Monday: Keller. Tuesday: Chicago. Wednesday: New Delhi.

 
Mom and I at Jack’s choir concert

   

 

 
It snowed here. A lot. The most in 80 years. I have never seen our front yard look like this.

Jacob likes this couch where he can stretch out…

 
Mellie likes to stretch out on Jacob.

We spend a lot of time laughing at Mellie.

Went to one of Jack’s basketball games at the stake center.

Jack made this sweet shot but he is hidden by the large player in the red.

 
Conversation with the dog…

Basketball parents

  
Jacob got the hook-up from Dad and some of his work connections to get to go to the All Star Game for free

Usher

Oh and by the way, I don’t think my toe nail job got a fair shot from the last post…very Indian, wouldn’t you say?

Well, we aren’t in India yet because the flights were full last week. But this Tuesday is “green” which means it’s wide open. We’ve got our hostel booked, and we’re set for 15 hours of torture… a 15 hour flight from Chicago to New Delhi. I try to remind myself that if I’ve done a 32 hour bus ride, I can do a 15 hour flight.

We are now all high tech. We were such ghetto travelers last year! No-cell-phones, stay-in-hostel-dorms, buy-a-paperback-in-English-if-you-see-one, real-deal backpackers. We are now what are called “flashpackers.”

A flashpacker is someone, unusually in their mid 20s to early 30s, who travels like a backpacker but has more disposal income as well as electronics such as a camera, Ipod, or laptop. Flashpackers expect better accommodation and amenities on their travels.

Neither fully backpacker nor tourist, flashpacking is new to the traveling lexicon. Flashpackers still sleep in big hostels, carry a big backpack with them, try to look for cheap transportation but also desire good local food, parties, and tours. They usually aren’t strolling into a hostel randomly or wearing the same shirt for a week.

From http://travel30plus.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-backpacking-is-flashpacking.html

We have/will have an Iphone, Ipod Touch, Kindle, NeatReceipts scanner, two laptops, and a fancy schmancy digital camera (are the photos looking higher quality?)

Other new additions to the trip include pepper spray, a year’s supply of newly prescribed contacts, three snap-and-fold laundry bags (his, hers, and dirty), makeup organizer, water bottle with filter, quality walking shoes, new sports attire, mini-sized hair styling equipment…

We got rid of the 10 Les Miserables-sized novels we were carting around all year instead.

In other words, this time we are trying to consciously prepare to travel, instead of just kind of accidently wander from country to county.

We’ll see what it’s like to be flashpackers instead of backpackers.