Pre-trip thoughts
I am currently in Chicago right now which is my home town (specifically in the dreaded cube of work) and contemplating the details of my trip instead of actually working…as usual. I got this “great” job back in July, and I guess the quotations are up for debate, because to a lot of people this would be a great job. The pay is way beyond what I expected to get just coming out of college, I was hired with a bunch of people my age, and they actually wanted the biology degree that I strove for in college. It seemed like a dream come true. I envisioned myself in the lab using the sterile techniques I learned in my college lab classes and genetic lab and hospital jobs. I pictured being a part of a huge medical breakthrough, maybe curing cancer or Alzheimer’s, and all the diligence and hard work that I put in helped achieve it! (I’m a bit of a daydreamer) So what that I couldn’t go traveling after college like I had planned since high school, how could I pass up curing cancer!
I strutted through the doors on my first day, swiped my badge (with a sweet and professional retractable cord) and waited to see which lucky lab I would be placed in and what I would be working with. The whole group was told we needed training first and we were led to a big college style lecture hall where we learned the basics of the computer system. I thought “usually we get lab safety training before anything…weird”, but I went along with everything, blissfully unaware. After the training, which I stayed wide awake for the whole time, they told us they were taking us to where we will be working. Wonderful visions of beakers, Petri dishes, and orange “biohazard” trash bags danced in my head, but as we turned the corner the visions quickly disappeared. There was carpet not tile, I could hear the faint sound of people typing, there were no counters, eye wash stations, or emergency showers. I looked to my left and there was my shiny new name tag in the distance. I walked toward it feeling like a mouse in a maze and was soon standing in front of where I would be working and where I promised I would never work…A CUBICLE!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!
Needless to say I was a bit bummed, but it was a good paying job, I had some decent job security, and I needed to get out of my parents house, so I kept with it. However soon those 3 walls were like a cage getting smaller and those reasons weren’t enough to keep me there anymore and so I started applying to other places. To my delight five months after working I got accepted to the long shot internship I applied to in South Africa! I decided to use that as a launching point for my round the world trip.
From then on all I have been doing is planning this trip. I decided I wanted to volunteer for some of it as well to gain a real idea of the culture of the place that I was visiting. I’m starting March 20th with Chicago – Hoedspruit, South Africa (for the internship with The Greater Kruger National park) – Bangkok (overland to Ranong for volunteering at an organic farm and school) – Chennai, India (volunteering at Sadhana forest) – Kathmandu, Nepal (volunteering at an orphanage) – Athens overland to Dublin and seeing as much as I can in the process before going back to my home in – Chicago
I realize I may be jumping the gun with starting this blog already, but I wanted to be sure I was computer literate enough to pull it off, and wasn’t fumbling around with it March 19th. Any advice, tips, or ideas either for what I should do in Europe or for this blog please don’t hesitate to comment! 🙂
*pictures are not mine
Jackie