what i love about traveling...or...(who am i?)

picture 1...me, heather (who had already been traveling for a few months), jasmine (on her way to teach english in brazil), and jasmine (a superb dancer!)

picture 2...me (obviously) and scott...a cool aussie fellow

picture 3...aaron (a fellow san franciscan who is on month 11 of his ´round the world voyage)

picture 4...annette being annette with aaron

granted, there are a million and one things that i love about traveling...and so as not to bore you, i will not list them all...for the purpose of this email, i will simply focus on two. 1) all the wonderfully, crazy people you meet and 2) the ability to reinvent one´s self (without even trying). the things is, upon meeting me, people make all kinds of assumptions and since these are all new people who have not seen me in my natural habitat (think taking a tiger and putting him on a glacier in antarctica), they are witnessing one of the many Other Sides...it is so hilarious...and as a marooned animal outside of her natural habitat, i have the oportunity to play into that perception, totally reject that perception, or maybe just tweek it a bit. case in point, upon meeting scott, the aussie, i told him that i had read shantaram a couple of times (a book that almost everyone who travels reads)...he took this to mean that i was a quiet bookworm who never goes out and parties (ha!)...so when we went out all as a group one night, he was astounded that i was someone who danced...and not only danced, but DANCED (aka humiliated myself in various ways)...now to anyone who knows me, i am obviously the one person you can count on going out with and who will inevitably be rolling around on the floor and doing an approximation of the worm (which i like to call the snail)...but i blew this kid´s mind and i think that is hilarious...

the other side of that coin is that for the most part on this trip, i really have wanted to be the book worm..in fact, my arm has had to be twisted before i have agreed to go out (another ha!!)...i have in fact preferred going to bed at 10 (and that is late) than staying up all hours of the night. in fact, when we went out our last night in santiago, i was the one who hit the wall and went home before everyone else (a 3rd ha!!!)...so there it is...the early stages of the reinvention...i have perpetually been known as the wild crazy party girl (which i am), but at the same time there is a reinvention process wherein, i am slowly metamorphosising (sp?) into the quiet bookworm who likes to stay in...small wonders abound...

needless to say, i had a wonderful time being a square (and also leaving the box), while i was in chile...i even salsa danced...and i hate being led while dancing...these hips are not made to be controlled in any way...i did have a great time meeting fellow gringos, dancing part of the night away, and seeing the city proper (which is quite beautiful)...

stay tuned to more adventures (or misadventures) that will be coming...