travels around the world

A Spark Buddy of mine posted a pic from one of her trips to Nepal!!!

I am so envious!

When I was in school, I thought I would never even get out of the state of Missouri. (This doesn't count the fact that I lived in Wichita KS for a couple of years when I was 5 or 6. KS/MO same ol' same ol')

But my father who didn't raise me, and whom I only got to know when I was in high school, took us on a family trip to DisneyLand - with a rented pop-up camper, and we saw the Painted Desert, the Continental Divide, and I don't know what-all. We were going to go to Yellowstone also - but couldn't make it because of a 'hidden' waterfall in the mountains, and a perforated oil pan when my father swerved to stop so we could enjoy it. We enjoyed it for several hours while we waited for the tow truck. But I digress.

And then I married a young man from MO, and I was sure that I would never leave. But he got a job for a man from Massachusetts, and there we were. I found that it was hard to get a teaching job on or near the Cape, and so luckily was unemployed when I took a friend to apply for a job at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. We both got jobs, and I loved working there, even though the pay was miserable - lower even than teaching jobs.

But, through that job, I have been to South Africa, Paris, England, Bermuda, and I spent one very long night in the Frankfurt airport the day the World Cup ended there. Let's just say that I didn't get any sleep, but I sure could have made a lot of money if I had wanted to. Apparently, the only women in the airport overnight were assumed to be "working girls." Met some fantastic young Czech men who worked in Amsterdam, and who proceeded to chase away other drunken revelers. And apparently, an answer to any strange behavior is "Go away, she's an American."

Later, I was able to go to Costa Rica to study Spanish. It turns out that I could spend a month there, and get 6 graduate-level college credits from the University of Costa Rica for about the same price as commuting to and paying out-of-state tuition to the University of Arkansas. No, I am not kidding, and no, that does not include the cost of souvenirs and gifts and approximately 20 rolls of film and photo development. And yes, that does include two meals a day, a private room in a family home, and meeting great friends with a lot of the same goals and values. I would have had to buy my lunches in Fayetteville AR anyway. And I learned a lot more there, immersed in the language and culture.

So I guess I shouldn't envy anyone their own trip - because I've been pretty lucky myself.