Travel, etc.
1/26/2006 11:39:00 AM
I've been thinking a lot about travel lately. Maybe it's because Dana and I haven't taken a real vacation for almost a year. Maybe it's Jed's blogging about her recent trip to Australia.. Maybe it's the fact that Lauren (my sister) is living in New Zealand (where my parents are going to visit next month). Maybe it's the fact that I spend 95% of my time in my house. Who knows what it is, but the itch is there (unfortunately, I fearthere's really no way to scratch it until after D and I get settled in Steamboat). Add to that desire the fact that we haven't taken a Honeymoon (yet), and you can see how frustrating things must be.Adding to this desire to travel was watching Born into Brothels the other night. I wouldn't call it a spectacular movie (I've gotten into the habit of rating movies after we check them in with Netflix, and find that I'm choosing more and more of their recommendations after doing so to add to our queue) - I gave it three of five stars - but it reinforced an idea.
See, before D chose Sports Medicine as a career path, we had actually talked about (and began to pursue) finding a program where we could head for 6 months to a year - somewhere she could volunteer as a doctor that would also be able to utilize my skills (be they tech-related or otherwise; in another life I worked as a carpenter, I have experience teaching English to non-native speakers, I can lift heavy things...). Well, this idea fell by the wayside when D opted to specialize, and we've kind of forgotten about it since then.
Until recently, when Dana suggested (if I'm recalling things correctly) that we do some volunteer-travel trips - basically short-term volunteer projects abroad - to scratch those itches. It's something else we had talked about before, and I love the idea (and it may give you some idea why watching a movie like Born into Brothels made me think of travelling).We've also talked about taking cycling trips as a vacation before - there was a great narration of a decadent tour of France in one of my Bicycling magazines, where they would ride from point-to-point, but once they got to each day's destination it was total debauchery - rich, creamy, deliciously fattening French food, massages, wine, deluxe accommodations - I guess the complete other side of the spectrum from the volunteer travel daydream (wherein I picture us on the Serengeti living in tents not being able to sleep for the heat). And of course, it's always been a dream of Dana's to see the Olympics, something I'd love to do as well (Beijing '08, anyone?).
One small problem with these ideas (well, not yet, but a future challenge, I guess): kids. But as much as they may reduce our options, Dana and I have discussed it and both think it would be fantastic if we had an annual volunteer trip that became custom for us - and our (eventual) child(ren). What a great way to expose kids to the world, other cultures, and altruism.
And of course, for our other trips... Well, that's what grandparents are for, right? :)
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4 Comments:
I cant think of worse places to baby-sit than Steamboat! :)
Yea - going to these career fairs I've been seeing much of the WorldTeach, Peace Corps etc... and considered putting everything on hold for a year and doing something along those lines. But then there are so many things in the way of something like that...
I do like the idea of bringing up the fam with the volunteer travel! Might have to wait until the kids get a bit older though :)
posted at 12:54 PM
I'd give Born Into Brothels 4 out of 5 stars--I really enjoyed it.
Hopefully Steamboat will still be supporting the month-long summer sabbatical thing. It would make volunteer travel very easy.
posted at 1:26 PM
Dana - do you have no say on the Netflix ratings?! Time to get the password and vote for yourself! ;)
posted at 1:42 PM
Fitz- You'll definitely need to travel to get out of the boring, nothing to do Steamboat ;-)
You know you can add an account for Dana on Netflix, right? Then she could do her own ratings. Add me as a netflix friend if you get a chance. username is shaffeja at gmail.
posted at 3:20 PM
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