maybe there were some aspects of traveling to different countries that I really didn't like, but the memories that seem to remain the most prominent are almost always good ones. I remember how exciting it was to be riding in a car driving through Mexico City, seeing this totally different world and being around all new people. I didn't have classes on Friday so I would go with my cousin to a part of the city I was pretty unfamiliar with while he went to his German class. I sat in this relatively big park with a big David fountain in the middle and read books and watched people. I really stood out in this part of the city, so I was always a little paranoid.. but it was nice to walk around and explore things.

After being in D.F. enough times, it seems pretty normal now. There aren't a whole lot of things that amaze me more than they do here. That's sort of the archetype of traveling though. We are really good at adapting, and in every place I went to I found that what once was such a foreign and alien and sort of mysterious place in a month became the norm. Every once in the while you get this sort of realization that you're doing something totally outside of your "normal" life and it's kind of shocking in a good way, but you keep on just like you would anywhere else. That's a sort of beautiful aspect about being human.

There's something really peculiar about being this thing that creates and destroys and transforms ideas but is still sort of trapped in this scheme of typical animal behavior. It's kind of like we do all of the things that our predecessors did but we have this additional (assuming we are unique in that regard) capacity of thinking about what it is that we're doing.. and maybe even thinking about why we're doing it. Most of the time this thought kind of flashes quickly across the brain but it doesn't stay long enough to really make an impact. Occasionally the thought stays for longer and other disturbing and maybe even perturbing thoughts follow. Big questions start coming up as we build from 'what am i doing?' to 'why am I doing this?' to 'why does anyone do this?' to 'why am i even here?' to 'how am i even here?' I'm not sure what exactly the order is, but it's something like this and once we get from the stems to the roots everything gets overwhelmingly unclear. it's like our brain has reached its limit.. the limit is a cliff that drops off into the Unknown. You can go there.. but you will be confused. Where we can't figure things out, we use our imagination to work through possibilities. The possibilities part is about as far as I can get, and I really kind of like this part. It's an empty sort of unknown that never ceases to pique my curiosity. This is what makes living really valuable to me. I feel kind of lucky to have these tools even if I can't get any answers.