Our group here in Australia has truly shared a lot with each
other. We’ve shared stories, laughs, sheer terror, first time experiences, and
the occasional illness. After our most recent adventure, we all seemed to have
gotten sick together again. This time we’ve all been infected by the Travel
Bug.
Two days after getting home from One Fish Two Fish I woke up
feeling generally sad and as if I had an elephant sitting on my chest. I looked out
the window and saw a solid sheet of heather gray skies and spitting weather
that’s not quite raining, but just enough to irritate you. I climbed back into
my still warm nest and went back to sleep for two more hours.
The next day I woke up to a phone call from my friend,
Kathleen, literally interrupting a dream of us and our insane tour guide,
Chappy, running around the streets of Cairns like Steve Irwin’s National Zoo
had gotten out on the loose.
“Kath,” I grumbled through my spring break hoarse voice,
“we’ve gotta plan another trip.”
Obviously everyone from home rolled their eyes when I told
them we were all depressed that our ten day stay in paradise was behind us and we
had nothing but two more months in boring old Australia to look forward to. Our whole group just had the best ten days of our
lives together and we weren’t ready for our vacation from our vacation to be
over.
Immediately plans started firing out. Completely
irresponsible, sensational, once-in-a-lifetime plans. We wanted to put those
white metal wings back on and fly. Ten of us committed to renting out two
five-person campers to travel up the east coast of Australia for a week. We all
agreed we could swing missing a week of school, rationalizing with the fact
that it was so small in the grand scheme of things and would absolutely be
worth it.
In the next few days the rest of us booked our flights to
locations such as Bali, New Zealand, Fiji and Thailand for “Swot Week” – the
week between classes and finals designated for studying. I’d be spending the
week on a beach in Bali with ten of my best friends, hopefully getting $4
massages every day and riding elephants. Next, I impulsively decided to reroute
my flight home with some of the girls, going from Bali to Perth for two days
then traveling from Perth to New Zealand for a week since we have the time before our
finals.
In this same time frame the idea of taking the world tour home
came about. Immediately the research began and plans of summer classes
and internships started flying out the window for this month long excursion. My
one friend, Calvin, who seems to have the urge to travel worse than anyone
right now, could sell garlic to a vampire and has me toying with the idea. I’m
supposed to be spending my summer in Baltimore taking two classes. I’ve heard
phrases anywhere from, “Well maybe I could get an internship during the school
year,” to “I’ve already come to the realization I’m fully broke and in dept,
what’s 1,800 more dollars,” to “If I graduate late, I graduate late.”
Yes, it’s true, this trip could absolutely change your life.
In one month we would travel up to Vietnam, Thailand, through Southeast Asia,
India, Turkey, Paris, London and Dublin. We would backpack, get the real, full,
“roughing it” experience, and go to places and see sights we may never have the
opportunity to again. I’m not looking to throw my future away, but I’d love to
be eighty-years-old still talking about the time I spent my summer
traveling the world with my newly formed family and how I was never the same.
We’ve got the travel bug all right, and it’s the best illness I’ve ever come
down with.
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