whirlwind tour

Hello 2007!

Its been a while since my last post and that comes from the fact that I'm on vacation. I've spent the better part of the last month traveling around and seeing other parts of the world - at least outside of South America. For Christmas I was down in New Zealand and enjoyed seeing such a magnificent place, it is amazing how diverse the islands are. Now I'm in the US, visiting family and friends across the Southwest. Man its been a lot of traveling!

And it got me to wondering just how much traveling I have done over the last 12 months. It all started last February when I left Rotterdam and flew to Waterloo, Iowa for the UNI Overseas Job Fair. Since that weekend in the beginning of February, its been a bunch of planes, trains, automobiles, motorcycles, and ferries. So I sat down with Google Earth and made an estimate of the distance that I've traveled in the last year and I was kinda amazed at how much I've covered.

90,000 km (55,000 miles).

That's more than twice the circumference of the Earth (at the equator). Most of that is via airplanes, as to be expected, and includes 4 trans-Atlantic and 2 trans-Pacific journeys. Some of it comes via trains, almost 4000 km (2400 miles) on 3 different continents. Automobiles and ferries account for another 4000 km (2400 miles) and that omits the small amount covered via motorcycle. 7 different countries on 4 different continents, its been one heck of a year. No wonder I'm so tired. ;)

But travel is why I'm an international educator and I relish the amount of travel I am gifted with my profession (and its vacations). So here's to the joy of seeing new places and experiencing new cultures. I wonder how long this personal record of 90,000 km in one year will last...