Planning and Packing

So this is my first ever blog so i'm not really sure on etiquette or anything! So forgive me for poor spelling, punctuation etc - although there is spell check so I might be alright! So 3 weeks today I will be in Chile Santiago starting out on the first part of my travelling with fellow intrepid explorer Tasha Lippold.  Currently I am sat at home in West Meon sorting, packing, photocopying useful bits of paper and generally trying to finish off tasks I should have done years ago. Such as my photo albums...AH! The process is slow but getting there on the sorting front.  Its just the packing to go and I have a 65 litre Berghaus Jalan - which I bought because it has wheels which is great and I'm going to drag it around most of my travels to get full use of the wheels but I am wondering whether 65 litres is enough? Now I know that i'm not that bad at packing i.e. be a typical girl and bring way too much! But i have a real weakness for shoes and handbags and I just tried to get my sleeping bag into my rucksack and it pretty much takes up most the bag! this could be a disaster!  Tricky! I haven't even started looking at what clothes I'm going to bring which is also going to be tricky because I'm going to want to bring everything! But that won't be possible! Anyway the brief outline of our travels is as follows  - now this is most probably going to change - fly into Chile and mooch around South America for 3 months visitng - Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Boliva. then hop on a plane and scoot over to Los Angles for a week in the US of A.  Then catch another 'short' plane ride down to New Zealand for 2 months and then onto Australia for 1 year.  Now I know what you're thinking - its a lot! Yep well its a bit intimidating reading it all so I'm just focusing on getting to Chile with everything I need and going from there.  But that is the rough plan of whats going on with me for the next year! Ek.  The family seem very calm about the whole trip - well, Ma has already told me that she is going to cry at the airport, Tom is very skeptical about the whole trip and my future job opportunities, Babs AKA Harry seems to be jeal that I am going to South America before him - he wants to go in his gap year- mostly because of the football i believe and then there's Da who i suspect will be secretly emotional -- Awwww! So thats me for now.  Just getting ready - seeing friends/family before I go - and quietly freaking out while being super excited! All for now. J xx