Leaving tonight!

Finally got it together and booked an around-the-world ticket! I've wanted to do this forever and don't want to fall into the "I'll do it later" thing... Plus, I have to get it done before they tell me I'm "too old to stay in hostels" - gotta love bunk beds and wearing flip flops in the shower.

I have packed in as many continents/countries/cities as possible, in the next two months. Here is the current itinerary: Fiji, Australia, Bali, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt, Greece, Croatia, UK.

I leave tonight from LAX to Fiji (direct 11 hour flight)! Meeting Erin (one of my fabulous roommates, for those of you who don't know her) at LAX and we are off to Beachcomber island.

I'm working on a route map and pictures to come. I'll miss everyone and hope to hear from all of you!

In the meantime, for anyone who is contemplating doing any BIG trips or any sort of international travel, here is one of the best articles I've read in a while, hope you enjoy!

The Too-Weak Vacation
by Joel Stein; Men's Journal, October 2006

Wherever you go on vacation, one this is inevitable: You're going to run into a pack of drunk Australians arguing about some sport only they play. And they're not taking a long weekend, or calling in sick for the afternoon. No, they're taking a six-month holiday, or an entire year on walkabout. Aussies work less than Ben Affleck.

The French are almost as lazy, taking an average of 39 days off per year. In Sweden your bosses are required by law to give you 25. The Chinese, who can't have freedom of speech or second child, get three "golden" weeks. In fact, 96 countries have laws requiring vacation time, which was last under consideration in the United States under FDR.

When it comes to vacation we Americans are a passive, docile people. We accept our pitiful two weeks a year while the rest of the world takes off entire seasons. Even in Germany, where all they seem to do is work and drive too fast, the average worker takes 7.8 weeks off a year.

If you're reading this magazine, seven weeks off would not even begin to address your needs. It takes at least that long to summit Everest. And that two-month Antarctic dogsled trip you've always dreamed about? You better hope that sucker doesn't melt as fast as Al Gore says it will.

Yet most of our peers won't even take what little free time their corporate masters give them. The average American worker is allotted 14 vacation days per year but uses only 10 of them, because it's so important that we finish our PowerPoint presentations. You know that Swedish equivalent of a PowerPoint presentation? Me either, but it likely happens in a sauna.

Like everything else unfun about our country, this is all because of the Puritans. The scarlet letters are long gone, but we have yet to defeat their tireless work ethic. We are a fat, warmongering, porn-downloading people who nevertheless maintain that idle hands do the devil's work.

"We're in a competition to have less of a life than the next guy," says Joe Robinson, author of "Work to Live." Six years ago Robinson started a campaign to require companies to give us three weeks of paid leave, plus Election Day. "We have this phrase, 'Time is money.' But the meaning isn't what we think it is. It's the time itself that is the precious currency because our supply is so limited," say Robinson.

What he means is that we're all going to die, and it's better to die on vacation. Until then, vacations can help us lead better lives. One study showed that a lack of family vacation time leads to divorce, which leads to impoverished children. That's right: Your vacation actually helps poor kids.

It also helps your company. Studies have shown that job performance improves after a break; scans reveal that fatigued brains look just like sleeping ones. A nine-year study by two psych professors showed that vacations reduce heart attacks by 32 percent in men. Plus, longer vacations force companies to cross-train employees to do each others' jobs, which fosters team-building and, probably, hooking up.

Big business argues that mandatory vacation would lead to inefficiency (or, in Puritan terms, sloth). This is nonsense, as I realized on a recent trip to Australia. I expected it to be a mess: electricity flickering on and off, shops closed half the time, and waiters who can't get your order right. Kind of like L.A. But Sydney is like George Jetson's city. Everything sparkles and is equipped with toilets from the future. And these people are always on holiday.

We need to be more like Australia. Robinson is pushing mandatory-leave legislation, while also encouraging people to negotiate for extra vacation during the hiring process. To me, that's the wimpy way. Your bosses are not getting two weeks. They're taking off whenever they please. So is Congress. You should too, I say. For Four weeks a year, just don't show up. Leave the BlackBerry at home, load up the kayak, and dare the bastards to fire you. If it turns out someone in India can do your job via phone, it was time for a career change anyway.