In preparation for the Grand Adventure

If you are reading this, you probably already know of my love for travel, especially to places I've never been, where the language and culture is foreign to me, and where I'm challenged and stretched, in my view of the world, in performing simple tasks such as finding a place to sleep, or the way onward.

For the past four years, I've put much of my life as I knew it on hold. I attended law school at night and worked during the day.  Early on I realized I would need to act like an ostrich-for these four years, not much else existed outside the law; in order to survive, I ate, slept, lived law school. This left almost no time for traveling, because the one or two week break between semesters was mostly used for things like getting the oil changed, weeding the overgrown garden and other chores that had stacked up, particularly during the exam season at the end of each semester.  And then, after law school, the lead up to the bar exam took things to a completely new level of intensity, with stakes too high to allow for anything but single-minded focus.

Then suddenly, it was all over.  Where there had been an endless storm of immense proportions, now there was quiet, and stillness.  For days, weeks, months, there were endless to-do lists and the climb in front of me seemed never to end, and then suddenly I had nowhere to be, and nothing that I must do.  I won't know until Thanksgiving what the outcome is, and sitting around waiting for the results is not only unappealing, it's a criminal waste of precious days.  I took some time for decompression, for all the things left undone for so long.  And now, it's time for a grand adventure.

I'll be gone for two months, and I've found that planning for an extended absence involves some logistics.  Fortunately, since taking the bar in late July, I've had time to work my way down the list. It required a bit of faith but I sent my passport off to London in early August to get my visas for Belarus, Russia and Uzbekistan.  Just last week it returned, dressed up by colorful and exotic visas in strange script that excites and entices the wanderer in me.  But off again the same day it went, this time for a visa to China.  So I wait as patiently as I can for its return, scheduled for mid-week.  And then I shall keep it close at hand until my departure on the 16th.

I've ostensibly been working on learning some basic Russian, but I confess that I've been lazy about that.  No doubt I'll regret it soon but still I cannot seem to force myself to do very much mental heavy lifting.  It's as though after the bar exam and all that went into preparing for it, my mind has said 'enough' for a while. I saw some people studying at Starbucks recently and was surprised at the feeling of almost revulsion I experienced.  While I was in it, law school was exciting, engaging and intense.  Now apparently, I'm done with that-let's just hope the CA Committee of Bar Examiners thinks so too.  So I'll manage somehow on whatever Russian I can pick up.  And in other places, I won't know the language at all.

These last few weeks have seemed to pass in slow motion at times, because my daily tasks have shrunk so.  Oddly enough, getting those few done is harder than when I had a multitude of tasks each day.  I'm ready to hit the road, and more than a little excited about this Grand Adventure.  I hope you will come along with me.