Getting moving
Maybe that adage about making SMART goals and writing them down had a point. When I moved here last year after I got evicted, I promised myself that I would only stay in this flat for eight months. And indeed, at the end of this month, I'm putting all my stuff in storage and heading out into the world for six months. Just like I wrote down that I would -- specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely indeed. Yay for me.
Six months is seeming both too long and too short. I knew when I decided to go for this six months -- June to December -- that I was essentially screwing myself out of a year's worth of academic employment. But given the four plus months it took to schedule my dissertation defence, leaving any earlier really wasn't an option. However. The reality of what the hell will I do when I come back and I've missed the prime hiring season for 2009 already is starting to sink in. And the fact that even sessional postings prefer a soul who will commit to two academic terms, not only one. Which, you know, as I'm only coming back just after winter solstice in 2008 is not really happening. And yet, the six months on the road thing will have effectively drained my savings. That's the too long part.
The too short part, on the other hand, is that there is a LOT I want to do in those six months. I'm taking Spanish classes for July, in August I have a two-week volunteer stint lined up with Sacred Suenos (check it out -- it's really very cool), an ecovillage project in Ecuador, and then the last few weeks I'll be going overland to Lima to meet up with a friend to do the Lares Trek and spend a few days together in Cuzco. Then in September I'll head over Lake Titicaca to Bolivia and try to set up a jungle trip of some kind and perhaps try to go to Isla del Sol, and then down to the Uyuni salt flats. Then for mid-October, I need to head down into the Cordoba highlands of Argentina to experience a week of group living with Yacu Yura (if your Spanish skills are up for the task, do check them out as well) and hopefully that will turn into a month of learning and volunteering with them. Then it will be December already, and I'll need to head overland again down towards Buenos Aires, where I fly out, back to Canada. Which is all great, but means that I miss so much -- Patagonia, the Terra del Fuegos, Iguazu Falls, most of Peru... Do you see why six months is inadequate?
Six months is seeming both too long and too short. I knew when I decided to go for this six months -- June to December -- that I was essentially screwing myself out of a year's worth of academic employment. But given the four plus months it took to schedule my dissertation defence, leaving any earlier really wasn't an option. However. The reality of what the hell will I do when I come back and I've missed the prime hiring season for 2009 already is starting to sink in. And the fact that even sessional postings prefer a soul who will commit to two academic terms, not only one. Which, you know, as I'm only coming back just after winter solstice in 2008 is not really happening. And yet, the six months on the road thing will have effectively drained my savings. That's the too long part.
The too short part, on the other hand, is that there is a LOT I want to do in those six months. I'm taking Spanish classes for July, in August I have a two-week volunteer stint lined up with Sacred Suenos (check it out -- it's really very cool), an ecovillage project in Ecuador, and then the last few weeks I'll be going overland to Lima to meet up with a friend to do the Lares Trek and spend a few days together in Cuzco. Then in September I'll head over Lake Titicaca to Bolivia and try to set up a jungle trip of some kind and perhaps try to go to Isla del Sol, and then down to the Uyuni salt flats. Then for mid-October, I need to head down into the Cordoba highlands of Argentina to experience a week of group living with Yacu Yura (if your Spanish skills are up for the task, do check them out as well) and hopefully that will turn into a month of learning and volunteering with them. Then it will be December already, and I'll need to head overland again down towards Buenos Aires, where I fly out, back to Canada. Which is all great, but means that I miss so much -- Patagonia, the Terra del Fuegos, Iguazu Falls, most of Peru... Do you see why six months is inadequate?
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