all i need..

Capri, Italy circa May 2008

all i need is a salami and mozzarela cheese sandwich, a frozen magrarita and a bikini in an above 70 degree weather.

i'm a big vacation person. i think a lot of people around me are the homie type, where they don't mind just chillin' at home or go out of state for a day or two, but never really go on adventurous trips where the native language is not English. not that there is anything wrong with that. It's just that is not how i liked to spend my time/money. I get itchy when i don't travel. i break out in hyves. seriously, I think I have something called the travelitis, if i don't go out of the country every so often, I'll just cough up blood and have open sores on my face.

I carried over 5 vacation days from last year, because... HELLO?? I didn't have time to take a freakin' vacation! My destination last year was Sicily and Italy, 10 day grand tour sans big tour bus. My ex and I drove a tiny little Ford Fiesta from Palermo, Sicily to Sorrento, Italy, then traveled the rest on train and boats. Then I went to London and New Delhi India for work. This year, I am determined to go somewhere out East where I've never been.

I'm not really into the Western world, west europe is full of boring churches and cathedrals, plus i've seen those way too much on TV or read them in books. There is that lack of mystery that makes those place look lackluster compare to the rest of the world.

In May, I'm definitely gonna have to go back to China to visit my late grandmother. She passed away last July and I have yet gone back to her grave to pay respect. I was gonna go back in Jan. to celebrate Chinese New Year, but work and life got in the way, plus it's way too cold in China compare to here (my city is in the south, so we don't have central heat, which requires you to wear 5 layers INSIDE the house).

Right now, I have a trip to DR and Indonesia in the planning stage. My biggest concern when going traveling is not the time or money, I have plenty of both (kinda, haha), it's the people whom I go travel with. There are different types of travlers, i.e. some people cannot sleep unless it's a 5-star hotel, some people can't afford it, some people like to hand glide through the air, some people like to go to the zoo, i dno't know, all different types of people out there. I'm pretty flexible, but I certainly have more fun when I do more adventurous things, eat exotic food, or experience a different culture.

I truly feel like I'm getting burnt out from work. Sometimes we all need is a little time away, see a different scenary, realize that there are life outside of work, and see how other people live.

You can buy all the makeup in the world, go eat at the best resturantes in Manhattan or getting dressed by the hottest stylist in Hollywood, you will not feel the way you feel when you are on a different continent. Materialistic things can bring us pleasure, but seldomly does that equal to happiness. Throughout the years I have realized, I am the happiest when I'm traveling.

Speaking of traveling, I've been trying to get a big world map on canvas to hang up in my living room and put red flags to places I have been to. My goal is by the time I'm 75, I would have covered all the continents. I had a mentor who worked at the UN and World Bank, he has a picture of himself at every borderline of the countries he traveled to, i.e. North and South Korea. I thought that was such cool idea, but usually going to borderlines of countries are not that easy and means long out of the way car rides.

anyways, sorry for the rambling, i just felt the travel bug bite, lol. Ladies, if you travel, remember to take a mental picture of the prettiest scenary, when you are stressed out at work, close your eyes and replay that mental pictures, and remember this job paid for that plane ticket and hotel room! lol.