Drugs and Higher Education

Less than one week until we embark on a round-the-world adventure! Since we last "talked" to you lovely friends/family/internet stalkers, Bryce and I have been ultra busy preparing for the trip and doing the things that occupy our lives when we are not traveling. Surprising to learn, but we don't just plan travel outings and play cricket all day. For me, that means finishing up another summer of work at my super awesome job camping in the arctic (sometimes they ask me to do geology). For Bryce that means successfully defending his masters, which I'm pretty sure means we have earned the titles of Master and Mistress of Science. You may be asking yourself: "Why would they wait until after they had become qualified scientists to leave on this debt-inducing trip?". WELL, a master's is actually extremely useful while traveling! Consider the following scenarios in which our advanced degrees will come in handy:

Me: Geology/Toxicology
Here is how I picture it going down: We're in Russia near a nickel smelter when suddenly all the citizens of the surrounding city come down with asthma! The government offers a 5 million dollar reward to the person/scientist/witch who can identify the cause of the epidemic. That is when I step in and say 'HA! Did you consider the NICKEL SMELTER?!?!' and everyone is shocked and had never thought of that before and then I get the money and we all have vodka and Bryce and I become the next czar and czarina of Russia as a reward.

Bryce: Civil Engineering
We get stranded in the Mongolian steppe after our train leaves without us. Fortunately, I am able to use my mastery of alternative construction techniques to build us a mighty shelter that is both structurally and culturally appropriate, while also reducing energy use. Just not, like, a real building. More of a scale model. Like three bags of dirt, stacked on top of each other. The rest of the shelter is recommended as "future work".

Grad school taught us life skillz.

Though we've both been busy, we have had the time to begin packing, a feat which is much more complicated than we could have anticipated. As of right now, we have SEVENTEEN different drugs in our first aid kit (only one of which is a neurotoxin). One of us is going to have to sacrifice some clothes to fit this in the bag... and it's not going to be me.

Due to slowwww emailing on the part of our travel agent, we are still missing two visas: China and Russia. We can get the Chinese visa tomorrow, but it looks like we might have to get the Russian one in India! Sketchy... so hopefully that works out. If not, we'll have to think of some alternate plan or else sneak into Russia. We will just wait for a national guard holiday.

More posts to come, including a fascinating story about WORD THEFT! Check back soon!