We are 2 weeks away from the start of our trip. It has been a long and very interesting road for us to get to this point. We have had lots of stops & starts and some detours along the way.
We started by applying for Gaby to get her citizenship last July, that would allow us to travel without dealing with US immigration issues. Our lawyer at the time believed that it would take about 3 months to be processed. Things didn’t go exactly as planned though and as a result of politics and delays Gaby did not swear in until April of this year.
About that time last year we also started on our immunization regimes: We got shots for Yellow fever, Typhoid, Rabies, Hepatitis C and B, Japanese Encephalitis, MMR, Influenza and polio. We certainly got a lot of shots during that time.
Our next step after Gaby’s citizenship swearing was to move out of our house and rent our cottage out. We gave our notices to our employers, sold Gaby’s car and moved into my parents’ home. We had to cancel most of our accounts, put automatic bill pay on our banking and clean up all hanging issues in our life. We had a scare the end of June when our Syrian Visa was denied because we had improperly filled out the forms. Only Gaby’s contact with the head counsel through work got us to turn the paperwork in on time and get to check out Syria.
A lot of people have asked us why we are starting our trip in the Middle East, and our major reason for going there now is that it has so much to offer: It has beautiful islands, beaches, world class ruins, great food, exotic old cities and a culture that we have heard a lot of but don’t know much about. We also look forward to the fact that the region is off the beaten traveler path and we are positive that we can still have an authentic experience. Everything we have read has said we are traveling to places that are not dangerous to travelers and the locals are able to distinguish between Americans and our government’s foreign policy. We are aware of the latest events in Istanbul and we can assure you that we will be cautious.
Now we are wrapping up loose ends and reading about our destinations. It should be a really interesting experience and we are ready to go.
Steve
Middle East and more... here we come!
We are packing our home, we are leasing our house and we are moving into the Terrills Sr. household for the rest of our stay in
While we get our things in place, we thank you for being there, waiting for us to start pounding on the keyboard and sharing the amazing experiences that are soon to come.
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