Wannabe World Traveller

I am planning on taking a year or two off between high school and college to see the world. The real world, outside of the education system that thinks it is normal to lock thousands of teenagers in a building with no windows for 8 hours a day and attempt to control them and “prepare them for the real world” by forcing upon them all sorts of arbitrary rules and regulations that in no way support independence or even thinking. Mass production is the doctrine of the American educational system.

Anyway, unless I’m really lucky, I’m probably going to have to start out at home, where I have a place to live (although perhaps I’ll stay with my grandparents instead, just for a change of pace), working a job in retail or as a waitress, to save some cash to start my travels (hopefully I’ll also be able to find some work on the way). Once I’ve done that for a few months, I set off to see the world (not for the last time in my life, with any luck).

For part of my trip, I want to stay in Spain, teaching English to a family for room and board (and improving my Spanish) through this program: http://www.geovisions.org/pages/320_hableme_teach_language_to_a_spanish_family.cfm. Not only will I get to work on my Spanish, I’ll also get to really experience Spain. I had a taste of it this summer (I travelled a bit in the Costa del Sol, and also visited Madrid), and I can’t wait to go back for more. With any luck, I’ll be able to find a bit of paying work there, too–just yard work or babysitting or tutoring English or something, as I won’t have a real work permit, I don’t think.

I’ll also spend some time backpacking around, probably starting in Europe (seeing as, if I start out with the Hableme program, I’ll already be there). I think my best friend is planning on joining me for at least part of this, which will be great. This will be really, really budget travelling–WWOOFing, camping, Couchsurfing, hitchhiking, and hopefully also finding work as we go.

I’m pretty flexible and adaptable; the one thing about me that will hold me back while travelling is that I’m quite shy. I’ll have to work on that, and will probably be forced to be more outgoing while on the road! Another issue might be that I am a vegetarian and sort of a picky eater, though I guess I’d have to learn to get over being picky, and I guess it’s probably not too difficult in most places to manage as a vegetarian; easier, probably, because meat is expensive!

The backpacking will be largely staying in one place for a good chunk of time, I imagine, although travel will probably be easier (cheaper) in cheaper parts of the world. Outside of Europe, I know I want to spend some time in the Middle East and South/Central America (got to put my knowledge of Spanish to some good use! This will probably be the last part of my trip, as it’s closest to the US), and India, and I hope I’ll get to visit Asia (I hear SE Asia is relatively cheap, so I’ll probably go there if I’m running low on cash) and Australia/New Zealand as well (though they’re not as high on my list). I don’t know about Sub-Saharan Africa; everyone I’ve ever known to go there has been for safaris, which, I’m sure are awesome, but maybe too expensive for someone like me.

This is by no means anything like an itinerary; this is just a vague plan based on a little bit of reading and research, but I plan to do far more of that as I get closer to this trip. Although I doubt I’ll have anything like an itinerary for the entire trip. I don’t even know how long it’s going to last; as long as financially possible, I guess. After that’s up, I’ll go to college. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to do the career thing, though. I don’t know if I could settle down for more than a year or two without being miserable. That’s why TEFL is a good option for me! I can just go for a year or two in each place. However, I don’t think that’s really a long-term career for most people. So I don’t know yet. But I do have awhile to figure it out!