  Good heavens. Back from a 5 week trip backpacking around Europe. Leave to go to Japan and Australia within 5 days. Mundanity threatens at home. Was very happy to be back in my own room, with my own bed and no psycho pyromaniacle bunk mates. And now that I've slept here two days I am VERY ready to leave again.
I miss meeting people. I miss cheap beer and wine. I miss new sights. How can I miss new sights? I miss discovery. The sense of being raw, new, unprepared for each new city.
Just when we got acclimatized to another language, town, landmarks, we left. Time for more raw newness. Japan will be a culture shock. I will be tall. I will be blonde. I will be strange.
I will be in a minority. I will eat lots of seafood. I will not find clothes in the shops that fit me. I will be ready for Australia in a couple weeks! Of course, the house is in a turmoil. Mum has sold up and is moving to England.
I am now officially, homeless, jobless, car-less, but not quite penniless! It's a very liberating feeling, but also extremely scary. I have nothing to hold me down, but nothing to hold onto either. I could easily floatoff the face of the earth. All my ties that bind have been cut, and now I'm massless. I'm a helium balloon without a string.
I'm destined for adventure, and eventual touchdown when I run out of juice. But not for a while. Not for a while. Europe was a good experience. I even had my purse stolen. And it was okay.
I was okay. I will be okay. The big bad world might try to get me, but I keep getting up again. Six more weeks travel and I will be back in Toronto, wondering what the hell to do with my life. I think I want to go back to Berlin and teach English. Berlin got into my blood.
Berlin gave me a shot of adrenaline, a shot of the fountain of youth, a shot of reassurance. My home will be wherever I choose to make it. I will not be tied to one city for the rest of my life. I CAN feel comfortable in foreign lands. I will learn other languages, and with them, other modes of thought. In Germany no one ever says, "How are you?
" unless they really mean it. People there take it seriously. They will really tell you HOW THEY ARE. And if they are strangers then they will think you are being rude and prying. I like that. I like that you don't have to use that meaningless phrase every time you run into someone you know.
An elimination of a platitude. Someone once said that people either live their lives out of a centre of fear, or a centre of love. Those who fear try to control. Those who love, accept. I feel like I moved towards love during this trip. You cannot make friends without reaching out.
Smile when you make eye contact with someone and see what happens. Being shy will not get you anywhere. Be who you are. Don't pose, pretend or talk shit. Accept. The only valuable thing in life is genuine interactions with other people.
REAL living. You will only achieve this if you discard the dross of ego, pretension and fallacy. Ambition is all the greater if you are open about your goals. Ambition becomes something different if you are not entirely self serving. 
