Update!

Well, as my little brother pointed out in a recent email, it has now been over one month since I have posted! Where did that time go?! Almost three weeks of it has been spent exploring Germany with my dad, which has been a blast. I can´t believe he is about to go back to Wisconsin already. That means that I must move on to the next leg of my journey, but the question is what exactly to do? The plan all along has been to go to South America, and I have since decided that I would also like to do some type of Spanish immersion program there, preferably at the beginning so that I can make use of it on the rest of my travels. The plane tickets are expensive, so that is creating a bit of a problem for me. I will most likely have to go through the US as well, which then had me thinking seriously about taking a short break back in Wisconsin, mainly to catch up on this blog while Europe is still fresh in my mind, but also to rest. They (the writers of books I read, such as "The Rough Guide First-Time Around the World") say that for every three months of travel, you should take two weeks of rest somewhere in order to recharge your wanderlust, and when I think about it, I haven´t really done that at all. It has been just shy of 6 months since I left Denver. I have traveled through 22 countries, 2 continents, countless cities, slept in what seems like a million different beds, endured long journeys by plane, bus, boat, and train, met so many people and made a lot of awesome new friends. But I am exhausted! I have never needed a massage so badly. Or a haircut. Or a dentist, for that matter. But this is my life, and I love it!
I can feel myself loving it less at times though, so I know that I need to slow down for a bit - I want to love Latin America as much as I have loved Southeast Asia and Europe! There are a few problems with going home though - the main one is getting started again after stopping. As I was warned by another traveling friend, that is pretty hard to do. Also, I really want to enjoy going home at the end of the trip more than ever, and that would probably be lessened if I went home now. I miss my family and friends, and I wouldn´t get to see most of you if I went home now either. And so while going home was foremost on my mind for the last several days, I think I have decided that overall the best decision for me right now is to just keep pressing on. I will have to stay in Berlin for at least a few more days while I wait for a day that is cheaper to fly, and during that time I hope to get more caught up on the blog, as well as to just relax, and to start planning my next adventure. At this point, it looks like I will most likely fly into Columbia, and try to find a Spanish program once I get there. I think it will be hard to fly through a US city, be there for several hours on a layover, and not be able to talk to or see anyone though! Since I will have about 5 months left of my trip, I plan on seeing 5 countries: Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Of course, all of that could change as time goes on, but for now that is the loose plan.
So I can say with optimistic confidence that within the next week I will get more caught up on posts and pictures so that you all can see where my European adventure has taken me! I started the next post several weeks ago - Auschwitz - but it is a hard one to write about. Overall though, it will be fun for me to relive my journey again as I write about all of the amazing places I have seen! Sometimes I am struck by how lucky, priviledged, and blessed I am to be doing this. I continue to meet people that proclaim their awe and jealousy about what I am doing (not to mention similar messages from a lot of you back home). I have a hard time realizing both that I have been traveling the world now for 6 months, as well as that I have 5 months left. SE Asia feels to me like it was 2 years ago! And at the same time, Christmas (when I hope to get home) feels like it is so far away! So many people I meet ask me what my favorite place has been, and I find myself completely stumped by that question. I can´t even remember all of the places I have been, much less what I have loved the most! I think all of it just jumbles together in my mind, and it goes blank when asked. I hope to have a better grasp on it once I get home and have a bit of time to reflect back on the year, because I know that a lot of you will have the same question for me. Right now my life consists of traveling to a new place almost constantly, and of planning for the next place while seeing the current place. It is just so much constant change, which is awesome but makes it hard to take some time to just think about all that I have done in the last six months. Here is to a good 5 more months:)