MEET THE BUG

Wanderlust: a very strong, irresistible impulse or desire to travel the world

My name is Jorge Luís, and during htis journey I will be your correspondent and hopefully a window to another world. Here's some info about me, since my own history and experiences will surely influence and define the stories I'm about to tell.

I am 25 years old and I was born and raised in Fortaleza (Northeast Brazil), a beach paradise where everybody else dreams of spending vacations at. When I was 18 I moved to São Paulo to study International Relations at the University of São Paulo (USP). During the course, I have had a number of internship experiences, from a position in which I helped a company to find new markets for its ostrich-meat products, to a social entrepreneurship job in an NGO, until I discovered and fell in love with sustainability issues during my last internship. Besides, I've always loved languages, and have been working as a freelance English-Portuguese / Portuguese-English translator for quite some time.

Simultaneously, I've been involved for 3 years with AIESEC, a student organization that enables young people to discover and develop their leadership potential for a positive impact on society - using professional exchanges abroad as one of its primary tools to do so. There, I've had the pleasure of working as VP Exchanges in 2007 (and therefore taking care of dozens of Brazilians going to work abroad and incoming foreigners as well), a leading the USP chapter as Local Committee President during the next year.

By the end of my last year at university, I had to face the decision on which personal and professional path to take after leaving the Academia sanctuary. I have looked for and found a number of interesting exchange opportunities through AIESEC, but ended up being approved for and choosing to enroll into Unilever's Future Leaders Programme, in which I've been working with the subject I love, sustainability, while training for being a happy white-collar corporate leader someday. I've been there unitl this October 2012, from where this blog starts from.

I can't recall exactly when I first felt Wanderlust. Maybe I've been infected during one of the many car trips my parents have taken me into during childhood, leaving after midnight with no clear destination in my mind; or maybe for being carried all around the country by my mother to a number of professional congresses and seminars; ou maybe even falling in love with languages has made me interested in other cultures from an early age. The explanation I like the most, though, is that I simply happen to possess an infinite curiosity, and the world out there is too irresistible for me. Whatever the reasons, this feeling has been with me for most of my life: I was the weird kid who went directly to the "International" section of the newspaper, who wanted to know how were the USA elections going, among other stuff not even remotely connected with any of my little friends' interests; This feeling was also responsible for influencing many other defining decision in my lif, such as to take International Relations in college, participating in AIESEC (as I was attracted by the exchange opportunities), and certainly many others I can't even recall.

However strong it was, in practice I've always kept my wanderlust safely entrenched in the back of my mind: one day, I thought, I will have all the money, time and stability I need for travelling as much as I want. I was wrong. By age 25, despite having travelled quite a lot around Brazil, the only international trip I took were my 10-day backpacking through Uruguay and Argentina (really only Buenos Aires there), in the free time I got between being selected and starting my job at Unilever. Even though it was a short trip, I could taste a bit of the independent travelling I've always dreamed about - and frankly, it was delicious.


WHAT IS THIS BLOG ALL ABOUT:

By September 2012, in the wake of other life turn-arounds, I've decided to turn my old dream into reality: a long-term, open-ended trip, by myself, throughout the farthest corner of the world to me, both physically and culturally - Asia. The current plan is to pass through India, China, and most countris in Southeast Asia, exploring the region in my own terms, following my impulses and curisoity, in journey that will be as much of self-discovery as one of meeting new places, people and cultures.

Wanderlust Bug, as well as its facebook page, is my way of sharing this journey with the world; I want to share here not only the photos and beautiful places I'll discover, but my own experiences and personal take on the. There will be room for inpiration, description of things and places, philosophical rantings, yelling at difficulties, and everything else that makes travelling such an intensely human experience.

The Wanderlust Bug will be published in both Portuguese and English, for the benefit of my dear international friends - including the ones I'm about to meet during the journey. Within the INDEX tab, you'll find a complete summary of all posts published, separated by theme, enabling easy, direct access to every one of them in both languages. In RESOURCES, I'll try to post links for articles, websites, tps and all kinds of useful stuff for people interested in hitting the road.

Above all else, I wish to light, even if in just one person, a spark of the irresistible desire of going there and see.