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Travel for a couple of months. That is my plan directly after Graduation. Preferably, I would love to go to Southeast Asia, India, Australia, New Zealand, and later on to Central and South America. My trip should be a mixture of adventure, beach life, experiencing different cultures and people, backpacking from hostel to hostel, and some camping in the remote places I plan to visit. At least I have lots of time in Graduate school to dream about my big trip afterwards, with Cosmopolitan Club the ideal base camp for dreaming. When I wake up I can nourish my dreams by studying the world map which is hanging in our living room. I can always talk with my housemates about these exotic places, as exotic for me as Europe is for them. And every week during coffee hour I learn more about another country and meet a lot of nice people from all over the world. It is always easy to make friends here at Cosmo and get away from Champaign, and a trip beyond the corn fields can be pretty easily arranged. Over spring break I was away in Mexico in Baja California. The purpose of my trip was to do business and attend a conference in San Diego. As the conference was over right before spring break, I moved out from my fancy university-paid hotel into the international hostel at San Diego. Of course I made friends right away and the next day some Australians, another German, and I made plans to cross the border at Tijuana and travel south into Mexico. This is what we did and it was a great trip. We experienced something different every day. The Australians had been traveling already for six months. My getaway lasted only for spring break. The cool thing when you meet backpackers and people who like to travel is that you have always something to talk about. We were always talking about previous trips and adventures while being in the middle of a really cool adventure. When you are international, it is easy to find a lot of things in common with people who like to experience different countries, cultures, and people. All this international exposure, as well as my many trips taken during semester holidays and weekends help me to get a lot of self-confidence and to believe my dream will become reality one day. I strongly feel that I will have a great time on my big trip, will always meet new and interesting people, and will learn firsthand that there are so many alternative ways to have a happy life. Essentially, this is what I do here everyday at Cosmo: meet people from all over the world and be open-minded and excited about a world full of diversity. Of course I am still confined within the secure boundaries of Graduate school, but I will graduate one day. Then my cosmopolitan adventure will continue and I will experience all this places I see on the world map every morning at breakfast.
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