Day 490: Raising The Bar

After work today I went out for dinner with Addie, Katie, and two of the new staff - Kade and Stacy. We went to Ho Lee Chow and had a great Chinese dinner. Kade and Stacy are both really interesting people who've led quite the amazing and fascinating life. Prior to coming to Korea, they were English teachers in Vietnam, and before that worked at a refugee camp on the Thai/Burmese border. And prior to that they travelled across all of Eastern Europe before taking the TransSiberian Railway all the way to Beijing. WOW!!!

And I thought *I* was well-travelled! My wordly expeditions pale in comparison to the things that they've done. Mind you, Project Wanderlust is gonna launch me into a whole other league... It's kinda funny how you can feel jealous and envious about other people's travels. Everyone you meet here is very well-travelled and quite 'worldy.' I don't think shy, sheltered people wake up one day and decide to move to Korea to teach English. It takes a certain personality, someone who's always had that strange insatiable curiosity about the world, to pick up their lives and drop themselves into a foreign country.

Back home amongst friends I've known as 'The Globetrotter', 'The Jet-Setter', or 'The Gypsy' as my mom calls me, but among my friends here I'm pretty much the same. It's a different level, a different game over here. The bar has suddenly been raised, and meeting all these people who've travelled to so many places just inspires and challenges you to want to do even more. Like a friendly competition, it's fun to see who's got the best, the craziest, the most exotic, the most unbelievable travel stories to share.

So in the Travel Olympic Games I'm still a novice, but I'm about to begin a marathon that should win me at least some medal of some sort! I guess it's true what they say though - in life the only real race is the one we run against ourselves, and I'm looking forward to giving myself a good challenge. I'm gonna break a sweat, I'm gonna pull a few muscles, cause a few bruises, come out exhausted and sweaty and panting and overall dirty from head to toe. And I like it. Think I'll keep on racing for a while... ;-)