Wanderlust

I miss traveling. Dear lord, I miss it so much. I didn't leave the country in 2008. Not even to go to Canada. And it's shaping up to be the same for 2009. There's something in me that is just empty without having a holiday or a trip to plan and look forward to. I feel like without an international trip at LEAST once a year, I start to become numb and ethnocentric and all "U-S-A!" like.
I need culture. I need menus that aren't in English. I need walking all around a new city, miles and miles, just because it's fun or I'm lost. I need mispronouncing words to the local and being laughed at. I need beaches and mountains and smoggy cities. I need dogs running around in places they most certainly should not be running. I need hanging on so tight to my purse so a guy on a moto doesn't snatch it off me. I need rickshaw drivers taking me to shady show that I did not request. I need color and vibrance. I need boarding passes and carry-ons. I need sleep deprivation and jet lag. I need drinking local beers and eating lobster on the beach. I need dancing and hiking and bungy jumping and cliff diving and tandem biking and glacier walking and ziplining and thrill seeking and adreneline running. I need to be that person I am when I travel all of the time.

I need to go away. Now.