Un-muddling

I spent the day throwing away, recycling and donating... I feel lighter already. I love having less stuff. My goal is to leave Chicago with one suitcase, and have that hold my only worldly possessions. I want to have no baggage, literally.

The other great development of the day is I found the hostel where I'll be staying for the first five nights when I arrive in Taipei. I picked the place because it had great reviews on Google. One reviewer gave the hostel three stars because she said the owners of the hostel were so friendly and helped her find an apartment within three days. Her major complaint was she booked her stay for seven nights, all non-refundable; she couldn't believe the hostel wouldn't refund her the four unused nights. Can you imagine docking stars and complaining because people were generous enough to find you an apartment?! I guess I lean toward the side of the hostel because of my many years in the travel industy and consumers for whatever reason not understanding the word "non-refundable." I can already tell there will be a few fellow-Americans that I will have problems with overseas... I seriously hope I have the same luck with finding a place as that lady. I should also note I chose the hostel because it has a direct bus ride to school without any transfers; this I also learned from Google. I want my life and commuting to be as simple as possible for my first days on the ground.

Having a destination makes all the difference. I feel I can now focus on getting everything in order and, most importantly, spending time with friends and family before I leave. Knowing I have a place and bed to sleep in when I'm far from everything and everyone I know eases my mind considerably.