I gotta get outta here...

Mexican films have inspired me to see the world.

Let me explain. Out of intrigue (and a slight obsession with Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal--that's him on the right), I've been watching some Latin American movies, such as Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Motorcycle Diaries. These films are beatiful and bluntly poetic, and they made me realize that I haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer. In fact, I haven't seen anything outside the borders of the U.S. (except for London when I was five or six).



Now I'm starving for adventure and longing to get my feet off of American soil. I feel much too pampered here in Hawaii, where I've lived all my life--not that I'm ungrateful for living in "paradise" and for having all the rights of a young American woman. There's something inside of me that wants to see the sights and meet the people and eat the food of different cultures and countries. I want to breathe the air of different continents. I need to learn about things other than what's already familiar to me.

I haven't been anywhere other than within the U.S. I don't have the type of parents who will dish out money for me to travel around the world. I didn't take the opportunity to go on Study Abroad when I was in college, mainly because I would have graduated from college in six or seven years if I had. Now I feel that I should be jetsetting across the blue since I have my youth and my good health (knock on wood), and have no real committments (such as children or a mortgage--again knock on wood).

The only thing that's preventing me from jumping on a plane and going to Venice is that I don't have the resources and I have a job. Oh, and that Aaron has agreed to accompany me on a trip when we save up the money for it. My friend Terence has family in Peru, and he expressed interested in coming with us to Peru and staying with his family. So now I have to wait and plan out my future trips.

The other day I bought a large map of the world and put it up on the wall of my bedroom. Now I can see where I want to go. I'm know that if I see myself travelling, it probably will happen. (Sorry to throw in some of The Secret).

I've been reading The Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto "Che" Guevara (the book that the movie was based on) and I've fallen in love with Che's descriptions of South America. The book chronicles his roughly six-month journey with his friend Alberto Granado in the early 1950's. This trip was the catalyst for his personal growth and was his inspiration for becoming a political reformist. I'm half-way through the book and I can already see the change in his character.

I hope that my future travels will change me. I hope that I grow as a person and that I can write an amazing novel about my adventures. Or at least have my adventures inspire one.