Kevin, I love you

Dearest Abroaders,

Firstly, why you didn't blow your going-abroad thousands on a few weeks of unemployment in west Africa like Wren and I is beyond me. I have trouble seeing how half a year stomping around Chile or the Dominican or Egypt or Colombia or Kenya or France or New Zealand or Ecuador will be much of an adventure. Hopefully you'll make something out of it.

What follows is not a list of requests or advice, but commands, to be reviewed periodically over the next 5 to 8 months.

1. You must blog. I do not care if it takes a six day llama ride to get to the nearest internet cafe. Nor do I care if you are technologically inept - Blogger and WordPress can be operated by 5 year old Mongolian toddlers who don't have a word for internet in their tribal tongue. Also, if you are faced with only enough pesos for 3 minutes of dial-up internet and a choice between emailing your parents and blogging, blog. There are no excuses.

Because you will miss cultural references and spotted cow and the terrace and string cheese, and because I secretly and desperately have always wanted to write a column on Brooks's sexual conquests, I too will be blogging (new spot- http://kdoran.wordpress.com/). This will be updated bi-hourly from 9am until 10pm, September until August, or until I find new friends and forget you guys left.

2. You must take photographs and you must put them on your blog. There is no magic in wading through Facebook albums entitled "Jorge's loco cumplianos!" and none of you are skilled enough writers to fully describe the jungles and deserts and castles and belly shots you will be witnessing.

3. You must come back. If any of you (A) fall in love with your host sibling and decide to become a Kiwi national or (B) are killed by marauding campesinos, I will come to your country and slay your new spouse/killers/despotic dictator and any offspring you have created. I will also write your parents a stern email.

4. When you come back, from mid-August until graduation, attendance will be mandatory at "cultural re-integration sessions" hosted by Brooks and I at our new house. These will be every night that I don't have a test the next day and will cost .05 GPA points a session. I will be daydreaming about this for the next half year, so feel free to request intricate fictional short story projections via post.

If anything ever goes wrong call me. I'll have some time on my hands, and will spend whatever hours necessary on the phone with any embassy/hospital/parent/government.

You will be missed,

Kevin

Elusive

I think this may be the easiest, most nonchalant transition back to being at home. Never before have I been anything less than head-over-heels ecstatic to get the hell out of Madison after first semester and head home to laziness and best friends. This year is different, though. It seems so standard by now: oh yeah, just home for another holiday, no big deal. (Not that I'm not happy to see my STP loves; I always am.)

I don't know if the sense of bittersweetness comes from the fact that we're now juniors and the transition between Home Life and College Life is almost seamless. We've become able to drift between existences so effortlessly by now. Worlds occasionally cross as we meet each other's school friends at home or visit each other's colleges. Besides that, we've all gotten completely accustomed to living two entirely separate lives. That's odd, when you think about it....most people I love have a whole other life I know only bits and pieces of, because I'm no longer a part of it every day.

[Note: when I say 'we' I am referring to my group of best friends from high school. If you have ever lived with me/spent significant amounts of time with me, you know I spend an unbelievable amount of time on the phone. This is because we regularly all keep in touch, doing our best to keep up while scattered across the country. And because my high school friends are bomb. Most people get to college and realize that the people they meet there are vastly cooler than anyone they ever met in high school, and easily fad out of touch with anyone they knew before. This is not the case with us, nor most groups of friends from my high school. As much as I hate to admit it, there was something special about Cretin. Ask Kevin if you don't believe me.]

The unease I feel from the difference I sense this year could also come from the fact that I have left Madison until next August, since I will be in Colombia starting in January. With the exception of my freshman summer, I have lived in Madison constantly for the past 3 years. I have come to love the people there and the city and campus. Usually I am ready for a break by Christmas time, and then can't wait to get back by the end of January.

I know that I need this adventure, and that it is time for me to experience something so vastly out of my comfort zone it will undoubtably change who I am forever. At this point, however, I feel only a sense of excitement masked by general uneasiness, ambiguity about what the coming year will bring and disbelief that it is actually happening. Although many of my close friends will also be traveling this semester (can't wait to play with the other South American bound ones!!) there are people in Madison I'm not yet ready to leave.

But that's life, isn't it? Things happen whether your ready or not. And whether I'm 100% ready (which I doubt I ever will be) I am getting on a plane on January 15 to spend 7 months exploring and learning and growing.

T-23 days to Colombia.

$715 and a hand hold later.....

Passenger(s): TERESA WELSH

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Continental Airlines # 2917
Minneapolis St Paul Intl (MSP) to Houston George Bush Intercntl. (IAH)
Departure (MSP): January 15, 7:10 PM CST (evening)
Arrival (IAH): January 15, 10:12 PM CST (evening)

Thursday, January 15, 2009
Continental Airlines # 884
Houston George Bush Intercntl. (IAH) to Bogota Eldorado (BOG)
Departure (IAH): January 15, 10:59 PM CST (evening)
Arrival (BOG): January 16, 4:55 AM COT (morning)

Friday, January 16, 2009
Copa Airlines # 7524
Bogota Eldorado (BOG) to Bucaramanga Palo Negro (BGA)
Departure (BOG): January 16, 11:15 AM COT (morning)
Arrival (BGA): January 16, 12:19 PM COT (afternoon)

--------------------------------

Friday, July 31, 2009
Copa Airlines # 620
Bogota Eldorado (BOG) to Panama City Tocumen International (PTY)
Departure (BOG): July 31, 9:05 AM COT (morning)
Arrival (PTY): July 31, 10:34 AM EST (morning)

Friday, July 31, 2009
Continental Airlines # 876
Panama City Tocumen International (PTY) to Houston George Bush Intercntl. (IAH)
Departure (PTY): July 31, 1:59 PM EST (afternoon)
Arrival (IAH): July 31, 6:14 PM CDT (evening)

Friday, July 31, 2009
Continental Airlines # 2816
Houston George Bush Intercntl. (IAH) to Minneapolis St Paul Intl (MSP)
Departure (IAH): July 31, 9:05 PM CDT (evening)
Arrival (MSP): July 31, 11:47 PM CDT (evening)