Travel

Due to a strange twist of events, I am now crashing in Paul's room, stranded on a narrow, musky mattress :p It feels that time is fleeting by so fast here on exchange... 5 months in the blink of an eye, and a month left for exams and my last bout of travels. I just have to to write something about my thoughts and feelings before i forget them.

Why am I on exchange? Why do I travel? What do I seek? These have been constant questions plaguing my mind since the start. I don't know why, but despite my parents' lax upbringing style, i have grown to constantly enforce pressure on myself. To be conscious, judgmental of my thoughts, cognizent of my actions. Perhaps it was those Enid Blyton books i read during childhood days, and their traditional value system ringing throughout. Or RI's environment and high achieving culture.

Regardless, i am not satisfied with the typical answers: We travel to see the world, broaden our horizons, for the cultural experience, to understand and appreciate similarities and differences between people. Blah blah blah. To me, these are mere words with surface meaning, simply fashionable statements that should make anyone with sense go nodding in agreement. "Ah true." "Yes indeed."

What does it actually mean? How much truth does it actually hold? Among all the friends and travel mates that i have met here, i have seen more the desire to sightsee than the hunger for cultural knowledge. I have wandered for hours alone in Barcelona's museum of Catalunya history, but been almost trampled at London's daily change of guards. I have been 'wasting my time' joining locals at outings to their favourite, unknown places rather than fulfilling completist dream checklists of things to do, places to see.

What do they want, what do they seek?

Well, I am glad to couchsurf. To me, that is the loveliest point of traveling, to meet the locals and really get to feel the local culture. More specifically, i want to crash headlong into a little microcosm of life within that society, to get a glimpse at my host's life.

I saw how free some led their lives; my last host never worried about how to get rich, only how to live richly. She never worried about her future, only how she can help herself and others in the present. She never worried about how to make it big, only how to do something small with great love. She is one of many who have taught me about what life is like, what we can, ought, must, should, would, and most importantly, love to do.

She is one of many, and they are all inspiration in my life.

Why do I travel? What do I seek? Perhaps i will never stop asking these questions. I might never be satisfied with the answers i give myself. But i will always find consolation that i have seen more now. I have seen so much more, and understood a little better.

Thank you.