almost!

On this [almost] eve of my departure, I'm staring blankly at the disaster that is my room. The process of packing is not necessarily a strong suit of mine, mostly because I can't stand to do any packing in advance. I can't tell if the job has been made more or less difficult by the size of my suitcase that I've decided to bring...

In order to arrange my belongings in some sort of rational fashion, I tried to imagine what I will be doing these next 4 months- what seasons I will be living in and in what contexts. In my pondering, it occurred to me that this is the first time I will be taking a long trip simply to "travel." I have no objectives [ie. learn spanish], no exact dates [not even a flight home...], and only a loose semblance of a plan. My flexible itinerary has been created out of necessity because I recognize that these coming 17 weeks will go by far to quickly and I do have some "must do" items on my list.

During my year abroad I did some more traditional "backpacking" around South America, as many of you will remember. I spent 3 weeks in the south of Chile, a month in Bolivia, and a couple weeks in Peru, hostel and city hopping. In that time, I met several travelers who were doing precisely what I will be doing now- traveling simply to see places. To be honest, that type of travel never really appealed to me. What is the point? To see as much as you can see so that you can say you've seen it all?

But now I understand- or I think I do. I understand my motivation behind such a trip, at least. It is not so much about seeing/doing all the things one is "supposed" to do in a country or continent. Rather, it is about the process of going and doing it. "It" being the whole shebang- flying to some foreign country to try and maneuver yourself through its culture for a period of time. Trying on a different lifestyle. In my case, this trip is not too far of a stretch- I already know the pants fit, if you don't mind my metaphor. I'm just excited to slip on that comfy old pair of jeans again this fall [apologies, but this metaphor is continuing]. Maybe I'll even find some long forgotten pesos in my pockets...