Finals, they be over.

Well, I am finally done with finals... Finally, finals are finally final. Okay, I'm done now.

Anyhow, just thought I would give some updates to my preparations for my trip.

First off, I have purchased my JR pass and got it in the mail. I was a little irritated because the only shipping options they gave me were Fed-Ex two day shipping or Fed-Ex next day shipping. Clearly I didn't need either, but I chose the cheaper one and figured it was better to be safe than sorry with such expensive documents. I still have yet to book more hostels, or purchase my Eurail pass... But hey, I've had a good excuse. I will start doing more preparations tomorrow when I have a bit more free time in the afternoon. Today I am working until 5, and I am seeing off many people that are either graduating or abroad for next year. I'm sad to see them go... But for all you Hawaii people, I will definitely see you again.

As far as health-related issues goes, I have been getting some things done in that department as well. About two months ago I started going back to counseling (its free, so what the heck). And then about 3 weeks ago or so I did some nice acrobatics on my bike and landed with a concussion and some scrapes and bruises. So I had to go get a CT scan--doctor's orders. Everything's good. Later that week I had to go back to the health center for a tetanus booster shot, since I haven't had one in about 9-10 years and they wanted me to make sure the cuts I got wouldn't get infected and yada yada. If you know me, you know how much I hate shots. But I sucked it up and got one, and lived with a dead left arm for about two days. But I figured it was a good idea since I'm going to Europe and all... The next health-related thing that I did, and I haven't told many people because I didn't want it to be needlessly made into a huge deal, was getting a mole biopsy on my back. I was going to tell people that it came back as cancerous but then I figured that would be such a cruel joke and I would actually feel bad... So I'm telling everyone now that EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. Okay? No worries. I have lots of sunscreen for my trip this summer, too.

Now that you've gotten through a few walls of text, I will say that I sadly do not have pictures, yet, of my stuff that I'm bringing, but I will soon! I'm thinking tomorrow after I have cleaned my room up a bit. Its gotten messy, again... Oh well, at least I make an effort to keep it clean when I'm not super busy with finals. Which, I'm not anymore... Although I have to write a self-reflective essay and e-mail it to my writing prof. before 5 PM tomorrow... Eh, I'm lazy. I will do it a little later.

So, a list of the things I have to do now are:

• Book more Japan hostels
• Book Europe hostels
• Book Hong Kong hostel
• Purchase Eurail pass
• Contact the people who are offering places for me to stay in Japan, again
• Call my credit card company to tell them I will be out of the country
• Set up pin-number for my credit card, just in case
• Contact my Europe travel buddy... Kana!! We need to talk about Europe more! Time is of the essence~
  
• Fix up the fundies bag that Kay is lending to me for my carry on/day bag
• Make photocopies of all important travel documents and give them to Kana, keep one in my room in Oregon, give to Tanya, e-mail to Mom, keep a set on my person... I think that will be good.
  
• Keep all important travel documents together (Train passes, passport, reservations, etc)
• Purchase a phrase book for Europe
• Purchase a travel book for Europe
• Go through the stuff I already have and double-check the list of supplies that I need

I think that's it for now... If anyone has anything to add, please respond in a comment to this post!

Thanks. =)