I always wonder how some people managed to quit their job/school, take a long time-off from work/school, or perhaps to get away from their commitment and left their home/family/friends behind for an extensive vacation. Recently one of my labmates just returned from a three-month backpacking to the far east. He and his girlfriend had been planning for this trip for a long while back. I could recall when this labmate of mine just joined the lab and started his life as a graduate student, he mentioned that he was saving up and preparing for this trip. I would love the idea of going away for an extensive vacation, but I would probably do it when I am done with school or between the period of switching job (the waiting time). The idea of getting a few months unpaid leave from work or differ a semester or two from school has never struck me.Since I moved to this country for graduate school I had tried to make my family, especially my parents happy to go home to celebrate Chinese New Year with them. Since I have to travel 5808 miles to get home, I had been taking three weeks off from work for this event. This also serves as my annual long vacation that I am entitled to. Since my family in particular my grandmother would like to meet my Travel Companion, therefore my travel plan was altered a little. When I broke the news to my supervisors that I was going to take a month off this time, they were surprised. To me, I really needed the break from work, four weeks were barely sufficient to cover 3/4 of the world.
This trip was no where close to my luxurious trips with my Travel Companion, nor it was anything like my coworker's backpacking trip; it was more of meeting up families and relatives from both families and it certainly involved a lot of traveling. Within 30 days, I traveled to three continents and visited four countries. Needless to say I was exhausted from all the traveling. Not to mention my biological clock was totally messed up with different timezone, first tuning the clock for six hours behind, then 13 hours ahead, followed by 13 hours behind and then finally six hours ahead.
Although this time I did not manage to stay at home for a longer time. I did not even have chance to meet one of my sisters, who had already went back to school in another country before my arrival. Not only I could not meet this sister for three years in a roll, I also missed my best friend whom I haven't met up for three years. My mom was even unhappy that we could only spend one week there. Anyway, at least the main purposes of this trip were met; I succeeding in introducing my Travel Companion to my family and also to show him my homecity, so that when I mention certain things such as certain famour food from my country, he would know exactly what I am trying to describe.
My Travel Companion and I wished that we could extend our vacation longer; there were still a lot of things we did not cover this trip. Oh well, we hope that we will make the same trip again soon. Meanwhile there is so much to catch up at work and I am still recovering from the long journey. Can you believe that I could travel around 3/4 of the world in 30 days?
♥ every page of my imagination
