Since I was a young girl I have been spoiled by family travel. Not spoiled like living in Paris for the summer or spending a few weeks at each Hawaiian island, but I have had opportunities for one or two week vacations to places like Cancun, the Dominican Republic, a cruise to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, Mexico, and a couple other places. I’ve vacationed in the United States as well and the summer before 6th grade I even went on a cross country trip from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Yellowstone National Park out west. Each travel experience I have had left me wanting more; except Mount Rushmore, that shit was boring.
Last January, a year ago, I was able to study abroad in Gaborone, Botswana in southern Africa. A lot of people ask me, “Why Botswana?” and I do not have a good, short, clever, answer to that so let’s just say that I thought it would be the most culturally interesting. I wasn’t interested on going to a vacation-like spot for 5 months, I wanted to really experience a different life in a new world. Well that and I couldn’t afford to go to New Zealand. But anywhere in Africa is really what I wanted. And Africa is what I got.
If you want to read about my travels to Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe check out the blog that I kept while I was in Africa. It was the most amazing experience of my entire life.
One thing that I learned during my time abroad is that there is a big difference between going on a vacation and traveling. Growing up I mostly went on vacations; one week trips to a beach where all I did was lay on the sand hoping to get tan, swim in the ocean, eat out, and maybe meet a couple other kids by the pool. But traveling by a crowded bus and hitchhiking for a day and a half to places like Victoria Falls where I stayed at Shoestrings backpackers and got to talk with locals and go bungee jumping off the world’s highest bridge... Now that is traveling. Not to say that vacations aren’t very fun, I’ve loved every one of them! And also I think you can do some traveling while on a vacation. This past summer my mom, aunt, and I took a day excursion in the Dominican Republic to a somewhat less touristy area and to see a school, see chocolate being made, went zip lining, and almost lost a leg in a horse/truck accident… again, now that is traveling.
Now that I have really had a good taste of what it’s like to travel, I want more. It’s like having so much [insert your favorite food here] in front of you except the more you eat the more hungry you are (and pretend like calories don’t matter). I feel like the whole world is out there for me to explore and the more places I’ve been, the more I want to keep traveling; the more I want to see new things, do new things, meet new people, and the list goes on and on. I heard this Professor at this study abroad luncheon thing call it the “travel bug”. He said that when he was our age he got it, and since he’s been traveling the world every opportunity he gets. I have the travel bug, for sure.
I am not quite sure where exactly I want this blog to go. I think It’s mostly for myself, to connect with others that have a love for travel too, and also to try to reach out to those that want to travel but havn’t, or even those who don’t really think they want to travel. I can’t even fathom why most of my friends don’t really want to travel. It makes me think of a quote that I read on the ceiling of a room at Long Street backpackers in Cape Town, South Africa: “The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
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