One day..

This summer I am visiting Peru to do a 4-day hike up Machu Picchu. Al and I booked a tour with the same company Colleen and Gemma had booked through last summer; they said they had a great time and enjoyed themselves very much, so we figured their experience was a good sign. I adjusted my half-around-the-world flights so that I fly out of Tokyo on 7 August, arrive in Lima on the same day, from where I would take a flight to Cusco on 8 August. I would leave Lima for Washington D.C. via Miami on 17 August, and leave for Heathrow International on 17 September. Tokyo - Lima - D.C. - London. That's a fair amount of traveling, right?

But, in my most honest moments, I feel that it really isn't enough. If it were not for my parents' full objection and my lack of total financial independence from them for my graduate school expenses, I would have taken up the backpacking trip through Chile, Bolivia, and Peru in an instant. And I was almost on my way to New Zealand this March, but this didn't happen either because of the amount of cash it required. And I am SO envious of my friend Sarah who is travelling to India this month. If only, if only!

Conclusion? (Lack of) Money sucks balls.

I digress. My point is that traveling in order to live within different cultural environs is a secret, and thoroughly restrained, desire--perhaps an obsession?--of mine that has only been sporadically appeased. If I hadn't been accepted to any of the graduate programmes, my back-up plan was to apply for a job teaching at an international school in Guatemala--what a life I would've lived there! I have not a clue as to how I convinced my worrisome mother into letting me travel alone to Italy at the age of 18, but I did, and it was wonderful. So wonderful that, I took up the Italian language in university and used Italy as a focus topic in most of my studies. My decision to go to Canada for my undergraduate degree, in hindsight, seems like one based on the fact that I would live 4 years in another country.

Somedays I wish that I were able to drop everything and all my responsibilities to go around the world and become a photojournalist. As if this idea hadn't been thought of before! My current desires lie in a trip from Moscow to Beijing via Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. But really, when could I do such a trip? I couldn't do it anytime this year. It would have to come after I finish obtaining my MSc degree from LSE, perhaps on my way back to Tokyo from London--it is cheaper to do that than to fly. How awesome would that be!

I just want out of this place. And what the hell, if I'm coming back to Tokyo ever again, I'll do it via Russia and Mongolia.