Boy Scouts Motto!

The preparations of this trip are overwhelming, but I'm grateful that I'm almost done with all of my RA duties, and FINALLY done with classes.

Today's preparations have been all about my overseas cell phone. There are so many providers out there and so many options to choose from. I finally narrowed it down, with the help of my parents, to two sites: PiccellWireless.com and CellularAbroad.com. Both offered pretty similar plans, but had different takes on deposits and renting. With Cellular you actually had to put a down payment on the phone and then purchase it. If you didn't return the phone you wouldn't get your down payment back. You also had to rent the SIM card separately, which was a little caviot that I didn't catch until I was almost ready to make my decision.
With Piccell you had to pay a one-time processing fee and .35 cents a day for the phone and plan that I wanted, along with an additional .30 cents a day for the insurance on the phone.
In the end, I went with Piccell because I found out at the last minute that the program I'm doing my study abroad through (IES) has arranged it so that all of it's students get a rather signifigant discount on Piccell plans. I was even able to schedule my plan so that I get my phone before I leave for the backpacking part of my trip.

I'm sure this post wasn't very interesting, but such is logistical planning. It's how wars were won and vacations are planned. Or backpacking jaunts through Europe to be more precise. You should ask me how long booking my hostels took. Haha.

~M