TMI: I'm a horrible road trip partner because I probably have to stop for a pee every 2 hours or so. On the way home, while enjoying the gorgeous drive down the Coquihalla Highway, I forced Juliano to pull over at a rest stop for a 'break'. While slowing down to pull over - we passed a speed trap {moral of that story: my tiny bladder saved us a massive ticket!}. At the rest stop, a teenaged guy approached us and this happened:

Guy: Umm... excuse me? Are you guys by any chance driving to Calgary?

Me: Yep. Why? Is that your car over there getting towed?

Guy: Yeah, well... technically it's my mom's car getting towed. I was driving my girlfriend home to Kelowna.

Me: Ah ha ha.... that sucks. Hey - did you know that today is Mother's day?

Guy: Really? Shit. I don't have any cell reception here.

Me: You should call her.

Guy: Yeah, I know. Can I please get a ride with you? I can pay for gas or whatever.

Me: ha ha ha...I don't need your gas money. But I feel like this will be hilarious, so hop on in!

And that is how we picked up a sorta-hitch-hiker in BC and brought him all the way home. Turns out getting your mom's car towed on Mother's day is not really appreciated by your family - his dad was pissed. It was hilarious. Also he was quite polite and friendly {Canadians...} and complimented my taste in music {which made me feel young and trendy} - overall success on our part.

Some random notes about road tripping...

- I know the words to A LOT of songs. What a waste of brain space, I should be fluent in Portuguese by now.

- Trains are cool, bridges are awesome. Train bridges = super awesome

- Road side {and river-side!} picnics are the best

- I don't know anything about geography. Seriously, I'm lost about 90% of the time.

- Farmers Markets are cool in every city. And the food is always the best there.

- There is no chance in hell that I'll ever be able to translate USD-per-Gallon to Canadian-Cents-per-Liter for gas comparisons. You literally need to be a rocket scientist to figure that out. I give up. But still:

Most expensive gas: 1.47/Liter in Vancouver, BC

Cheapest gas: 3.71/Gallon in Sandpoint, ID

- Cheap motels always have free breakfast and wifi. Fancy hotels make you pay for both. Why?


I know this post was a bit scattered, but I'll be back with more about Portland, Seattle, Vancouver and Kelowna soon!

Cheers!

OMG. WE BOOKED A DATE.

Holy Shit Friends. We've done it. We Booked a DATE.

Pause.  Rewind.  Review.

It was almost a year ago (Nov 2011) that we first had the discussion. We talked and talked and decided that maybe this Calgary life wasn't exactly what we were looking for right now. Maybe, we should take this double-income-no-kids moment in our life as an opportunity for something crazy instead of a stepping stone to the next inevitable 'phase' in life. We asked each other what our goals were if we were to give up the fairly awesome and successful existence that we had earned ourselves... these were our answers:

Dana: Adventure. I want to travel and see the world. 

Juliano: I want to be financial independent, debt free and ahead of the game. 

Those goals are not usually compatible. But we got some inspiration together, and we threw around a few ideas that might work. The Big Idea came up, and both of us thought "noo... that's crazy!". But soon, 'no...that's crazy' starts to turn into... 'what if...'  which turns into 'could we really?'

Friends, let me tell you - What Ifs can take over your life. Literally. What if we made money while we were traveling? What if we could travel indefinitely? Eventually... What Ifs turn into Could We Really?s. Could we really sell our house? Could we really move away from family? Could we really quit our jobs?

We just started answering YES to every question. YES, we could make money and travel at the same time. YES we could sell our house. YES we could move away. YES is a very powerful word, so it seems.

We began to secretly put a plan into place to move us closer to this goal. We saved money, and sold our stuff. We didn't buy or receive any Christmas gifts that year. We only told a few people about our 'crazy' plan.... and then we listed the house. And sold more stuff. And moved. And saved. And waited.

What started out as a silly idea between two people turned into and HUGE project that we felt was taking all of our time and effort. Now that we're close to the finish line, this plan has taken on momentum of it's own and is snowballing ahead of us, dragging us along for the adventure of lifetime.

We're excited, anxious, busy with so many details and a touch overwhelmed. But we really wanted to solidify the plan and make it a 'Real Thing' in our minds. So we bought our plane tickets! Yep.

We are now the proud (VERY PROUD!) owners of two one way tickets from Calgary, Alberta, Canada to the yachting capital of North America - Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. We leave...

September 22, 2012

Holy Shit. It's less than seven weeks away. We're moving this weekend to live in a condo with some friends, and we'll stay there until we leave. I still have to give notice at my work, decide on a packing list (yikes!), register for some courses, book a place to stay, organize our finances here (will share that with you!), finish a million detail of our lives here and about eleventy-million other things.

Let's get this party started!

Cheers, D & J

Storage and Stuff and Squirrels, Oh My!

  Despite getting rid of all of our stuff, we keep stashing it away into smaller and smaller compartments as we move locations. It's getting culled down, but we keep mini-hoarding without realizing it. Just one closet full of stuff --> Just one suitcase full of stuff --> Just one box full of stuff....  People are crazy, us included.

Selling all of our furniture was on the Champagne List. Well, we did that. Actually most of it went to a friend from my work who is setting up a new home (What's up, Jess!). But some things, and some furniture are too sentimental to leave behind or sell (family heirlooms, etc). So we got a storage locker. It's the smallest one we could find 5x8, and it's a bit out of town (cheaper!) - but it's still an expense we're carrying with us.

Money Disclosure: Our storage locker is costing us $92/month to keep while we're gone. We auto-pay it monthly and can manage it remotely while we're gone. After traveling for a while it may seem like a large expense, but for now it's worth it to us to keep the heirlooms and such safe.

And I think this brings us to the end of the story of our Stuff! Yeay!

What a Ride!

Hey Friends, guess what?

We got rid of our car! Yep, our much beloved VW Golf is gone. It took care of us for 4 years, and brought us to lots of amazing adventures. But, the lease was up the same day as our house possession.. so it was a busy day for us!

** financial disclosure: The Golf was leased for 4 years, and cost us $979 to return for some minor repairs and admin fees, ouch **

In the meantime - we’ve been driving our van. And while suuuper handy, it’s been a bit of a weird adjustment. Excuse me while I go all ‘first world problems’ on you here: Driving a nice car like the golf was quite reflective of our lifestyle and status in this city. Now, cruising around in a sketchy van - it’s a tactile adjustment and our first taste of ‘less possessions’. We knew it was going to happen, but having to let go of your ego in even the smallest of ways is an interesting shift in view. Just trying to be honest with you.

We’ve been staying with family in the ‘burbs for a couple of weeks, but next weekend we’re heading back downtown to stay with friends in an apartment. It’s going to be great to get our commute down to just a few minutes, but now we don’t want to deal with the expense of parking - so we’re selling the van (yeay money!) and signed up for an awesome new car sharing program to get us through the next couple of months!

Car2Go is a great program that we heard about on twitter (@danadebrito).We get to rent smart cars by the minute to use whenever/wherever we want! It’s all app based for finding the cars, parking and gas is all included, and it’s charged automatically to our credit cards. We signed up at an event so our registration was free (yeay free!) but I think it’s usually about $35/year.

Ps. I wasn't paid/sponsored by car2go in any way for this. It's just a sweet idea that I paid for with my own money.

Another check off our Champagne List! Cheers!

$275.99

Hey Friends! 

Brief Interruption: I disappeared again for a bit - I guess 'the internets' spooked me out a bit. I started this blog using my full real name without thinking too much about it, and recently several casual acquaintances and friends have found out about the blog (not too hard really). It has always been my intention to let all of my family and friends know about the blog... but being 'outed' about the blog spooked me, and I was avoiding it for a while (can I get a woot-woot from the other avoiders out there?!) On the the fun stuff:

After the negotiations in the pub in Portland - we had to run off to an Office Depot…. 

But - You're dying to know if we made our millions selling the house! So, drum roll please….

$275.99

After lawyer fees, real estate fees, negotiations with the buyer and all that jazz... That's how much we made selling our house. I know, don't spend it all an once, right? It was a hard process that we alluded to HERE and HERE and even HERE. And in the end we shared our excitement over selling HERE! That was a fun day. After all was said and done, we broke even - coming out just a squeak ahead!  

We sold our furniture. We donated our clothes to Goodwill. It's crazy how much stuff people accumulate when living in a set place for what they expect to be an indeterminate amount of time. We're still culling through it, scaling back and cutting down. The good news is that seeing your 'stuff' in boxes on the floor of your mom's basements sure adds perspective to their worth. It's simplicity time!! 


Cheers, until next time!

House Selling 101: Do it in a bar.

Okay friends, I know you all want to know about our trips, but we have WAY MORE EXCITING NEWS to share!

We sold our house!

WHILE ON VACATION. 

Yep, the deal is already firm and possession is June 15. That is exactly 30 days from today. Or 722 hours... but who's counting? Money question: We'll end up breaking even.After nearly 3 months on the market, we're happy with that.

Here's the funny part for you - we got it all on video!  Juliano [the video nerd] was trying to film some beer tastings we were doing for his Portland video when I got the call from our realtor. So, through the magic of technology - I present you:

Selling a house while sampling beer in the middle of the day!

And that is our tale bloggy friends. I'll be rolling out our trip stuff and keeping you posted about the move - yikes! Meanwhile, out of town family will be staying with us this weekend and next... so we'll be busy!

Robots Pay My Bills

It's been awhile since we had any Money Posts up here - and that's really because not too much is happening. Without a house sale, our finances remain stable {mostly}. To help prep us for some long term travel, and get us in the green for some savings... we're working on a couple of things financially:

1. Saving Money! 
You're shocked, I know. People who want to travel are saving money? Yep.
We started putting all of our extra cash into a {previously empty} savings account. All the money we got from Kijiji + Amazon + Extra stuff is in there. Our tax return $$ will go in there too. We've sold around $3000 of stuff {includes some things from the business that we owned} and will get almost $5000 in a tax refund. That puts us at almost $8000 saved - and we're still paying our mortgage! We're already 53% of the way to our 'Have this or don't get on a Plane' amount.

2. Automated Finance
Here's where the robots come in. After reading lots of money blogs/advice {Like This or This or This} I'm trying to shift my finances to be fully automated. Here's why:
- I'm lazy/disorganized and I don't want to forget bills or pay them late
- I know I'm going to pay all my bills, so why not have the robots do it for me?
- Bills still get paid if you're not around the internet
- It keeps my budgeting organized and on track - bazinga!

I've already gone into my love for Mint {budgeting software} and it's awesome auto-categorizing, so this is just taking it one step further:

For my home:
- I called VISA to have the minimum payments for both of our credit cards come out of our account on the 15th. I can still make additonal payments on my own towards the principle {which we are still paying down}, but we'll never forget to pay.
-  My cell phone bill & utilities bills do the same, except the full payment for these come out every month
- A small RRSP savings transfer is made at the end of the month
- Property taxes & condo fees are paid automatically on a monthly basis

I still do all of our savings transfers & principle payments on credit cards manually. Mint categorizes all of my spending, so I can then review all of the payments that have been made and calculate my excess income for savings/debt repayment.

For our rental property:
- Post-dated cheques from my renters were given to the bank to be deposited on the 1st of the month
- Mortgage, utilities, condo fees, property taxes all come out automatically
This system is completely automated and I do nothing to it but monitor it monthly.


This has been a great way for us to ensure that all of our bills were being prioritized and paid immediately, as well as itemized and monitored on Mint. It leaves us with a clear number at the end of every month that we can use towards our goals. Currently, we're using this excess money to pay down debt through a snowball approach {Try this Snowball Calculator!}, and using a snowflake approach to our savings - it will adjust alongside our situation.

**Final Note** Budgeting as a couple can be a nightmare sometimes. Everyone has different views and hangups about money, and secrecy is the kryptonite of a good budget. COMMUNICATION is KEY! We need to have 'budget meetings' monthly to review the status of our accounts, our goals and spending ;) **

How do you budget your money? If you are living internationally - how do you manage your money abroad? Money and budgets are a huge portion of travel prep, so we're glad to be taking some steps to move forward... now we just have to get rid of this house and mortgage!!

ARGH! Frustration and a House

Our house deal was supposed to go firm today - but our deal fell through. The buyers decided not to go through with the purchase and backed out. Argh!

We're frustrated, disappointed and trying hard not to be angry. We've sold a bunch of stuff, booked a storage locker and redone our budgets in anticipation of a mid-April possession... and now it looks like we're back to showings and waiting. Waiting and showings.

Feels like someone threw an ice-cold bucket of negativity on our excitement. Tell me friends - how do you stay motivated and positive when nothing seems to be going your way??

** Update: Okay, sorry for being such a downer friends! I wrote this last night... but even today I'm feeling much more cheery. I've found a short term solution:

[1] Put the sign back and move forward!
[2] Go to Dairy Queen and get a mint Oreo blizzard.

Kijiji Time: Sell your sh*t!

Since we have a {still conditional} offer on the house... it's time to start getting it ready! I'm nervous and excited to sell all my stuff... the house is looking a bit emptier already! Lots of decor stuff is on it's way out - with the big pieces getting listed the moment our conditions are all met.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Money Time: Canadian Banking Edition

Hey Canadian Friends - this post is for you!

Since the internet is flooded with specific advice and accounts for our American friends.. here's one for us!

 What bank accounts do you use? We bank with TD Canada Trust, it's easy & automated, they have great hours, and works well for us. But in anticipation of some international travels, we had to make some changes.

Yesterday, we upgraded our regular account to the TD Select Service Account {This is not a sales pitch/sponsored - we really just did this}. Here's why:

• Comes with a FREE small safety deposit box {we had just opened one for valuables!}
• No annual fee for their First Class Travel Rewards Visa {we already had this too!}
• No international ATM fees! {Stupid $5 every time we take out cash would kill us!}
• Free cheques/drafts/US account... some other stuff that we use less

Total monthly cost: $29/month. Ouch, I know. But if you keep $5000 or more in your chequing account {we don't usually - we utilize our savings account} it's free.

Since we were already paying for all of the additional services, it will actually save us money in the long run.
And, the bank refunded our deposit box payment $94.00 and Visa refunded our annual payment $120 so I almost made $214.50 yesterday. All for going to the bank!

I'm still trying to learn more about the best way to do our finances on the road - but this was a great start. Any other international-banking tips and tricks?

*Yep, I spelled cheques with a 'que' because this is a Canadian money post. 

I'll have checks when I get to the States.

We got an Offer!!

 Hey Friends!

We got a conditional offer on our house last night! I’m running around collecting condo documents, ensuring everything is ready for the home inspection and preparing to sell more stuff on Kijiji.... The offer goes firm in 10 days – so I’ll keep you posted. April 27 could be our last day in our home!

Side Note about keeping stuff: We’re getting a storage locker for some things {mainly family heirlooms, old business records, etc} but I’ve been mentally adding other things from around the house to it… Remember here when I had a hard time selling my bike? Yep – the same thing is happening for our bedroom suite. I know, I know – just sell it you’re saying {Juliano’s with you on that one}. 

 

Talking to Juliano last night {who has been endlessly patient with my unreasonable amount of attachment to stuff – good Buddhist, I am not} I realized that we bought that bedroom suite as a newly married couple. We had everything from our first arguments – to secret whispers about making trip plans here… it represents the stability of the work we’ve put into this marriage and this home we’ve built together. How can I sell that?!?!

But I can. I’ll list the bedroom set, and it will sell. But it won’t be my marriage and my home going out the door with it – it will just be some {nice} furniture. Selling our things has been way more difficult than I was expecting and trying to reconcile that has been a work in progress – it’s not as easy as it looks!

I don’t want to sound like I’m throwing a pity-party here – 

just keeping it real on the de Brito front!