So, do you ever go a little crazy living on an island?

Um, well, actually no.  Before coming here, I spent two and a half years with intense wanderlust, sending students off to Japan, Costa Rica, Italy, Morocco, and other lovely places around the world.  I worked with students coming from India, Moldova, Bulgaria, Taiwan.  I envied them everyday and surrounded myself with them as much as possible with the hope that their internationalism would rub off on me.  Turns out, my itch was far too strong for simply the hand-me-downs of other travelers.

Currently, living on a 215 square mile landmass of which I have literally traversed at most a ten mile radius from where I live, I am like a pea in a pod.  I feared before coming here that after a few weeks I might begin to feel like a rat trapped in the cage, knowing that there was this huge outside world happening of which I could not be part (as I had felt for the last several years).  But, shockingly, here I am, content as can be.  And yes, I recognize content is easier when you are in a situation with a start and end date.  Nonetheless it is six months of my life which is being lived in basically a five mile radius (unless I trek up to the Highlands which adds the extra five miles, which I've only done once) and for once in a long, long time, I am living day-to-day and moment to moment.

Yes, my mind wanders from time-to-time about what's happening in the world outside and how exciting it will be to go see a movie in the theater and such, but for now the wanderlust has dissolved.  It was not simply the idea of living in another country I was craving, it was living in Latin America where I could speak Spanish, live a slower pace of life, challenge myself daily, transport myself via my legs instead of a car, forego dependence on a cellphone, and try a different profession for once.  I have all of the above.  And, so yes, although I long for feta cheese, hummus, Starbucks, libraries, theaters---right now the only thing crazy about this life is the reality and shock that I AM living on this beautiful island and that, literally and figuratively, it is paradise.