41 Days!

As the day of our departure gets closer and closer, we made some big purchases this week totaling in large sums of money but also cementing the reality of our trip! We bought our Eurorail passes from RailEurope.com. While it isn't necessarily the cheapest way to travel through Europe, it provides relatively flexible travel so we aren't stopped by travel deadlines. We have also started our purchasing of technology. Alexis decided on a camera and I bought an iPad.

While in general I am firmly against iPads as a useless first world technology that functions as an oversized phone or tiny obnoxious computer, here is the one time where buying one seemed useful. Laptops are clunky and heavy when you carry your home on your back, but a phone is hard to type on and even harder to Skype on. Here is where the iPad can come in handy as a bridge between the two. I bought mine at http://stores.ebay.com/Gazelle-Store . This company buys used electronic products, refurbishes them and sells them through eBay at discounted prices. On a student budget, it makes keeping in touch with people from home a whole lot easier.

So the countdown begins! 41 days until we get on the plane and I'm sure the time will fly by!

Love,
Liz