Getting Close - The Shanghai Kid

Fred Gray lost her mom to cancer while she was in high school. She agreed to be part of Photosensitive's Cancer Project, which aims to raise awareness.
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My imminent departure is fast approaching. I have just booked my ticket to Shanghai for Feb 28. I am now working on the Visa paperwork. There is so much paperwork! At least I know when I get there that I am not just dumped into a crazy world. I have a week booked at a hotel in Shanghai before taking the train to Hangzhou. Now I am just hoping the weather decides to warm up a little.

I also now have a lawyer. A friend from high school is a lawyer at a VERY prestigious firm in Saskatoon. I called him up to see what I needed to get done in terms of handing signatory power to my mother. Hard to pay bills and all that crap when you are on the other side of the world. Well long story short, my mother now has power of attorney. I also now have a will. So time to butter me up to get all my good loot.

A big problem I am having right now is deciding what to bring. I am only taking my 70 litre backpack and a camera bag. This confuses many people, however my justification for one bag is that I want to travel light. The point of backpacking across the world is to see what you can live without. Even last year at school, I packed light. I had very little of my Saskatoon "wealth" with me as any of my classmates can attend to. My room was fairly bare. This is just going to be an extension of that.