Chronicles of a Shoemaker's Daughter

 “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” –  St. Augustine I don't get to travel more than about once a year.  I wish it were more ... and at times, I wish I could break loose from the relative safety of visiting the same destination year after year.  I long to broaden my perspective by turning the page and delving further into the book that is our big, diverse globe.  Yet, the beauty of visiting same destination again and again lies not just in the geography, topography, flora, fauna and warm blue seas ... indeed not!  What makes returning both familiar and exciting, is the people!  You never know who you will meet.  Locals, ex-patriots and visitors alike are as diverse, multi-faceted and interesting to me as if I had taken a round-the-globe 6-month sabatical, exploring a multitude of countries.  All in one little microcosm ... with a land mass of barely100 square miles, and only 8 miles across it's widest poi...

In January, I found myself feeling a little lost and unfocussed.  The end of my grad school journey was somehow anti-climactic and downright depressing. Mostly because I kept waking up each morning programmed to research, proof-read, type, read, process, analyze, churn out reports ... well, you get the drift.  I was struggling to shake off the invisible yoke that had me in a choke-hold for almost 2 years, and unable to really move forward, because I didn't have a full-time job to slide back into, as most of my classmates did.   Moving forward was what I had yearned for so many long months, but it seems it was, and still is, hampered by the fact that the actual graduation ceremony is not until June 14th of this year.  That's a long time to wait, especially when a big celebration is in order.  Getting my Masters Degree after all this time, is indeed cause to celebrate in my book.  So, debt worries aside, I found a way to combine work and travel.  In ...