The Countdown

When I was 13 my dad made a wooden block with 3 angled holes in it. I painted it the same color green as the walls in my bedroom and hung it up.  I slipped 3 rods into the holes and attached to the rods were 3 flags: Ireland, Great Britain and Canada.  None of those represented anything in particular...but they were flags from somewhere else.  I hadn't yet gotten my hands on a flag from Scotland...well, except for the tiny desktop flag I had...or that would have had place of honor and Canada would have had to found a new place to hang.

I was the girl that always had big dreams to visit Scotland (home of my ancestors), backpack through Europe, see tulips in Holland, ride a gondola in Venice, see the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower.  I wanted to be away from concrete cities and be a part of the ancient world that one can only find across the ocean.  I had actual dreams at night about places that I'd never seen with my own eyes, only to come across photos later and see that I had dreamed it correctly. I wrote stories about these places.  Well, to be honest, I attempted to write stories but often gave up when I realized that I had nothing but other people's stories to base anything on.  I had never been anywhere and would end up feeling like a fraud.

I haven't even really been anywhere in the US.  Missouri, Kansas, road trips to Alabama, and one personal road trip/odyssey to Minnesota and back home through part of South Dakota.  I haven't seen any historical landmarks like the Grand Canyon or Mt. Rushmore.

I know parts of languages...my inadequate preparations for 'dream travel'. Spanish, Scots Gaelic, French, German, Dutch...but definitely  not enough to carry on any kind of conversation with anyone.  I am 31 and just got my first passport. (see horrible iPod photo below...note dorky smile)

 

I lived the majority of my life believing that one day I would go somewhere amazing, see part of the world that few are lucky to see...that it was my destiny.  I remember one person in my past telling me that "those dreams are for rich people...things like that don't happen to people like us" and at the time it made me angry. Sad for that person who could live their life like that...but then I lived the last 2 tumultuous years of my life: divorce, family issues, joblessness, hotel room full of bedbugs...and I started living my life in the real world.  I slowly gave up on dreams and became the 'that never happens to people like me' person.

I have never flown in an airplane...I have never seen the ocean with my own eyes...I had given up on dreams of seeing the world.........and yet........on December 27the at 1 pm (or 1300 hours) I will be getting on my first plane, seeing the ocean as I fly over it and will land at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.  I will be greeted by my Dutch born fiance and I will finally get to say 'Boo-yah! In your face!' to the people who tried to bring me down in the past.

I will also kick myself for not paying more attention in school when teachers tried to teach me the metric system. I should probably work on that before I leave.  

So, here's what to expect from this blog.  I will, most likely, document my road to Holland right up until I leave...post things, if I can, when I have my layover...and I will most definitely post pictures and videos the entire 2.5 months that I'm there. I can't promise every post will be a laugh riot....but I do tend to make fun of myself and sometimes I get lucky and might actually make you giggle.  For that alone its worth reading right?  I'm also a photographer so expect a lot of pics.

As for the video thing....as much as I hate videos of myself because my voice sounds like a gerbil with a 2 pack a day smoking habit...I promised my co-workers/best friends/worrying mother hen's that I would post videos of me holding a newspaper with the date on it so they would know that I was alive/hadn't been kidnapped....so, um...that should be interesting.

On that note, if you stop by, please feel free to comment.  However, if you think I'm an idiot maybe you could just keep that to yourself?  That would be awesome.

Happy Reading!