I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Happy blog day to me

Today this blog is five years old. I created it just before a planned trip to Egypt, my first vacation in many years, as a way to share the pictures and stories with friends back home. An uncooperative gall bladder derailed that particular trip, as described in my second blog post:

I started to have stabbing pains in my back the day before I was due to leave, but I assumed I had pulled something packing. The vomiting the next morning was obviously excitement or nerves or both. Certainly not anything that was going to cause me to miss a trip I'd been planning for seven months, for my first vacation in almost thirteen years.

Which is what I kept telling them at the airport several hours later, when I was throwing up every ten minutes, running a fever and doubled over in pain, but still insisting that I was fine, really, and I was going to be getting on that plane.

The airline had other ideas -- understandably, they really don't like it when people need medical attention on long flights over bodies of water. 

It took me a couple of years to get into a rhythm of what I wanted the blog to be, both when I was traveling and when I wasn't. I've been lucky enough to travel a lot the past few years and I've tried to share some of the amazing things I've seen. This past year, I visited five new countries -- South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, and Norway -- but rather than being able to say I've now crossed safari and fjord cruise off my life list, I find I just want to go back and do them both again. Along with all the other places I haven't seen and want to experience.

Ironically, this anniversary coincides with another cancelled trip. I was supposed to be leaving for Madrid Wednesday to spend a week in an English language immersion program for Spanish businesspeople, but I've been very sick and can scarcely speak English that's understandable to native speakers at the moment.

I hope to reschedule Spain later in the year. Other than a trip to Oregon in July I'm not sure where else the year is going to bring me but I have some possibilities in mind. Wherever I go, there will be pictures.




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