Settling for Plan B

Today's weather: High = 5 Low = -4
Sunny and _______ . What were you expecting, tropical? Get real, it's chilly out.

While the midterm exams finally get underway, there is a slight break in the tension in the air, knowing that at least the ball is rolling and we're one step closer to a holiday.

That said, the school asked us to fill in forms stating our intentions for whether to return next year or not. It's pretty typical that the offshore schools make their decisions around now, and all former schools passed out the form this time of year also. How fitting this form comes around just after my last post was typed out. Basically they want it done by Monday so there's not a lot of time to ponder this one.

Turns out I'm leaning quite heavily to a 'yes' as the photocopy situation is the only major negative I can think of here, and that is child's play compared to all the problems at the other offshore schools. Overall things are pretty darn good. The principal wants me back next year, which is always a good sign, and there is lots of potential to start more AP-type courses and also to do my Masters. Of course, being in Shanghai is the big perk, and it's pretty obvious that many people want to apply for the job here for that reason.

So this more or less answers the question from the former post. The chances of doing an extended bike trip any time soon, which would require 6 months to a year, are pretty much out of the question. It sounds wonderful in theory, but the window of opportunity looks to be closing fast on doing something like this. The opportunity may already be over.

Which leads me to my next point. I am both in awe of people who can do these kind of trips, like our skateboard friend, and also left wondering *how* they actually do it. It's not just a handful of fortunate people either, as whenever I hit the road during the holidays, I bump into dozens of folks who are on the road for months at a time, if not years. It will forever remain a mystery what their secret is. For me, the potential shock of finishing off a year-long trip without any work lined up and the possibility of having to relocate back to Canada is too much of a deterrent. After reading Rob's blog about his 're-patriation' back to his home country, it scared the pants off of me. So if decent work is available in Shanghai for another year, may as well go for it, and then attack Plan B instead.

Plan B involves milking out the winter and summer breaks to do as many long-distance bike trips as possible, then documenting them. It's not as efficient as Plan A, but with enough breaks added together, this could work towards something substantial like my dream trip to the Middle East as mentioned in the previous post.

Plan B has actually been my default plan since I started getting hooked on bicycle travel, and there's enough stuff already to put together a website like Mr Pumpy, my other hero. In fact, looking at Mr Pumpy's routes, this is pretty much how he operates. None of his rides are longer than a couple months at a time, and some of them can be done in a matter of weeks. The Bromo volcano tour or the South India coastal road which I did last year are good examples.

The thing about all this is the summer break is the longest of the two, and it should be exploited more for travel than I've used it in the past. Traditionally I've used it to return to Vancouver for visits, but I figure that angling for a Christmas holiday instead might be the better option. There are ways to pull this off, and it's probably the only time of year when people back home *wouldn't* be working, and hence the trip would be worth it. Summer break has bitten me in the ass with the 'everyone is working' thing, just as much as winter break has. So I figure why not use both breaks for travel, and then use Christmas for visiting.

Meanwhile, I'm going to use the winter break time to plan the routes for the summer break trip.