T is for Travel to All 196 (recognized) Countries in the World

I’ve been looking forward to writing my T since this whole challenge started. This is my biggest and toughest bucket list goal.  It is quite close to my heart. It is also the goal I will be most proud of once achieved.

After I made it to my seventh continent, a goal I thought I would achieve some time in old age and not when I was 28, I had to think of a new even crazier goal.  As avid of a traveler as I am, it wasn’t a far leap to decide to visit every country in the world.

Sometimes it seems oddly possible.  I’ve made a rule for myself that, with the exception of Chile (a piece of my heart is still there and one must always return to where they left their heart) and Vieques, Puerto Rico as mentioned in a pervious post (an exception made because I would actually move there and live and therefore travel from there), I will not return to countries I have already visited.  If I always go to new countries, then if I travel to 2-4 countries a year for the rest of my life, I can do it. I’ve been traveling to at least two countries a year since I’ve been stateside. Also, since I plan to live abroad again, that 2-4 countries becomes much bigger when I travel from wherever it is I move. It’s all entirely possible.

I know some people think this is crazy, and I understand that it is fun to go back to a place you know and love. But I am the same way with many things, books, for example. With the exception of The Catcher in The Rye, which I read yearly, I do not re-read books. There are simply too many books in the world, and I will not read all that I desire to read, if I repeat books. This is how I feel about countries. There are simply too many amazing places to see and discover that I cannot allow myself to revisit any until I’ve seen them all.

I am currently sitting at 44 countries, Cuba being my last. In two short weeks I will fly to Eastern Europe where I will travel around Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, The Czech Republic and Poland for a little over a month.  That will put my number at 49.  This winter, I will travel to The Dominican Republic where I will spend one week celebrating my 50^th country in style at an all inclusive resort with several friends joining me. I think having traveled to 50 countries is certainly something to celebrate, and I intend to fully commemorate it. From The Dominican Republic, I will spend another week in Haiti touring around. Number 51.

The adventure never stops when you’re trying to see as much of the world as you can in the short life we live, and I don’t want it to. I am fortunate that I have a teaching job in which I can take a term off, unpaid mind you, but off. I am also fortunate that I can return to this job after seven weeks gone.  It is also a job that gives me a lengthy, albeit unpaid, winter break as well.  This gives me lots of time to travel.  And although I don’t usually think of it as lucky that I do not have kids and a family, for purposes of traveling, it sure is convenient.  It also helps with the money it takes to get to all these places.  Though I will still travel once I have kids, they will just make it even more of an adventure.

And while putting it all out here on the page and thinking of the logistics of doing this makes it seem almost easy, sometimes it feels entirely overwhelming and even impossible. Can I really keep up with 2-4 countries a year once I’m older, or have kids and other obligations?  Will some countries be impossible or off limits?  But then I just remind myself how impossible I thought it would be to get to Antarctica, my seventh and final continent, and I am renewed and re-motivated and for a tiny moment I remember that I can do anything I set my mind to.

S is for SCUBA dive on a Live Aboard

I first got certified to SCUBA dive in 2006 in Útila, Honduras.  Since then, I make sure I can dive wherever I go. I’ve dived in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize, Chile, Colombia, and Cuba.  I even plan to dive in Poland when I go to Eastern Europe in a couple of weeks.  All of these dives were either shore or boat day trips out to sites. The most I’ve ever dived consecutively is when I got certified in Honduras and dived five or so days in a row. It was amazing.

 My bucket list goal is to dive on a live aboard boat.  Live aboards are trips in which you stay on the boat for five to seven days and dive pretty much as much as you want the whole time. You eat, dive, eat, drink, dive, dive, sleep. Then you wake up the next day and do it all over again.  The boat tours around the whole time so you’re diving in different sites.

I’ve never considered myself all that avid of a diver. It is hard to be when you live in land locked Colorado, but of course, I make it a point whenever I can to get a few dives in whenever I go anywhere near water.  I would love to stay on a live aboard and really devote myself to honing my skills underwater, not to mention see more underwater life than I’ve ever seen.

Live aboads are everywhere there is diving. They are not cheap, but I think they are usually worth it if you add up the cost of each dive individually.  I’m thinking about Bali or The Philippines or Thailand. I’ll spend a week on the boat and then travel around a new country.  

R is for Return to Semester at Sea

Pretty much since the moment I stepped off ‘The Great White Mother’ as the SS Universe Explorer was affectionately called by its 600 plus voyagers, in December 1999, I was plotting my return.  Never has an experience changed and formed my life path more then that of the voyage around the world Semester at Sea took me on in the fall of 1999. Quite frankly, Semester at Sea ruined me. I would never again live a simple, easy life. I would always be seeking new worlds, new cultures, people, food and experiences.

It was on the ship, in the early get to know you days on the Bali deck where my cabin was located that I formed my first seemingly unattainable goal to visit all seven continents.  Semester at Sea had brought me to Africa, my fifth continent. It was five years later that I stepped foot on the continent of Antarctica (#7) having sailed from Ushuaia, Argentina (#6).

I became an ESL teacher as a result of having seen the world through Semester at Sea. It was the best way I knew to travel and see the world while actually making money. I taught and lived in Chile and Honduras and traveled extensively from both.  I simply could not shake the wanderlust that Semester at Sea had planted in me. And truthfully, I didn’t want to.

Upon returning to the states, the dream to return to Semester at Sea was still there.  I researched several ways to return to the ship (now a new ship called the MV Explorer.)  I could return as a travel agent for the various field excursions in port, or as the shipboard store clerk or any of the various jobs needed on essentially a cruise ship. I was open to anything that would get me back and traveling around the world again.

But the one job I had become particularly fond of, especially now that I was a teacher, was that of professor. I felt it was the most prestigious for sure, and as such, also the hardest to get. When I got my current job teaching ESL at Colorado State University, I felt a little closer to that goal.  Not that Semester at Sea is looking for ESL teachers, but I felt I had my foot in the door a little bit more now that I was teaching at a university. I envision teaching creative writing and literature onboard, just like the teachers I had while sailing around the world.  

I am not sure how I will eventually get back on the ship that ruined my life and set me on a path of adventure and discovery, but I know that one day the recurring dreams I have of being back on the ship will come true.

Q is for Quit my Job

Don’t get me wrong, I actually like my job. I even considered myself a little lucky that I found a career that I am both really good at and enjoy.  It is also, thankfully, a job I can do anywhere in the world.  That’s what first drew me to English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching.  I’ve been teaching for 10 years now, and for the most part I love it.

But, it’s not my passion. It is simply something I got into in order to travel the world and make money.  Traveling is my passion, but you don’t very well make money simply traveling, unfortunately. But my other passion, is what I’m doing right now, writing. 

I write short stories, flash fiction, and poetry. I am working on a novel called This Story Takes Place in a Bar, for which I now have nearly 50,000 words.  I get up at 5:30 most mornings in order to write for two hours before I go to my day job. It works for me, but it is not ideal.  It kind of sucks to have to leave in the middle of a really good part because I have to go to work. Two hours a day is more than I’ve ever been able to dedicate to my writing, but it is still not enough. It is never enough.

My ultimate goal, of course, is getting my novel published, having the world read my writing and being validated as a writer.  Along with all of this, is a rather large paycheck.  Then, I quit my day job. I’ll have full days to write whatever I want. I’ll travel the world and find inspiration everywhere. Then, I’ll write all about it. But first, I have to quit my day job.

P is for Peace Boat

Peace Boat a ship that sails around the world promoting peace wherever it goes.  It sails out of Yokohama, Japan and travels to 20 some countries in three months.  This means you don’t get too much time in each country, but it’s one of the best options I have to get closer to my 196 country goal.

 I’ve applied twice now to be a volunteer English language teacher.  They pay your room and board on the ship. I just have to get to Japan and pay my way in each country.  I made it all the way to the videoed lesson plan. I had thought I would be a shoo in, having traveled as a student on Semester at Sea and therefore understanding life on board a ship. I also thought my 10 years of teaching experience and my maturity (most people applying are just out of college) would be a huge selling point.  I guess they weren’t.  Apparently they want to you to have had teaching experience in Japan.  I do not have this,

however, I’ve had plenty of experience teaching Japanese students at my university in Colorado. I made sure the lesson video I sent was filled with Japanese students so they would know this.  It did not seem to help.

I haven’t given up. Getting so far along in the interview process just makes me want it more.  Now that my job will soon be moving from terms to semesters, I think it might be easier for me to take a whole semester off.  Owning my home also makes it easier to find someone to move in temporarily, pay rent and watch my cats while I’m gone. 

The program is entirely volunteer. I don’t get paid anything except for room, board and a trip around the world. I’m not complaining about this of course, but there is a lot of money that needs to be saved to afford the flight to Japan and whatever expenses I’ll have in each port along with keeping and maintaining a house in the states all while not earning a pay check for three months. So if everything lines up, I’ll call it kismet and know I was meant to go.

Semester at Sea was one of the best times of my life and I cannot imagine anything better than being back on a ship traveling around the world, visiting more than 20 countries, learning about and advocating peace and teaching English.  It’s like this program was made for me, and I am determined to be a volunteer on Peace Boat one day.

O is for Obliterate Obstacles

Bonus points for alliteration! There are always bonus points for alliteration.  Here’s your monthly dose of inspiration coming at you simply because I already talked about Opening a bar, and there’s nothing else I really want to Own now that I recently bought my first house, and there’s only one country that starts with O (can you guess it) and I just recently talked about moving to the Middle East (Opps, did I give it away…. There’s another O.) So, ya, O was a bit of a struggle, and though it’s not a bucket list item, it Offers (there I go again) some advice on how to accomplish all those bucket list goals we all have.

Obstacle is defined as something that obstructs (ohh, another O) or hinders progress.  With a bucket list like mine, you can bet there are more than a few obstacles that stand in the way of completing my goals.  Age, time, and money to name just a few.  But you may have noticed with each post I have a plan, a ‘when’ and a ‘where’ and sometimes a ‘how.’ This plan is how I will obliterate obstacles in my way.

The truth is, any goal you may have will have obstacles, otherwise it wouldn’t be a goal, and you would have already done it by now. It’s a goal because it’s not easy. I met a guy in Costa Rica who left me with a quote I’ve always remember, “The view from the top looks better when you worked hard to get there.”  It’s true. There’s a certain satisfaction in knowing you toiled, you sacrificed, you ate canned food for months, you missed your favorite concert, you worked three jobs, you didn’t sleep.  When you reach that goal, everything seems more worthwhile and you wonder if it wouldn’t feel as good as it does here at the top, because man it feels good, if it didn’t take so much to get there.

Obstacles are just things, usually tiny things that only seem big because they’re blocking our way at the moment. They can be obliterated if you want it badly enough. And I want it badly enough. 

N is for Northern Lights

Magical lights in the sky and I’m not tripping? Yes please.  The Aurora Borealis has always fascinated me.  It just seems so unreal and unnatural, yet it is completely pure and absolute.  The pictures I’ve seen, while incredible, I am sure do not do justice to the real thing.

I simply must see the northern lights. I wouldn’t mind seeing them in Alaska, but rather, I envision seeing them somewhere more exotic, like Iceland. I could kill two birds with one stone this way. Visit a new country and see the lights.  I feel it will be one of those very present moments in which I do not even want to take photos, but rather simply watch, and enjoy and be in awe of what this world can do.