[MMM]

In regards to a cell phone...if you are going to spend several hundred dollars so your mother can reach you 24/7, (and trust me, it won't be in the middle of the night for HER) I think you need to rethink it. If there IS an emergency, what are you going to do from 6000 miles away to help?

Give her your email and stop by an manga/internet cafe daily to check your email. They are cheap and most require membership, which is free.

I may be reading more into it than I should, but this sounds as much like a "vacation away" as a "vacation to".

Here is another example.

Many of the American troops in Iraq have daily access to email and video-phones. I have seen generals who have been in several wars say that this "connectivity" to home is actually worse for morale. The troops aren't able to seperate themselves from home, as their wives get on the Internet to aske them if they should paint the kitchen egg or off-white. They don't appreciate what the soldiers are trying to do.

A little seperation isn't a bad thing. It might make your trip better.

If I have assumed too much, I apologize, but I think getting a phone so people at home can reach you might not be the best idea. Let's see if they can go a month without you. I also think it is better for you mentally to "immerse" yourself, which may be a better mental health path if you really can cut ties, on a temporary basis, from home.

Part of it is that you are going to be going on a personal journey only you can understand. The phone calls from home I had the first 6 months or so I lived in Japan were very frustrating, as I couldn't explain my experiences in any capacity they could understand. That was frustrating on a certain level, as I was neck deep in something very exciting, but was reminded that the experience was my own and my own alone. Things eventually worked out (it wasn't as big a deal as I am making it sound), but you have a chance to be a whole new you for a month...(and you certainly will be a new you by the end)...and I think that might be easier if you can say "See you in four weeks!" and do it.