2013-03-19 20:10:45-04
Wandering Earl 
Whenever I am living in one place for a good amount of time, let’s say a few weeks or more, I tend to be quite a clean and orderly individual. I always make my bed each morning, I keep my clothes in a closet or in drawers and I make sure that everything is in place before I head outside. If I cook some food, I always clean the kitchen soon after (sometimes even before eating) and after taking a shower, I make sure the bathroom floor is dry and spotless. I enjoy a clean room or apartment. It makes me feel good, especially when, at night, I climb into my bed after another long day out and about. Knowing that the space around me is in perfect order helps my mind remain calm and orderly as well. But… When I pack up my backpack again and hit the road, it’s an entirely different story. If I’m staying in some short-term accommodation, maybe a hostel or hotel or guesthouse or a room in someone’s house, I tend to destroy the place. I don’t exactly graffiti the walls or pick up the chair and smash the lamps and tables to smithereens, but in terms of my possessions, I can’t seem to keep them from scattering all over the room. And usually, it takes approximately three minutes after my arrival for me to turn the room into such a disaster area. 
I don’t know exactly why this happens. I can only guess. Perhaps it’s because if I was organized in these kind of places, I would feel too settled. It would start to feel as if I was staying long-term and of course, the more comfortable I am in a hostel or hotel, the harder it is to leave, naturally. But sometimes I want to leave and having to take my newly organized room and place it all back into my backpack becomes a difficult task. By creating a disaster zone instead, it becomes very easy to just pack up and take off to the next destination, even on very short notice. There’s no attachment, in the form of comfortable and organized surroundings, to my room at all. And this is why, only five minutes after arrival, my current room at the Rossco Hostel here in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, the hostel where the Wander Across Mexico tour group is staying, looked like this… 
So, are you an organized traveler or a messy traveler? If you haven’t traveled, what do you think you would be? And what does it all mean?
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