Day Zero
To soften the blow of tomorrow's early wake-up call, I am spending tonight at the Hilton Garden Inn in Romulus, just north of the Detroit airport. It's in a huge office park with a ton of other hotels, and the room is comfortable. It also gains me about 45-60 minutes of extra sleep tomorrow morning (a 4am wakeup call feels much different than one at 3am.) The view from my room, however, will hopefully not rank among the most memorable of the more than 50 hotels I'll be staying in on this trip.
So how does one pack for an 11-week trip? In my case, not as intelligently as one probably could have. I've never been the backpacker type, so I'm using the High Sierra suitcase I bought for the Australia/New Zealand trip I took before business school started. In addition to having lots of capacity, it does have attachable straps on the back, which I can quickly add if necessary (I'm staying in a few hostels on this trip, and having a bunch of trustafarian backpackers sneer at your suitcase gets really old.) I rolled all of my tshirts, which bought me some extra space, and I'll be mailing some of the cooler-weather items home to Chicago once I leave South Africa and don't need them anymore. Nonetheless, the bag is really full - zipping it up is a workout unto itself - and I'm a little concerned it may be overweight. I'll find out at the check-in counter tomorrow.
Besides the suitcase, I've also got a brand-new Swissgear backpack that I'll keep my computer, books, passport, and toiletries in. I didn't load it up until today, so it still has that nice firm 'new backpack' feeling. Here's a photo so I can remember what it looked like before I dragged it across 14 countries.
So things are actually happening. I didn't think this day would come as quickly as it did, but I'm really looking forward to getting started. For now, it's time to leave the hotel in search of my last good American meal. I passed a McDonald's, Subway, Big Boy and Bob Evans on the way in - decisions, decisions!
I'll hopefully be checking in tomorrow night with an update from Hong Kong, where I spend the night before moving on to Taiwan the following day.
Today I'm in: Romulus, Michigan
My move went well (as well as a move can ever go) and the trip is on! I locked up my apartment today and am officially no longer an Ann Arbor resident. I hope the new residents of #410, Unit 4 enjoy the two frozen Trader Joe's items that I am just realizing I forgot to get rid of. The masala dosa is particularly good!
Tomorrow will be a very long day. I leave at 6am and fly to Dallas, where I'll change planes and fly to Los Angeles, where I'll change planes and fly to Hong Kong. I land at HKG at about 6:45pm local time, which will feel like about 5am to me. Fortunately, thanks to all those miles I accumulated during my seven years of pre-MBA work, all of tomorrow's flights are in either first or business class. I'm definitely looking forward to trying out Cathay Pacific's business class... it's supposed to be amazing!
To soften the blow of tomorrow's early wake-up call, I am spending tonight at the Hilton Garden Inn in Romulus, just north of the Detroit airport. It's in a huge office park with a ton of other hotels, and the room is comfortable. It also gains me about 45-60 minutes of extra sleep tomorrow morning (a 4am wakeup call feels much different than one at 3am.) The view from my room, however, will hopefully not rank among the most memorable of the more than 50 hotels I'll be staying in on this trip. 
So how does one pack for an 11-week trip? In my case, not as intelligently as one probably could have. I've never been the backpacker type, so I'm using the High Sierra suitcase I bought for the Australia/New Zealand trip I took before business school started. In addition to having lots of capacity, it does have attachable straps on the back, which I can quickly add if necessary (I'm staying in a few hostels on this trip, and having a bunch of trustafarian backpackers sneer at your suitcase gets really old.) I rolled all of my tshirts, which bought me some extra space, and I'll be mailing some of the cooler-weather items home to Chicago once I leave South Africa and don't need them anymore. Nonetheless, the bag is really full - zipping it up is a workout unto itself - and I'm a little concerned it may be overweight. I'll find out at the check-in counter tomorrow.Besides the suitcase, I've also got a brand-new Swissgear backpack that I'll keep my computer, books, passport, and toiletries in. I didn't load it up until today, so it still has that nice firm 'new backpack' feeling. Here's a photo so I can remember what it looked like before I dragged it across 14 countries.
I'll hopefully be checking in tomorrow night with an update from Hong Kong, where I spend the night before moving on to Taiwan the following day.
Have a drink at the top of the Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong (it's on the Kowloon side of the city). It's pretty spectacular (you may have been there before though)!!
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