Friday, March 02, 2007

Getting ready to leave

London's passed by in a bit of a daze. In between meeting the maths crowd, some corporate sharks and some friends, it became quite hectic. It helps that I know the city very well after so many trips so I've felt comfortable getting around. I managed to get my CARICOM visa stamped, get vague ideas of possible employment opportunities after Rio, mail off tax forms and catch up with some friends.

I'm leaving in a few hours for Heathrow and have a one-way ticket to Caracas. My worldly possessions are now even less than they were a few months ago. I can survive for about a week with my clothes, have two books to sustain me and a few gadgets. 2 years ago, I'd gone to Peru for 2 weeks and was carrying exactly the right amount of stuff after many years of always carrying some extra and useless items while travelling. I went hiking for 4 days, and managed to get by easily with what I was carrying. Right now, I've got the same amount of stuff with me.

In the last 10 months, this is the 4th time, I've bought a one-way ticket to head off to a different continent. I don't know if I'm doing something incredibly stupid with no clear idea of what to do in terms of employment, just about enough money to last me till July (assuming there're no screw-ups) but hopefully in about 24 hours or so, I'll be in Caracas.

More once I reach Venezuela.

3 comments:

Tabula Rasa said...

bon voyage!

just one question -- tax forms?! who're you paying tax to?

Anonymous said...

getting money back from the US Govt ?

Anshuman

Anonymous said...

Haha. Not paying taxes to anyone. Reclaiming taxes from Uncle Sam for last year. I used to call it the graduate student bonus.