I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well, after a few months of preparation, and a few hours of intensive Tetris-like packing, I'm all set and ready to go. How did I do it, you might be wondering? 1 word kids: rolling. I'd heard of this packing technique before, but had never tried it. Basically...roll everything. I'm now convinced that you can roll anything and it will be more compact and efficient. Shirts? Towels? Backpacks? After rolling, everything I could ever want (major exaggeration) fits into a suitcase and a pack. It's a bizarre feeling to see everything that I need to study and travel Europe for 4 months packed into 1 suitcase and 1 backpack.

I like it though. It's a very enlightening and motivational feeling; to know that for this semester it's going to be just me, and the bare essentials. The ultimate freedom; to take a completely new experience, with new people, no preconceptions, and to have the power to take that trip and make of it what you want. That's what I hope to do between now and May 14.

But wait, what's going on? Where are you going? Ah, I'm glad you asked. Despite enjoying my time in the frozen tundra that is Happy Valley every spring semester, I've decided to give in to one of the greatest collegiate stereotypes; the junior semester abroad.

How original, you say. Indeed, I respond. And yet sometimes a nonconformist must conform for the sake of nonconformity. Indeed.

Come Friday, I'll be picking up my well-packed luggage, hopping on a jet plane, and setting sail with the wind at my back for Europe. I'll be spending the semester at the Institute for American Universities in Aix-En-Provence in the South of France. I'll be studying pretty much the same things I'd be studying stateside; French, Political Science, and a little bit of Econ. But obviously that's not the highlight and appeal of the trip. On this, my 3rd trip to France in a little over a year, I hope to undertake traveling a bit differently than I have before. I want to really travel. No more of this tour guide, tour books, reservations crap. Traveling isn't a destination, it's about how you go about getting to the destination. I want to immerse myself in the culture. I want to go somewhere with no idea what I'm going to do once I get there, and nothing but the pack on my back. I don't want to fear the road, I want to embrace it. I want to see what the world has to show me. I want to become a citizen of the world. I want to become an intrepid traveler.