Lost In Thought

Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.
– Mark Jenkins

I have most of the things on my list now and am getting really anxious to leave. I keep seeing commercials for the new movie Eat/Pray/Love and its really amping up my excitement! Just under 2 months now and I will be en route. Whitney is for sure leaving early December so the prospects of spending Christmas and New Years alone in a foreign country are starting to be really scary. I don't do many things by myself. I like being alone, don't get me wrong, but I also severely enjoy having company to do the mundane things like go to the grocery store and just simply pass the time. I'm not sure how to live in a new place with new people all alone. But I suppose that's what I would be doing when/if I moved to a new city for a job or went to grad school so maybe this being alone abroad will be a trial run. Not to mention, I imagine forcing myself to be terribly uncomfortable and face new nerve wracking social situations will be really beneficial for me in a lot of ways...so I need to talk myself into welcoming the challenge.

I think there is a LOT to learn being by yourself, on your own schedule. I need to just make sure I get out there and experience it all and not let my nerves get the best of me.
http://journals.worldnomads.com/travel-tips/story/59417/Worldwide/Solo-Travel-10-Tips-to-Avoid-Feeling-Alone

A funny side note... My best friend Sam came to visit last week and we did what we do best: execute some stupid ideas. We had plans to bike the peninsula, take the water taxi across, go up in the tower and then eat outside at rum runners. All of which we did...but with the added feature of me riding a bike and Sam sitting in a "Bob" that my brother Bob used as a behind the bike cart on his bike trip home. We spent about 30 mins in the front of the house trying to rig this thing up and finally got it worked out...but not without my Mom hovering over telling my friends "We've been putting up with her stupid ideas since she was three years old." It makes me laugh because what to me is hysterical and wildly entertaining is to the average person, stupid. Perfectly sums up the approval ratings of my life here. :) You'd think they'd have adjusted to my "stupid ideas" by now, no? :)