Academicus Infinitus?

"as time passes, you have more and more things "over there" and less and less things right here...
Why does one engage in as big an endeavour as a postgraduate study abroad?
The ivy league brochure reason (higher earnings) doesn't quite cut it, not at least in Chibchombia, where a degree is a reason to turn you down, because of perceived earnings expectance (what they think you would charge). Of the other reasons that I can think of, the most plausible one is "the intellectual challenge". Having so many bloggers currently living the experience I have to ask: Is the challenge that cool a thrill, as to justify all of the effort that must go into it?
Is that really the reason?

I have to confess that when reading LOTR, I almost throw the book out the window after 20 pages of moronic Tom Bombadillic singing and chanting, and so I think it is a good move, from the film's point of view, to dissapear the character entirely.