One more weekend has passed since last entry, oh these days are either packed or completely wasted doing close to nothing. I’ve been quite careless most of the time and haven’t really got back on track since last weeks blues, energy has been rather low, sleep bad and turning the nights into days and back again seems to be rather unhealthy in the long run. There was only one thing to do – the time had come to start sketching my prison break map, aka book a ticket outta here! I found a lot cheaper flight tickets to Mexico from London, and luckily the trains down there from Edinburgh presented some special offer prices, so all in all, I ended up saving more than 2000 Swedish Kr, flying from and to London. Best part is, the tube’s all the way to Heathrow from Kings X which is another thing I love about London – everything is so darn available and easy! I decided after a lot of debating to fly back home from Panama, other options would have been Bogotá, since one of my co-workers appears to be moving there at kinda the same time as I’m there! But hey, eight countries, or actually ten if you count the UK and Denmark, in three months, guess I could settle for that. But man, the more I read about the dangers and impossibilities of crossing the Darien Gap by foot, the more I just wanna do it. Surviving it and I’d be the coolest cat in town, get lost/killed/kidnapped and/or eaten and it would be a quite spectacular way to go! “Hey, whatever did happen to that chick Jessica you used to know? Well, she went into the Darien Gap and was never heard of again”. It’s kind of a win – win, except from my parents point of view.. Another thing I found out after booking the whole package was that another friend of mine I used to know back in my prime twenties is actually travelling the opposite way during the same months! Doesn’t that just makes you wanna believe in some kinda higher power? What are the odds that I’ve decided, of all places crossing my mind, to go exactly there, at the same frigging time that he, during a spin around the whole globe, happens to be at the same little thin strip of land? It’s a wonderful, wonderful world, as so rarely sung in modern pop music.

Apart from that, I ended up hosting a family of three for a night this weekend. The odd constellation was Swedish, Taiwanese and Japanese with some unidentified origin, but all very pleasant. I got home real late after working an event with a Rotary club (ehehe, talk about clash of civilizations, ha, Huntington, why not write about that instead of your fictional paranoia?) and had accepted a very well written request from this Swedish guy with his wife and 15 year old brother. It’s the first time I hosted that many people, but of course – the more, the merrier! They showed up at 2.30-ish, and I felt grateful they just wanted to go to sleep, same as me. The only thing I mind about is hosting is that it might seem impolite of me to stick to my usual sleeping hours. But yeah, once again I had trouble getting up before 11.30 this day.. Lucky the 15 year old seemed to share that inability! Having coffee and just talking to these people is the main reason why I love hosting – I can go sight seeing through the city and I can go out drinking up and down second long street, but just sitting down around the table and getting to know these strangers living in my house talking about shared and different interests is the best part. Turns out the woman was an amateur Buddhist like myself, the man designed awesome board games; his latest one about the housing market in Stockholm, another one called Texas nukem, combining Texas hold’em with a light version of Risk – brilliant! Having a conversation with a fifteen year old, completely open and unafraid to share his thoughts, intelligent and comfortable even in my strange company – makes me somewhat optimistic about future generations. Though it was a brief meeting for a few hours, it’s always invigorating and inspiring to host people, almost as much as the travelling in itself! However, I’m not exactly sad that I’ve finally booked my tickets! Hasta luego!