Sitting here in the basement of City and Islington College in North London, in my lunch hour of course, it is quite hard to imagine that in 9 days time i will be on a plane headed for Caracas, the notorious capital city of Venezuela. The last 6 months months seem to have flown by and i'm beginning to wish that I had given a little more time to the planning of the trip. Here I am however, bag bought, Jabs had and nerves tingling waiting for a journey that will take me further from home than I have ever been or will probably ever go again.Carbon guilt apart I do feel that what I am about to do is the right thing. The idea of not seeing my girlfriend Alice for 2 and a half months and my family and friends for five months fills me with fear. I am afterall a rather sheltered well nourished and cared for young man who has always had everything and is soon to have literally nothing but what is on his back.
I don't expect the trip to change me and I certainly don't expect to return a 'Man' but I do hope that the value of seeing other cultures and experiencing independence outweighs the inevitable cost that the fragile Earth will pay for my numerous international flights.
Thanks to everyone who I leave behind. I'll probably be missing you if you're someone who is bothering to read this.
I'm hoping the next time you read this I'll be in Venezuela enjoying hot sunshine and anti-malarial induced photosensitivity.
