"Even if I got rid of all my problems, I'd just go out and get new ones..."

A travellers life for me, yo-ho...
8:12 p.m. on 2003-12-30

Since one of my very cool presents was Gold Diaryland membership from Olivia, I thought I would make the most of it by uploading a photograph of me.

Wa-lah!

It doesn't show much of me, admittedly. But it does show the beautiful yet stark Atacama desert, one of the driest places on earth.

And I was there.

My dad has just returned from three weeks in Ethiopia, where he had many amazing experiences and met many interesting people... and I'm jealous.

Insanely, madly jealous.

I know, I know. I'm lucky to have had the chance to go to South America. But now, as if I didn't have the travelling bug before, I sure as hell have it now.

I stare longingly at planes wondering where they are going. I linger outside the windows of travel agents. I constantly flick through my holiday snaps of South America, then stop because I'm getting too depressed.

Elijah Wood commented in a magazine that after returning from the 18 month shooting of Lord of the Rings, he found himself slightly depressed. He wouldn't leave the house, he wouldn't speak to his friends. He was in shock from going from such an experience of a lifetime to, well, normality.

It's not like I can compare that much. After all, I was away for only 2 months, and he made an entire lifestyle change.

But being away from home, with strangers... away from family and friends and anyone who might have preconceptions of who you are... It's that, more than the foreign country bit, that I miss.

I wonder why? I love my family, I couldn't wish for better or closer friends... but I still find myself missing the freedom I knew in South America.

Of course, I don't miss the long coach journeys, the occasionally awful food, certain members of our party and their strange personal habits, the constant annoyance of bloody panpipes... and I am glad I'm home.

I'm just busy saving to go away again, that's all.

Listening to: Victoria Williams

Quote: "You're thinking in Japanese! If you must think, do it in German!"

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