I know everything happens for a reason, but...

Ok, so...as you all know, a whole bunch of things happened that caused me to cut my trip short. I come home, and end up getting to go to Seattle to visit an old friend that I haven't seen in 10 years - and a hurricane hits. I was rebooked THREE times today for my flight tomorrow morning, before my flight was canceled altogether.

So I've decided that for whatever reason, god is trying to tell me to be at home with my family and Foxy so we can all die together in the Category 2 hurricane that's making it's way to NY.


I'm not actually trying to be melodramatic here, but I'm actually really scared. A lot of my friends had to evacuate already, and people like my grandma, who live TWO BLOCKS from the Atlantic Ocean, refuse to leave their homes and I'm scared for them. I think in a way it's actually better if I'm here because if something does happen, well - I think it would be worse if I had made it out to Seattle, or heard about it while on my way back from Colombia. So let's cross our fingers and hope for the best...

Thoughts from Brooklyn

Well I've been home just under 2 weeks now.  I'm so happy to get to see my family and friends, but i really do miss being away! NY in the summer is a calamity. I hate tourists like no other, and since my non-job is performing shops in midtown, I'm always stuck there at the most inopportune times. I'm staying at my parents, which is great except for the fact that my clothes are scattered everywhere and I can't actually find anything. The train to the city is 1.5-2 hours and always has delays. And Foxy seems to think my parents' green carpet is grass, which means I'm forced to walk her way more than I ever did (which, to be fair, was never).
I got really stressed out about working right away, since I feel like I'm technically supposed to be in Colombia now therefore should get to just chill for a month. I miss not having plans ever but deciding what to so every morning.  I'm trying to not make too many plans so I can still have that freedom. I got very sick as soon as I got home. The gluten issues kicked back in full force, probably because the food there had no chemicals and here everything seems to have soy, barley and malt, my 3 arch nemesises.
On the positive side, I've been doing lots of fun things. I'm training for a half marathon in SI in early
October, which gives me not only a goal, but something to occupy me during the week when people are all at work. There's no gyms in Sheepshead though so I'm forced to run outside and faint in the heat, or wait until my parents wake up at 1 pm so I can go on the treadmill in their room. I decided if I'm going to train, I want to also work on speed, so I put together this ridiculous schedule that I'm sure I won't follow but if I do, maybe will do the half at a pace of 8:30. In reality, I'm hoping I just don't end up getting 100 stress fractures again. It's been 3 days, so far so good!
Foxy now has a basket to sit in so she can join me on bike rides. She hates it and sits and glares at me every time we go over a bump. I love her so much and don't know why I enjoy torturing her this way.
What else. Todd threw me a welcome back party. That was really nice of him since I was def too lazy to do anything of the sort, and I've exceeded my limit of party throwing for the year!
I booked a weekend trip to Seattle to visit a friend from  HS that I haven't seen in 10 years. I had a ton of miles so the flight was doable too! I want to go more places while I'm still not working!
I'm still deciding where to stay. I had 2 interviews but was very clear that I'm willing to relocate. I'm still thinking maybe Chi but I'm not sold on their winter. Philly was another option but I see 0 jobs in adv there.
What else. Ive developed severe insomnia. I stay up all night watching Entourage and Curb (nice Pinkberry plug Larry David!), and playing with Spotify trying to find new songs to entertain me while training. If I hear my 80s mix again I might cry.
I'm still a little paranoid, even though people aren't Ecuadorian (except Roland, who even though he's only half I'm scared he might rob me still. Kidding!)
I actually was scared of my own shadow the other day, and I have to call someone on my 17 min walk home from the train station because I'm scared someone is going to attack me again. It's getting a tiny bit better, but only a little.
I do miss my travel friends! Everyone in Colombia keeps telling me how great it is and it makes me sad. But I'm still convinced with the bad luck streak I was having I was going to end up kidnapped. Sarah, James and Dan did the Santa Cruz trek in Huaraz that I skipped and I so wish I could have done it with them.
Since I've been back though I've remembered just how much I love NY. I love the parks. The diversity (not including Times Square tourists. Still on the hate list). The fact that after being in SA for 4 months, my favorite Latin restaurants are Sushi Samba 7 (Brazilian, Peruvian and Japi fusion), Pio Pio (Peruvian) and Caracas (Venezuelan).  Jack's does not count because even though it was in Peru it was an Aussie-run restaurant and I liked it mostly because they were the only people on the entire continent who knew how to make an egg white omelet.
On my walk home, one of the songs from Lost popped up. For some reason, I had downloaded 10 instrumental songs from Lost before I left that I listened to religiously while I was away. It put me to sleep at night, it played while I was on my marathon bus rides and it just relaxed me while I stared out the window at the amazing landscapes. I had it on when I reached whatever the top destination point when I was hiking. It became a constant for me (get it, Lost fans?) and when I was robbed, the first thing I thought was that I wasn't going to be able to fall asleep at night without listening to it. So tonight, as I was walking home, looking up at the sky and remembering that now that I'm back in the northern hemisphere, I'm no longer looking at the same sky (and getting sad while realizing this), the song came on, and instead of being sad that I'm not a little Latin free spirit hiking my way through the best continent in the world, I smiled because I realized that nothing is forever, and I'm just so lucky I got to be there at all, and so lucky to come back to a place that I love.

Lost Girls

I realized I never officially posted the link, since I had kept my whole trip a secret for a good 5 months beforehand. So here is a link to the website I was featured on!
http://www.lostgirlsworld.com/2010/12/lost-girl-of-the-week-lori-kessler/

"The Lost Girls" is a blog written by 3 girls, all from NY, who worked in advertising and publishing and decided to all quit their jobs and take a round-the-world trip a few years back. They wrote a blog while they were on the road which got a huge following, and when they got back they turned into a book (http://www.amazon.com/Lost-Girls-Friends-Continents-Unconventional/dp/0061689076/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312781028&sr=1-2). 

"The Lost Girls" is a term describing both their own uncertainty about the future and an emotional state.   I already knew I wanted some sort of major life change before reading this, but it totally encouraged me to be brave enough to take the leap and not worry about the consequences when I returned.

Quote from the book: "Up until then, we'd successfully hit the milestones that are supposed to give young women a sense of purpose: Moving away from Mom and Dad.  Graduating from college. Getting our first jobs. Falling in love.  But as we rocketed toward the next major stage (the one involving mortgages, marriages, and 2.2 children), we all wondered: were the paths that we were heading down the right ones for us - or were we simply staying the course because we thought we should?(I) was the road most frequently traveled the one that we wanted to follow?"



So true, so true. 

So anyway, the girls still keep a blog now, and they feature a 'Lost Girl of the Week'. Lost Girl's are anyone who is doing something in a similar fashion, and you can submit to be a Lost Girl. I read the book, loved it, and was a Lost Girl in December!  I am back in NY now so no longer 'lost', so to speak, but I love that I got to be a part of this!

El fin de mi viaje

Last night in Ecuador. I really cant believe my trip is over! It doesn't feel like 120 days ago that I went with my family, Foxy included, to Newark with my way too heavy backpack in tow and only dreams of what lay ahead. I was terrified in the beginning. I didn't understand where the 'right' way to go was, how to get around with my poor, fragmented spanish, and how to make my money last when I spent 3x more than my budget for the first week. But I learned how to survive, how to make friends, how to be a real backpacker. I'm really proud of myself for somehow figuring out how to take buses from the southernmost tip of the continent all the way up to Ecuador {Ibarra is as far north as I got}. I know I've been trying to convince myself that I'm glad to skip Colombia, and I am even moreso after I met people today who had more horror stories about both Ecuador and Colombia, including people getting robbed in the Bogota airport, right in front of police!
I'm going to miss the amazement I felt every time I got off the bus in a new city {although I won't miss how tired I was from not sleeping due to the bumpiness of the roads on the overnight buses}. Getting to a hostel, making new friends, and wandering off to climb glaciers and set off into the jungle with them.  Spending this last week in Banos with Sarah and James, I realized just how much people you meet on the road come to mean to you.  Even though combined  I probably only spent about 2 weeks with them, I felt like I knew them for years and was so upset to leave this morning. I now have friends around the world, people like Cassie & Kenzie who I spent nearly 3 months with! There were people I spent just a day with but won't forget them just the same, it's such a different kind of friendship you build with people that are all in the same situation as you.
I put together a few little details that I found interesting from things I've done over the last 4 months.

Travel time: 503 hours. This # includes any ride that took more than 1 hour each way. Most of these hours were spent on buses, followed by boats, and planes. Hours spent trekking are not included, however if they were we'd probably have another 100 or so on here in total.
Books read: 29.5. Favorites - Love is a Mix Tape, and the Hunger Games Series.
Countries visited: 7.  Some I was in for almost 2 months {Argentina}, others for only 5 hours {Brazil}.
Cities visited: 50. Mas o menos
Entry/exit stamps into Chile: 8. Times actually in Chile intentionally: 2.
Attempted robberies: 3
Successful robberies: 1
Favorite cities: Buenos Aires (despite robbery attempts) & Cuzco
Favorite foods: dulce de leche, alfajores & empanadas
Least favorite place: Ecuador. Full of muggists, rapists and serial killers. Never again!
Top 5, in no particular order: Walking on the glacier in El Calafate. Iguazu falls. Galapagos Islands. Death road bike ride. Salar de Uyuni.

Now that I'm back in NY, I don't feel like I was ever gone. It's weird, I thought it would take me a while to adjust to being back in civilization, but not the case. The trains still have delays, Times Square is still full of tourists, and I still felt the need to go shopping the second I stepped foot back in the city. I will never forget this amazing adventure, and luckily this blog will help preserve my memories.

Hasta lluego!