DC - My "Fernweh"

Old Chair 2
Photo by SB

Tomorrow I fly to Washington DC to present at a world conference. I am a bit nervous, but excited since I know what I am talking about and am ready. I am not cocky, just prepared. I am also comfortable with myself if things are not exactly perfect in my work.

As I get ready to fly out, I looked at the Wikipedia definition of Wanderlust again and found this interesting little tidbit.
"A more contemporary equivalent for the English wanderlust in the sense of "love of travel" would be Fernweh (literally "an ache for the distance")."

I love to travel. I love to be away from home. During my undergrad years I drove tour buses during the summer all over the American West and Canada. I drove fire buses and transported forest fire crews into the mountains of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, camping for weeks at a time in my bus. I've lived overseas for a cumulative year (mostly Germany and Spain), and now I am going to Washington DC for the second time.

This ache is in my bones. It is a deep hunger. It can pull almost as powerfully as sex and arousal. Last week I was in NYC. Today I was in SF. Tomorrow DC. I have both Wanderlust and Fernweh. My body aches to travel in the way it aches when I feel new love for someone. I love every part of travelling including the masochistic, or at least tedious, things like waiting for my luggage and waiting for my flight. I love the smell of airports, trains, and new cities. I love the feel of freshly cleaned and bleached hotel sheets (and yes they also have an erotic component in the olfactory senses because hotel sex is some of the best sex). I love finding little hole-in-the-wall restaurants that are happy to see you. So tomorrow, I hope I can get some relief for my ache for the distance.

Onto other thoughts -
The last time I went to DC was a week before Obama was elected. I am anxious to see the city now there is a new sheriff in town. I hope this next part does not come out wrong, but I sometimes feel his administration is being looked at by racists in the same way as the town folk of Rockridge looked at Sheriff Bart in the Mel Brooks classic Blazing Saddles. It is interesting how some people can not accept that our President is black. While I think it is time that ethnic diversity moved into the White House, I am happy that intelligence and diplomacy has moved in as well. I don't have to watch through my fingers covering my eyes in horror President Bush embarass us by speaking.