the travel bug

it's a good thing we're going somewhere soon, because the travel bug has really hit me.  i've been battling with bouts of it over the last year and a half, but it's now become full blown.  it has been an entire year since i've left the country (something that hasn't happened since 2004), and i'm crawling out of my skin.

i can remember the first time i came down with it.  we all have our travel virginity stories, so below i share mine with whomever cares to read.

it was the spring semester of my first year of high school. i had decided to take spanish because i lived in texas and would never go anywhere else, so the only language i needed to know was spanish, duh.  my best friend megan and i listened as mrs. bowan made an announcement that our school would be participating in a study abroad exchange with a school in spain and that we could attend an informational meeting with our parents if we wanted to go.  we looked at each other and knew something, i dont' know what, but that this was something big.  also, it would cost $3500. 

well so much for that.  i was only 14 years old.  even if i could convince my parents to let me go, there's no way i could pay for it.  i went home and when my mom asked about my day i nonchalantly told her about this cool trip i'd learned about, but that it was way too expensive and would never work out.  she said "do you want to go?" and i said yes obviously but i know it's not reasonable.  "then you'll go!"

that was the moment that a butterfly in texas flapped its wings and changed the course of my life! okay maybe a little dramatic, but seriously.

in the fall we hosted rocio and eva.  we welcomed them into our texan home, took them to the rodeo, ate mexican food, taught them dirty words, and tried to learn as much about these girls as possible.  they had come from another place and were simply fascinating.

then in the spring megan and i went to live with rocio and her mom.  we were 15.  i still can't believe our parents let us go.  spain was my first love and like all first loves will forever hold a special place in my heart.  i gained 20 pounds, drank wine with dinner, spoke horrible spanish, fell in love with every single spanish boy i met, waxed my legs, and learned what a bidet was. i smelled spain, i tasted, felt, heard, and saw spain and i loved every. single. second of it.

 ^^getting some fresh fish for dinner at home in castellon^^

 ^^rocio and her mom put us in traditional magdalena clothing^^

^^ the lighthouse in benicassim^^

after that trip something changed.  my ethnocentric view of the world had quickly started to fade.  i had changed, and it was just the beginning.  what can you experience in such a short time that rocks your world so much?  for me it was and always will be the people.  obviously the art, food, and nature of different places is magical in itself, but it's this quality of the people that gets me every time. anywhere new can make you feel out of place, uncomfortable, like your ways are weird, and you can even find yourself judging the place you're in.  but then you see the people interacting with each other, with their families, with their pets, and you see how much we are all the same and for me that's where you see the beauty.  with all of our myriad of differences, fundamentally we are all the same.  it is in those moments where you see your own insignificance and the world feels so small. and to me that is beautiful.  often times humbling, but beautiful.

i didn't travel outside of the u.s. again for a while other than the occasional trips to mexico.  but freshman year of college i watched motorcycle diares and the bug was back. "let the world change you and you can change the world."  ok handsomest actor alive gael garcia! let's do this! (i'm not a marxist and don't support che guevara's ideals, but what 18 year old doesn't love this movie?!)

anyhoo, the world does change you and travel becomes a need for so many people.  that's why the term 'travel bug' exists, right? and once infected i'm convinced there's no cure.

so there's mine. what's your story?