how time flies

June is speeding by and my date of departure is looming. I will be leaving Budapest at the beginning of July and heading east - to Romania, Ukraine, and then wherever I decide to go from there.

I am receiving conflicting messages from my students re: Romania and Ukraine...most of them seem to be concerned for my safety but it's a 50-50 split on whether I'm to meet my end in Romania or Ukraine. I hear "Ukraine is safe, no problem. But you need to be very careful in Romania.". Then a couple of hours later I hear "Romania is very safe, it just has a bad reputation...but I don't think you should go to Ukraine."

This is the advice equivalent of matter meeting anti-matter.

I have started researching and getting ready, tearing the relevant portions out of the massive Lonely Planet Europe guide I inherited, trying to once again think in terms of weight and bulk. Last night I went on an insane "test-pack" kick at 10pm when I should have been going to bed. The "test-pack" involves me looking around my room (which I have lived in for 5 months) and thinking, "i am not carrying this shit on my back for the next four months.", then trying to see what will actually fit in said backpack. Not a lot. I'm feeling ruthless these days, hence the book surgery.

Still, it could be worse. The only good thing about being terminally broke/not getting paid for two months/etc. is that it is impossible to accumulate much stuff.

I am now faced with the dreaded carry-it-on-your-back-or-lose-it-in-the-mail dilemma.
For example: film negatives. Do I really want to carry around 5-10 little canisters of negatives + CDs of scanned negs? Or do I want to send them home in the mail and risk losing them forever? I feel like I have already tempted fate enough when it comes to the post...like sending stuff to Carrie and Josh's place with the wrong postal code. and having it end up at the home of some fantastically kind stranger who eventually (usually after I have given up the package as lost) brings it to their front door. THREE TIMES.

I am going to buy that guy a present and I am going to stop tempting fate (first step - get the right postal code).

Also, the Hungarian postal service is notoriously....umm...how should I put it. Takey? Pinchy? Lossy? Some stuff I'm not so worried about - if someone really wants my CELTA notes and teaching materials they can have them. But currently broken/potentially fixable digital camera? Pricey boots? Souvenirs? Apparently irreplaceable CELTA certificate? Not so much.