Adventure

Katie D.

December 8, 2008 - 5:37 PM

I need an adventure.

Much as I love my life and my friends in Eugene, I tend to get itchy feet. In the past three years I've traveled in seven Latin American countries, mostly on solo trips. I've developed an intense love of seeing new places, experiencing new cultures. I love to arrive in some city I've never seen, talk with the local people, and ask about restaurants, favorite shops, and city traditions. It almost doesn't even matter where I am: I just like to go.

Fall term in Eugene has been really wonderful, but it was pretty sedentary. I took day trips to the coast twice, and went to Portland for Thanksgiving, but other than that I have been at home in Eugene. Life in one place can become a bubble, a habit, a routine. I need something new, I need an adventure.

I figured out that three of my four finals were essays I could turn in early, and arranged to take the fourth final early as well. That gave me a whole week of time before heading home to see my family and Colorado friends. Perfect.

So now I'm setting off in search of something new. My exciting adventure for the end of 2008 will be a trip to exotic Seattle. Nothing flashy, nothing beyond what most Northwesterners have already done. But I've never been to Seattle, and I have a couple of friends there who I met while I was abroad in Chile. A new place and old friends. Perfect.

Even now, the day of departure, I still am a little unclear as to where I'll be staying during my trip. Hopefully I'll be rotating between various friends, and hopefully they'll have suggestions for things to do and see. I like to travel without an itinerary if I can, with sort of general ideas on places to visit and things to do rather than a list of goals. That way I can ask people what I should do, what I should see, and stay flexible at all times. The tentative plans as they stand today are: see the famous Pike Place Market, ride a ferry, see the Space Needle, swing dance, catch up with two friends from Chile, rock climb, and wander the streets as much as possible. That's the only way to really know a city. I'm hoping to eat some fresh seafood and check around town for some good quality hot chocolate. Truth is that I haven't done more than the most basic Seattle research, and I don't own a guidebook.

Getting my essays and final done early has been quite the job. My last week in town was extremely difficult and stressful. But now I'm heading off for a new trip, for something completely different. I'll be taking a bus to Portland for an evening with a friend there, and then a train to Seattle. I have a place to stay in Portland and for my first night in Seattle. All other plans are TBA.

I do my best to love the place I'm in at all times. I appreciate the people and the experiencesI'm having at any given moment. But it is in the experience of new places, in meeting with new people that I can more fully appreciate the routine of "normal life". Turns out that I have a traveler's soul, the ongoing need for that new horizon and the love for the whole process of getting to a place, wandering around it, and getting to know its people. I even like the inconvenience of life on the road: the getting lost, the transit time, the talking to strangers. I obviously can't be trotting the globe all the time: I also love to be home and am happy with my college life, but I have to balance out the home time with a little adventure. I want to meet some strangers and do something new.

So I'm off for the week to Washington State before heading back for some family time in Colorado. Off for some adventure.

I'll keep you posted.