bucket list?

before i die i want to travel. the whole planet. minus antartica, i don't wanna go there. it's cold there. there are penguins though; i like penguins. i want to visit the states, just kinda drive around the country side; see the sights; get lost in the hustle and bustle of downtown.

i want to cross the border and go to canada; struggle with the french/english language barrier; find the beauty of the land. to mexico and not drink the water. not going there until swine flu is no longer an issue though. the carribbean islands. swim with the dolphins. south america. i wanna go to bolivia. i wanna explore rio. climb some mountains. go to peru.

europe. stay the summer. or maybe a whole year? spain. las fallas. el prado. barcelona. france. paris. the efile tower. the city of lovee. go see some german castles. laugh silently at all the angry sounding germans. berlin, the site of the wall. italy. rome. florence. eat some good italian food. explore austria. off to england. pretend i'm british. pick up an accent. big ben. walk in the rain. drive on the wrong side of the road. sweden. visit toby for real. hahahaha.

asia. see the wall. and the rest of china. india. gandhi. experience buddhism and buddhist teachings. the flea markets. the traditions. japan. vietnam. korea. i could go on and on.

australia. the coral reefs. the outback. kangaroos. new zealand. indonesia.

i just want to explore. escape from america and see how the rest of the world lives. i want to get out of my box and broaden my horizons. the world is such a big world.

the outside world

on friday i went to chicago. it was a very funfilled day spent with my friends. it was a field trip to go see some spanish paintings in the art institute and then go eat at cafe iberico, an authentic spanish tapas (roughly translated to appetizers) restuarant. i tried every single one of the spanish dishes they brought out, even the octopus. and i liked almost all of them. we also went to millennium park and stared at the bean for a little while. i spent about nine hours on a bus and that got to be a bit long to be sitting on a bus but we had fun. kro brought her super nice expensive artsy camera and we filled her memory card. most of the pictures are random and only have meaning when watched in continous motion like the police officers crossing the street, the random people crossing the street, spencer traveling through chicago, spencer sleeping through chicago, and other random pictures. we also drew a picture that brightened my morning. it involved spencer's bird metaphor, some decoy birds, a specific bird, a gun, and kro driving the car. but this is not the main point of this post. i'm getting there though. this is all just backstory in attempts to make my post seem less random.

chicago is so different from cedar rapids, and all of iowa in general. chicago is exciting, big, windy, bustling and shiny. the buildings downtown are huge and beautifully architectured. i could spend a whole day just wandering around downtown looking at all the buildings. getting out of cedar rapids, and iowa, even for just a day makes me realize just how small my little world is. i live in the sheltered world of north east iowa. not much goes on here. chicago is so full of life. there is a constant bustle of activity.

my sheltered life has lead to limited travel opportunities so when i do get out and see that the world is always bigger than i thought it makes me want to travel more. i want to explore the whole country. i want to leave the country and explore the world. there is so much more out there than just where we are now. i want to stay up all night in the city that never sleeps. i want to see the fallas celebration in spain. i want to see the cold beauty of russia and the sweltering deserts of africa.

somewhere i diverged from the main point that i wanted to say and now i have forgotten it. it was something along the lines of the world is so much bigger than i can even comprehend. something like that.