Whenever I sit down to post a piece on this blog, I think it has to be some kind of masterpiece, which is what keeps me from writing on it as often as I want to. I've been thinking about what this blog, this space is all about, and what it means to me. It is called "The Insatiable Globetrekker," to express my hunger and deep desire for foreign travel and for discovering exotic cuisines and having the priviliege of tasting them where they originated. This is a space for me to reflect on where I am now and where I have been, a place to make connections and see the distinctions from country to country and people to people, a place to ask questions and a place to relax; for writing soothes me. Above all, this blog is for me, and if any of you beloved friends and family find time to read it in your hectic lives, that's great. But I'm writing for myself.

I have been traveling since the age of sixteen because my curiousity about the world at large was piqued at a very young age, and since high school brought me much emotional trauma, I decided to cut it short by spending a year abroad in the French speaking part of Belgium. During that year I traveled to England, Germany, France, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic and absolutely fell in love with Europe. That year abroad started me on the road to becoming a world traveler and when it came to a close, thoughts of more voyages to faraway places were never far from my mind. When I entered college, I returned once again to France where I worked in a chateau in the country that had been converted into a youth hostel. During a vacation from this job, I went to Spain and Portugal for two weeks alone. Later, I spent two semesters in India, taking a three week break for research to Thailand during that time and then visited Sri Lanka at the end of my stint in India.

So why all this travel, you might ask? One might think, isn't one or two trips enough, and why do you have to go for so long? Well, I know that I love to travel. I know that returning to Belgium as a college student to see my host families was a great feeling. That I was able to speak to them in French, the foreign language I acquired made me feel good about myself; that I had accomplished something useful and important. Travel helps me to think more broadly, and most importantly, it helps me to let go of my notions of home, and helps me to feel "at home" anywhere in the world.