The bug...

I'm getting the travel bug again, that itch under my skin to leave the country...FAST. We Americans do have a problem staying put...being invested in one place, commiting our time and energy to a specific community for the rest of our lives. We are a mobile people, rootless and roaming, like the band of hippie ministrals Matt and I saw this weekend at the peace protest. There's something about the nomadic life that is sexy and, I'm sure in many ways, idealized. But it's appealing, at least to us here in the Estados Unidos.

Then again, the nomadic life is exhausting, especially if you are doing it alone, traveling from place to place, starting over wherever you go, establishing relationships and then leaving again. Going from Gordon to Romania to Portland to DC in less than a year was a bit overwhelming. A little too much transitioning if you ask me. But as of right now, the thought of being here another year feels...weird. I'm not used to it. I'm only used to biting off small chunks of time, a few months here and there rather than entire years.

So that being said, I feel the urge to be...somewhere else, somewhere none-US. Somewhere African or Eastern European. Uganda has settled firmly in my heart and mind as The Country To Return To. And Romania doesn't beckon to me so much as the people who are still there -- Dana and Brandi and Diana and Victor. I miss them a lot. I love to travel. I love the awkward, fish-out-of-water feeling you have for the first month, and then I love settling into the place, learning obscure local lingo and lore, feeling "at home" in a new setting. I love the excitement of being surrounded by so many new things - new foods and sites and customs. There are a lots of hardships and frustrations with traveling, too, of course. But the enjoyments far outweigh them.

I wonder if there will ever be a day when I feel read to settle down, take root somewhere, a day when a one-year committment will seem like a piece of cake rather than something daunting. It's not that I'm non-committal. It's just that there are a gazillion things I'm interested in and want to do and see and experience. Trying to pin down just one and stick with it is....against my nature. But not unlearnable. I am doing a lot of things lately that are "against" my very nature...like bills and schedules and meetings gallore. We can all learn to do even the things we aren't good at and don't care to be good at.

I've talked to Steve about potentially visiting him in Cairo next winter. Or meeting up somewhere. We shall see.