Before the after

freeforest — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 01:45:00 GMT

The most fun part of planning a year off is deciding about the places to go and endorfins induced effortless smiles taking over your face with the speed of the outbound flight approaching.

There are also some practical things I learned or was confirmed about throughout the preparations process:

- Unless you are ready to settle down, buy cheap furniture so you loose less money when selling it before your departure
- When dealing directly with organisations/people in Asia, be prepared to leave your country with no final confirmation. Trust the first "yes, you are welcome". Dates and times are overrated details.
- Belgium debit cards are blocked outside the EU, so you need to call their customer service to unblock it. Otherwise no dollar for you my friend.
- Reading insurance papers small script is a pain. It doesn't help if your potential graveyard is not in the country of health insurance.
- It helps that communication between different institutions is so bad, so you can leave your appartment contract, but still be registered in the commune with that address.
- Application procedure for credit temps complet with an allowance at the Brussels Employment Office is not too difficult.
- Vaccinations are not covered by health insurance and count around 150 euros for basics. Malaria medication Malarone is twice the price in Belgium than in Estonia.
- You will start hearing "Oh, I envy you" a lot. But mostly its about a choice.
Choose your future, choose life.

It's the mind that wins or looses

Before the after