A common question people ask us when they learn we’re moving to Ecuador is,
“What shots do you need to get?” The simple answer is, none. There are no
required vaccinations for traveling to Ecuador. The CDC website has a nifty
guide to vaccinations for travelers. The biggest risk posed to us seems to be
from eating and drinking contaminated food or water, which could lead to
hepatitis A or the more exotic sounding, typhoid. After doing a little
research, including some advice from my “almost-doctor” sister, Justin and I
decided to get the Hep A vaccine and we made appointments at the Health
Services for Travelers Office. I’ll state for the record that I’m suspicious of
vaccines. I mean, how do we really know what’s in those shots?
But at Caitlin’s urging and the threat of permanent liver damage, I went for
it.
The cost
for the vaccine was about $50 and the nurse charges a $30 “service fee” for
pushing a three inch plastic handle towards us and injecting our arms full of
disease. . She was really pushing us to get the typhoid vaccine as well, I’m
sure that comes with an additional service fee, but we turned it down. Besides,
it turns out that the typhoid vaccine is only 50-80% effective (Hep A is 99%
effective) and that doesn’t sound too convincing to me.
So now
our bodies are swimming with hepatitis A antibodies and we’re just going to
roll the dice on typhoid.
Well, we’re in the thick of it. As I type this, we are in
the middle of packing our lives. As we were beginning to consider living in
another country we knew we were going to have to downsize our possessions but
that is a lot easier said than done. When we got back from our trip to New
Jersey we got started almost immediately.
The process involved a lot of sorting. Split all of your
possessions into two piles, this is stuff I’ll definitely need, this stuff I’m
definitely going to donate to Goodwill. Then, after making those piles it was
time to go through the “definite need” pile and shrink that down again. Repeat
until more than half of your stuff going to Goodwill.
The house is a mess of boxes everywhere. Shannon has been a
trooper. She has had quite a bit more work to do than I have since she has more
stuff but she’s been focused and hasn’t complained about any of it.
Also, we made a discovery. Space Bags are incredible. They take a pile of clothing, sheets, towels, or whatever you have and shrink them down to the size of about a brick. They have made us very appreciative and have given us some flexibility with our packing. They come in a variety of sizes. Without Space Bags, our 19 boxes would probably more closely resemble 193 boxes. We were even able to manage to find a little bit of fun within the burden of our jobs. That’s it for now. Our stuff is being picked up later this
week to be shipped out. We’ll check in later.
The farewell tour is complete. Shannon and I are currently
on a plane from New Jersey back to the great, hot, South. It’s hard to describe
my thoughts on this whole process. We were fortunate enough to have had the
opportunity to see my step-dad, mom, sister, niece, grandmother, aunt, cousins,
and friends for a while. We had the chance to share some laughs, some meals,
and some drinks. We still have some work to do in packing, going away parties
in Florida, and a few other loose ends but it was certainly nice to visit my
family before leaving.
It’s always been interesting to me to hear people say they
don’t know what they had until it was gone. It’s a saying I've heard applied to
a variety of things, but most common for when a loved one passes away or a
relationship ends. I think it’s through that scope that I am able to be fully
appreciative of everything I have. I am not losing my family and friends, but
the goodbye of a temporary leave to a new country seems to leave me with the
same sense of fleeting momentary appreciation that is only truly felt upon
loss. I suppose in that regard I am lucky to be afforded the opportunity, but I
sure as hell am going to miss them all as Shannon and I go on our adventure.
During our trip, we had the opportunity to cross a few
things off of our “United States Bucket List.” I know it seems kind of corny,
but it’s something I wanted to make sure we did so we didn’t regret anything
before we left. On this particular trip we crossed off a few things on my list;
we took my parents out to breakfast (it was delicious as pork roll, egg, and
cheese hoagies always are), went to the Atlantic City Boardwalk to see the
sights and play some mini-golf, got some cheesesteaks from Pat’s in South Philly,
and got to go to a Phillies game to tailgate and watch the game (big win). I am
leaving on this trip pleased with the way we spent our time. To any of my
friends and family in New Jersey, I love you all and I’m going to miss you.
Thank you for the great time this week.
While the trip was a good time as a whole, I think the
highlight for me may have been my niece’s dance recital. She is but a wee
little one and of course a dance recital starring people that barely reach the
height requirement of being human was adorable. For her number, she wore a
Hawaiian grass skirt and danced to some Disney song. It was great. About
halfway through the song, the fog machine kicked in to really set off the Bon-Joviesque
choreography, but this was not discussed in the pre-dance planning boardroom
with the dancers. Most of the little girls stopped all of their hula dancing
and immediately focused on the fog machine for the duration of the dance. There
was attempted scooping, giggling, and other symptoms of omnipresent wonder and
amusement.
Thinking about this fog-fiasco got me thinking. I am going
to miss all of my family for every other traditional reason people miss family
such as meals, holidays, occasional judgmental behind the back gossip and the
like. But above all of that, I am going to miss the tiny moments. I am going to
miss being there for the unexpected moments where my niece discovers something
for the first time and is overwhelmed with curiosity as my grandmother
snorttles her laughter with uncontrollable volume that echoed through the
auditorium with the bone rattling impact of a T-Rex. (Yes I had to invent a
word for the noise her laugh makes) I am going to miss those daily occurrences
of life that people talk about for years with reverence and appreciation.
I realize that I’ve lived far away from my family for a few
years now and this has been an issue for a while but I just wanted to express
my thoughts before we leave. In no way is this admission a moment of regret for
our pending travels, it is merely an acknowledgement for my family. I want them
to know how much I love them, and how much I enjoy those moments I get to be a
part of. I do not regret my decision to leave New Jersey because without it I
would never have met some of the wonderful people in my life, I would never
have had the opportunity to achieve some of the career successes I've had, I would never have shared some of the
experiences I've had, and I would have never met Shannon. I am approaching our
pending trip to Ecuador with equal parts excitement, anticipation, and
appreciation for both the memories I've made with my loved ones and also the
future memories I will make with them and more people I've yet to meet. All in
all it was a great trip.
