The Travel Bug

I have about *checks calender* six months until I move. SIX MONTHS. As the M-day draws closer I feel my feet begin to itch. And then it hits me like a bird hitting a glass window, I have been bitten by the Travel Bug. It's a familiar feeling, and my brain seizes up and says: "I need to travel. I need to do it RIGHT. NOW. I need to get out of California, out of America, ON MY OWN, and travel. If that means staying in a town in Nairobi for a month because I ran out of money, then bring it on!"

As you can tell, being bitten by the Travel Bug is a dangerous thing. The Travel Bug can affect anyone, in any country. Symptoms include but are not limited to:

-the desire to go anywhere. ANYWHERE.

-The need to meet new people

-You start buy different ethnic foods at local markets to dampen your need to taste exotic food.

-you begin to question if the money in your savings account is REALLY for moving out of the house.

-Hostels begin to look and sound like four star hotels.

-Any mention of any country has you checking how much a flight would cost to go to said country.

-Your mind constantly chants to you 'vacation! vacation! vacation!'

-Despite being terribly afraid of needles, you start to contemplate getting your vaccinations. You know. Just in case.

- The risk of Typhoid, tse tse flies, and malaria suddenly sound strange and exotic. Perhaps you'll get one tattooed to your arm....


If you suffer these symptoms or ones similar to them, then you have been bitten by the Travel Bug. Some Travel Bug's bites are small, and only make you slightly aware that you might like a vacation, or say, a need to go camping. Others are of a medium venom and you suddenly find yourself saying 'yes' to that crazy friend who likes to white water raft and has invited YOU to join him. And then you get THE Bug. This Bug bite forces you to go briefly insane and purchase a ticket and an overseas work visa before you think better of it. And as you wake up in a hostel room in Morocco riddled with bed bugs, you realize that once again the Travel Bug has gotten you, and what little money you had.