I have wanderlust!

It's a fine night, almost thirty minutes to 4th October 2009, and I'm barely started with wŏn'dər-lŭst'. I'm sure it's complicated to write but let's just all call it 'wanderlust', shall we not? Basically, wŏn'dər-lŭst' is the dictionary guide to pronouncing the word 'wanderlust'. The first time I actually became interested in this word was when I was listening to a song by the German band Tokio Hotel called Hilf Mir Fliegen. It contains a line that was emotionally sung by lead singer Bill Kaulitz, "Ich hab Fernweh, Ich will züruck." Translated, it means, "I have wanderlust, I want to go back." There and then, right in front of my laptop screen, I realized I have wanderlust and indeed, I want to go back. Back to where, you may ask? Back to where I believe I was from, and was meant to be, yet have landed somehow in the tropics of Singapore. Just kidding. I'm a happy Singaporean but my strong desire to venture further beyond my region has been begging me desperately to reach for the skies, push my limits and save every penny I come across since the summer of 2008 so that I can make it to what I assume would be my biggest adventure yet. Since then, since I've heard that line and truly understood 'wanderlust', I knew I was infected by that wicked virus, that unrelenting desperation to book a one-way ticket to somewhere in the romantic Bavarian Alps, the freshwater in Oslo, the breathtaking coasts of Athens, the hustling and bustling streets of Barcelona, the picturesque cafes in Paris or rolling ridges of Dublin . . . as long as it was in the Europe. If I could just take a whiff of that continent right now in exchange for my waist-long hair, I would. I have even been considering to chop it off for a while now after keeping it for two years. I promised myself before I visit Europe next summer, my hair would be short and straight. As of today, it is slightly curled at the bottom and it is more than a hassle to maintain. I will also dye it back to black, maybe a dark brown. When I am in Europe, I will be what I was born as, a true blue Singaporean with dark hair and a cheesy accent that puts any other kind of bad English to shame. All that, I will achieve in about ten months by summer, maybe less. It depends on how soon I finish my graduation project for the Mass Communications diploma I am now doing at MDIS Singapore.

Let me tell you a bit about myself. My name is Ezabel Dominique Siek and I am currently 18 years of age, turning 19 on January the 2nd. I have an unending lust for travel but unfortunately due to certain circumstances, I am denied this luxurious privilege since I reached my teenage years. For a long time, I have been piqued greatly by European culture, history, food, and people. I have watched countless movies and music videos in my life and have witnessed enough to briefly show me what Europe could really be like. My favorite that I can remember now as I write would be the Dan Brown series that was made into a movie, obviously titled 'The Da Vinci Code' and 'Angels & Demons'. It showed me how my predominantly favorite country France (and Italy, of course) can be full of mystery and history and adventure. However, my ultimate inspirational movie, the one that inspired me to take a chance years later, was titled 'The Spanish Apartment'. It is a movie whose characters have their life's stories intertwined, and all of them revolve around this main French exchange student who resided in Spain. A few quirky characters lived in one shared apartment and basically, it's every young adult's dream to live with so many kinds of people at once in an entirely foreign country with everyone speaking something other than English. Its sequel was titled 'Russian Dolls' and I loved it a lot, but not as much as the first which brought me the first experience of Europe I ever had. If I am right, I was no more than 14 at that time. My mother and I decided to rent the VCD at the local video store and there, the long-hidden wanderlust in me had been aggravated.

If you're somehow not excited yet, maybe try watching this trailer. Watch the movie as well. You'll love it. Don't ask me why I was watching an R-rated movie at 14 years. It was good, though.