“Paris is always a good idea!” – Audrey Hepburn

“Travel is like love, mostly because it’s a heightened state of awareness, in which we are mindful, receptive, undimmed by familiarity and ready to be transformed. That is why the best trips, like the best love affairs, never really end.”  – Pico Iyer

Well… after a few months of anticipation, it’s finally here – I am getting ready to leave for my Summer adventure.  If you have not yet read the ‘About Me‘ section – I am leaving for Paris today. I recently quit my job, and decided – instead of going to a new job right away, that I would take a break and fulfill the dream of my 18-year-old self…. I’m going to Paris for a few months and just “be”.

What am I going to do there? Well, I hope nothing and everything really – from going to a language school in the cool Marais area, going to the French Open (yay!), and doing nothing and just chill – hopefully eating lots of great food, drinking lots of wine and champagne (I mean, really!!), and hope to see other places around France.

This will be quite an interesting journey for me.  For the first time in a long time, I am unemployed, I will become a student again and more than anything…. I am open. Some people have been asking me “Oh are you doing your own Eat, Pray, and Love – thing?”….. Hmmm, I quite dislike that book. I hate the movie. So I cringed when people asked me that….  but – I am currently – as I’d said – “open”. To experiencing new things. To be outside of my comfort zone. I am open … to anything right now. So I guess perhaps it is my own version of it – or what I make it. Let’s see – EAT (fo sho!), PRAY (hmm, no comment), LOVE (hells yeah! 🙂 ).

Excited? Of course. Terrified? YES! Why terrified? Because – the crazy part of my brain, whose voice can actually get really loud, asks “what if you’re there and you hate it?” – and that could happen (I guess…)! But…. the sane part of my brain would say “So fucking what?!” I love “so fucking what?!” – these three little words put together, have helped me overcome so many self-doubts whenever I have to make some decisions. Because at the end of that question, I could usually hear myself cheering “just close your eyes and jump” into whatever it was that made me doubt myself even for a few seconds.

The above quote from Pico Iyer – it’s one of my favorite quotes. It captures everything I feel about traveling. And it’s definitely captured how I’ve been feeling these past two weeks… so full of anticipation, anxiety, and excitement. “Ready to be transformed”! 🙂

The last couple of weeks I really have felt like my 18-year-old self. That was when I was leaving Indonesia to come to the US to go to college. I was full of anticipation and so open to experiencing this new life I was about to begin – nervous that I wouldn’t understand a thing or that they (the American people :)) wouldn’t understand me (up until that point, the only English I’d had was 3 hours a week from Junior High through High School). But I remember something I told myself over and over at that time…. ‘endless possibilities’.

Considering the last French class I took was a lifetime ago…  this is going to be quite comical! And I am so looking forward to those moments!!

Anyhow – I thought I’d create this site to share some of my experiences while I am there, beyond – Facebook and Instagram. I haven’t done this (blogging) before – when I had my old web site, that was just for pictures. So I’m going to play it by ear and see how it goes (and my web designer and creative friends – please refrain from commenting on the looks… this is a work-in-progress 🙂 ) In terms of content – some days I may have a lot to say, and some days I won’t (but who am I kidding here, I usually have a lot to say 😉 ).  Actually – the more selfish reason for creating this – is for me to bring you along with me in this journey so I won’t feel lonely or alone!  So thank you much in advance for coming along with me.

xxx