Adventures

Isn't it funny that one of the reasons why I'm excited to travel is so that I have something to blog about? I am much more inspired to write creatively about travel-related things (and to write while I'm traveling) than in my daily life.

I have a confession: I love the idea of going on foreign adventures and I get jealous hearing about other people's travel adventures. But deep down I'm usually a bit scared to go on my adventures, especially if I've been building them up and talking about them a lot. I come up with exciting travel ideas (most recently, I received an email about horse safaris--http://bagual.co.uk/horseback_journeys.html--yes, sign me up to learn how to be a gaucho for a week!) but then I get nervous as the trip approaches, especially if I'm going on my own. Somewhere between college and now, I think others came to see me as a more adventurous traveling person (perhaps because lawyers are typically risk-averse, so my risk aversion seems less prominent and my wanderlust seems more notable than they actually are when compared to many of my classmates!), but honestly I get nervous. I'm good at talking up ideas, but I worry about many things (such as a trip living up to my expectations). This entry is my start at leaving behind that worrying and just enjoying the pura vida.

Due to a variety of conspiring circumstances, I'm leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow for a week--on my own. I'd been talking with my friends about going somewhere exciting and international for spring break since the fall, but in the end, I'm traveling solo (lack of actual planning, my desire to go somewhere Spanish speaking, family and other personal things that came up for others, etc., led to that result). When I realized that I might be traveling on my own, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go. I like to be able to go on the vacation that I want to go on, but solo traveling is a different experience. But this Chicago winter has been extremely cold, snowy, and long, and I knew I needed to get away for a week! Also, the idea of learning how to surf in Costa Rica sounds amazing. My mom deserves credit here, too; she encouraged me to go on this trip, no matter how it ends up, and helped me change my mindset to talking up my plans and embracing them rather than bemoaning their unexpected changes.

What's my plan? I'm going to Playa Grande in Costa Rica for a week and I'm going to learn how to surf! Although I'm going on my own, I'll not be totally on my own (I hope). One of the LLMs who I've become friends with this year in law school is from Costa Rica, and although he won't be there when I am, a childhood friend of his owns a few hostels/hotels in Costa Rica and teaches surfing. So I'm staying at his hostel/hotel (http://micasahostel.com and http://www.hotel-manglar.com) in Playa Grande. There are so many different areas of Costa Rica to explore, but since I'll only be there for six days and want to have a good amount of beach time, I only intend to go on one day trip (probably to Monteverde, the cloud forest) and will spend the rest of the time in the Playa Grande area.

Today I had lunch with my friend Sayer who just returned from a solo trip to San Francisco for a few days--and loved it. I was telling her about my lack of planning--as you may have deduced from the previous post, I'm a planner--and how that has made me slightly apprehensive. Basically, I have my plane ticket and accommodations booked. And, as of a couple days ago, airport transportation. And I have ideas of what I want to do and have purchased the Lonely Planet guide. That's all. When I asked my friend's friend if I needed to sign up for surfing lessons, etc., he said that I could do it all when I got to Costa Rica. So that's what I'm doing! But it's not what I'm used to. Anyway, after I told Sayer at lunch today about this, she told me a quote from her brother: "A tourist only sees what she came to see; a traveler sees all that she sees." So, off I go, to be a true traveler (with a little bit of surfer thrown in?)!