reverse culture shock

I can't tell if the more I travel, the more it helps or hurts my life. I always tell people that it is worth the while. But they don't call it the travel bug for nothing.

Once you return from travels, your world is upside down. The normalcies of home...your bed, a hot shower, and in my case, Chipotle...they are more wonderful than you have ever realized. You appreciate them more than ever.

You can't wait to catch up with friends you've missed while you were away. You have so much to say about your trip...how much you learned, how wildly colorful the scenery was, how you cried when you had to say goodbye to the wonderful people you met. Yet when your friend politely asks 'How was your trip?', all you can muster is 'Great.' You don't know where to begin. Your friend, who hasn't traveled, asks where your favorite place was. Again, how do you begin to tell them that it was everything? You just respond 'I don't know' and then your trip begins to sound lame and your friend changes the subject.

You told yourself on the trip how as soon as you got home, you'd change the world with what you learned. You'll trash the rest of your useless CD collection and those outfits you only wear once. You'll be the friendliest kid around and start up conversations with random strangers like you did while traveling. You'll volunteer more. You'll be more honest and apologize more. You'll watch less tv. You'll read more.

By the end of the week, you're back into your routine. Your roommates are as messy as they were before you left. People are way to caught up in their cell phones and Facebook...including you. Your clients need everything pronto. You've stopped practicing Spanish because there's no need for it now in 'Merica. Your stomach is no longer nauseous, so you can go back to eating way too much of bad food.

The littlest things become nonsense to you. Your boss disciplines you for not filling out your timesheet before you left...probably secretly jealous that you were gone so long. You're bored with your friends stories of how their boyfriend isn't giving them the time of day yet they refuse to break up. The apples in the grocery store aren't as exotic as the coconuts you picked from the foreign trees. Your co-workers rave about this TV show you missed. There are way too many people buying way too much plastic crap at Wal-Mart that will just end up in a landfill next year. Commuting is a waste of time. As was a boring first date over a cup of tea.

None of that matters. And no one understands it but you.

What really matters were those kids in Cambodia who begged you for a meal. Those bricks you stacked to form a house in El Salvador. That perfect sunset on your last day in Thailand. That delicious 25 cent vegetable wrap your friend shared with you in Laos. That Vietnamese man who gave you a ride on his scooter because your backpack looked too big to carry. That moment you walked up the subway stairs and saw the streets of Paris unfold before your eyes. That Turkish woman who knew English and gave you directions when you were lost. That first kiss in the pouring rain. That Indian family who slept on the floor so you could have the bed. That final run along the beach at low tide in Ecuador, while the crabs ran frantically to the water.

Somehow you have to merge the two worlds...the mundane and the adventure. Make the mundane adventurous? You want to change the world. You want them to see it how you've seen it. You want to inspire.

Thank you to those who get it. To those who have been there. To those who haven't been there but have followed as closely as they can. 

Taking apps!

My little feets are getting twitchy for some more world travels! Anyone who's interested, let me know!

Timeframe will be between Halloween and March 1. Preferred Thanksgiving and Christmas in the midwest. I'd love to visit a couple continents I haven't seen, like Africa and Australia, but I'd go back to SE Asia in a heartbeat. Maybe Europe fall, and winter/New Year further? Bueller? 

I could not have said it better myself...

http://www.highmowingseeds.com/blog/myanmars-floating-gardens-and-golden-buddhas-winter-farmer-travel-part-ii/

How was your trip? What was your favorite place?

Impossible to answer these questions. Perhaps that's why it has taken me two weeks to write...that, combined with jetlag (boo) and family ski trips (yeah!).

Since my last blog in Koh Phangan, Em headed home after a few days and Jess took her spot from then on. He rented a scooter, so needless to say the quiet lazy beach days were over...and I (first very much opposed, til my legs finally exhausted themselves on the 20% graded hills) hopped on the back of the scooter and we explored the island the rest of the days. I nearly got seasick on a jet ski, hiked my way up a narrow dry waterfall in flip-flops...and enjoyed a fantastic last day on the beach, breathed in the last of the warm summer night on the long scooter ride to the bungalow...silently saying goodbye to the journey.



I left Tuesday morning, nearly 48 hours before my arrival home. A .5 hour scooter ride, 2.5 hour ferry, 2 hour minibus, 5 hour wait in the airport (a very small airport, mind you), 1 hour flight to Bangkok, 1 hour airport transfer bus, 1 hour wait in the ticket line, .5 hour wait through security, 1 hour delay, 4 hour flight to Shang-hai, 2 hour security check then 6 hour layover to return back to the same airplane, 12 hour flight to LA, 1 hour layover, and 2 hour flight to HOME. Let's just say layovers on the way home are the worst, because at that point, the only thing on my mind was my cozy bed, and everything that wasn't my bed was getting in the way. My cranky self got hungry for specific food when the options were only processed convenience stores. Then when I was hangry again, I nearly drooled at a Burger King burger, then concluded I didn't have enough baht for the $8 burger (not including drink and fries). The indoor smoking rooms in Shang-hai airport must not have been properly sealed and my all-too-fancy doctor mask was not helping me much either. It took me a few of creepy stalkings to figure out how to dispense cold water from the fountains. Perhaps when I forget about my cranky attitude will I consider China for the bucket list. AND I'll stop. Wait, the food on the plane was a little sketch too...neon green desert, packaged radishes...and they've run out of wine after I received one round with an inch of wine...on a 12-hour flight? Ok now I'll really stop...

AMERICA! Alas! Crankiness is cured. My backpack and I wiz through customs. WELCOME HOME. Those words from customs get me every time! I walk to my terminal. There is a Starbucks directly after the security check. And everyone speaks English. And everyone is talking on their cell phones, probably about what happened on reality TV last night. I board my final plane of the trip, and my pilot greets me at the door. Everything is rainbows and butterflies at this point. I thought for a minute about questioning the smelly big dog that was on the plane a seat ahead and diagonal from me, but whatever, I was almost home!

And then there was my snowy little town. I ran out of the airport to say hello, guys behind me yelling remarks about my flip-flops. 40 degrees! Whatever! My heart's overflowing with warm fuzzies at this point! I hop on the bus...and at my stop, I practically skip home, 15kg is weightless now! I keep telling myself to expect the worst from my renters when I get home, so I can continue being pleasantly surprised. Nearly two weeks later now and I still can't get the silly boy smell out of my apartment. Men, take note. Irish spring does not equal manly mountain smell. Irish spring = YUCK. I may be used to hippie odor by now, but seriously. Yuck. Thankfully yesterday I spotted the culprit...a forlorn bar of soap behind a claw foot of my tub. Perhaps it was intentional to bring a sort of Irish freshness to the room...or to intentionally claw away at my senses. I have never scrubbed my apartment with so much cleaner and vinegar and cleaner and baking soda. Ironic, coming from lands of overflowing toilets where I was content in my flip-flops.

Jetlag was pretty bad the first couple days. I could stay up late (10/11pm), only to wake 4 hours later...WIDE awake! My older sister came to town the 2nd day...questioning why I was sleeping on the couch til noon then. It was definitely a rollercoaster ride like that! I was so excited to see my family again, even if it didn't show once I started dragging after every 3 hours. Conditions were great for skiing/boarding...a powder day followed with bluebird spring days. And delicious food (thanks Karen!) that my mouth was dreaming about in Asia.

Back to reality, family and friends will ask me exactly what I'd ask my traveling friends...how was my trip and what was my favorite place? Hopefully this blog has spelled out enough of my stories. I'm sure there are more that will surface with conversations. And perhaps you can decipher (even better than I) what my favorite place was. I can choose a favorite place in each country...each place was unique and beautiful in their own way. Like people. My favorite people are those who are in their element. Just being who they truly are. As much as I want these countries to be as well-off as America...I hope they don't lose their charm.

Kudos

When friends ask me about my reasoning behind this trip, my response is not clearly defined. I don't feel like I was trying to find myself. I think I am trying to take advantage of my life circumstances the fullest way possible. I'd like to give a shout out to those who made this happen...and to those who inspired me along the way.

This summer was my big 3-0. A few weeks before it, I had made a small and determined bucket list to learn how to mountain bike, longboard, and drive stick. I'd say I accomplished them all, even though my manual driving skills could use a lot more work. I decided then on that making small bucket lists in short time frames was the only way that I'd accomplish them, instead of making them too grandeous and for 'someday'. That's the relaxed procrastinator in me.

This summer I was fortunate to meet some friends with unique life outlooks as well. The first was so sick of losing himself to the daily grind that instead of just taking a vacation, he quit his job to travel. After all, you can always find a new job later! He was a vagabond for nearly a year, visiting friends and unique countries. He and other friends told me how a month in Thailand would be equal in cost to one week in Europe...if done right, it would cost less to travel around here versus live back in the states.

His inspiring book was The Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. I read that as well...my favorite takeaways from that being: do one thing a day that you fear and each day you will grow. And also, to take a bunch of mini retirements versus saving up for one big retirement when who knows what your situation or health will look like then. Time and tide wait for no man.

Another friend told me about the book A Milllion Miles In A Million Years by Donald Miller. After reading that I wanted to quit my job to create my best life story...because no interesting story starts in a cubicle.

During my Monday morning pipeline meetings at work, set for one hour but always dragging on for two, I'd drown out the others and make this my own personal pipeline meeting. After all, I was one of the only designers amongst the construction discussion. Most of the meeting did not pertain to san serif fonts and white space. I would make lists about where I would rather be than in those meetings. Looking back in my life what were my greatest work moments? Working in a coffeeshop or working on the farm. If I had a year to live, what would I be doing? Who would I spend it with? If I had a month to live, a week to live, a day to live. Every moment counts. Aside from this personal insight, this work meeting has just taken away two hours of my life.

My good friend whom I currently garden with was feeling the same feelings of escaping the 9-5 to start a farm. So we decided, along with her husband, to go for it. Next spring we'll start a farm! So from then on I'd make any downtime into researching what I'd do to startup this farm. Come fall I took the beginner farmer class with my friend's husband. I was planning to step down to part time at work when the farm started in spring, so when I was laid off, that changed everything.

Suddenly I had a couple weeks to spend with my family, instead of the few days for holidays. Then after that, instead of sitting around waiting for spring, why not travel before I have settled on a farm with a very small income??

I chose the places I did purely based on acute interest and how far my money would stretch. I wanted to visit each continent but realized that would be far fetched with money. Also, I chose some of the least romantic places since I'd be traveling mostly solo. I hope that my travels don't bring jealous eye...in fact, I hope people are able to laugh at and with me through my stories. And if I can inspire others to find what it is they truly want to do in life, their happiness makes me happy. It doesn't need to be travel. But I enjoy seeing others passionate about life and what they are doing, fulfilling their life dreams before retirement, even if its cleaning toilets. I've seen too many hours go towards complaining and that saddens me. Life is too short.

So huge shout outs to my friends and fellow farming partners, Christa and Dan for putting farm dreams to reality and still being so supportive of my travels. Although the growing season doesn't start until March, there's still a lot of planning and prepping that happens in the dead of winter. I'm excited to hit the ground running when I get back, as this is still very unreal to me that farming will be my full time job!!

More kudos to my supportive parents. Friends constantly ask how my parents reacted, and I just shrug. My parents have always given my siblings and I free will to explore and find our own way...offering insight or asking questions when appropriate. They never pressured us to be a certain profession, but encouraged where we had our God given talents...stopping us if they saw us making the same mistakes they did. I wasn't one to get bad grades, but if I did, they didnt give lectures, rather, they'd ask me if I had learned from the bad grade. So yes they did question why I wanted to travel, especially to the other side of the world and to poor countries. I encouraged them to come with! But realize they have their own places in mind if they were to travel anywhere...so next time :) for now they sent me off with lots of prayer which has been the ultimate love and protection.

Many kudos to my coworker friends back in Chicago who probably thought I'd get here in a boat. Or anything besides a plane. They encouraged me time after time about the safety of flying. And I was nuts for all those six hour drives to Minneapolis instead of the 30 minute flight. I would have them tell me about their worst flight experiences and how they had handled them...most importantly showing me that they had survived. I couldnt understand how some even LOOKED FORWARD to flights. It took me moving far away from family and having planes be the most practical mode of transport before it finally sunk in. I am forever grateful to them, as a whole new world has opened up before my eyes.

I want to thank all my friends and new travel friends who shared their travel experiences with me. Those who gave me ideas on where to go and what to do and what not to see. Cat for sending her travel itinerary and book suggestion for BA. Rajesh, not only for setting up an itinerary for me in India, but for being my guide in Mumbai and welcoming me into his family's home so i could experience the real welcoming beauty of India. To the fellow backpackers whose paths just happened to cross with mine, whether we'll ever cross paths again or not. You all (or from the Scottish term I just learned 'yous') were more helpful than any guidebook. Your stories much more relevant and colorful. It's the fellow travelers who have really shaped this trip into something worthwhile. You don't make goodbyes any easier, even in crazy SE Asia.

I'm gracious to have supportive friends like Keri and LB for being way too generous when I dog sat before my trip! And to my freelance clients who were understanding of a much needed vacation, who paid me way far in advance to have funds for this trip and not so much as make a peep to interrupt my time off. Thankful for my tenants for watching my place while I'm gone, and my landlord for being flexible with that arrangement.

I have felt so loved from those friends and family like you who are reading this and sending me words of encouragement and excitement. I don't feel like I've ever been alone on this trip as I open my inbox each morning and hear from you. I'm so blessed.

What would this trip be without my true travel companions, Jess and Emily. Jess for showing me the ropes on planning and booking everything. Something I DESPISE doing. So thanks for doing the dirty work. And for somehow always having great ideas like me so that we'd never argue, even though we should if we want to be advanced travel partners! Who would have thought when we would party together in college 10 years ago that we'd be a great travel match. For those of you with wandering minds, we are JUST friends!! promise. He loves Chicago, electronica, glow sticks, and the Packers. Not sure how we're even friends actually :) then there's my lovely Emily! I could not be more thrilled to do what we do best...catch up in the sand and water while discussing everything under the sun. My experiences and thoughts from this trip was a jumbled plate spaghetti...afterwards she helped me make sense of it all. She's so great with putting everything into perspective. Offering insight and laughter is her best tagline because its true! I haven't laughed like that in a long time. I think I have a six pack now :)

And last but not least...Greg! He fits into most all of these categories as a former Chicago coworker and friend who passed on words of wisdom. But probably the most insightful thing he shared, also the one I noted but thought I could forget...he told me to smile. Really? Well duh, I generally think I'm a happy person and smiling all the time. That is until, I found out, you see slums and pollution and just chaos in the streets and people just staring me down with a look. And just when you think you hear your mom calling and you have to go home...you WANT to go home...you smile. Even if its fake. And the glaring eyed person smiles back. And suddenly your smile softens into something more real. That's the secret!! That's it! No one can NOT smile when someone smiles at them. Heck, most people turn 180 on their motorbike in confusion to why this white chic is smiling at them. I distinctly remember getting overwhelmed a few times in cities...questioning why this country girl chose to be in these crazy cities in the first place. So I gave myself a pep talk to make the most of the situation...and smile. And suddenly I'd have the best day, feeling like I made someone else's day just with a smile. Greg, your advice has been paid forward, as I have now told other travelers this secret. They too have put it to practice and gotten the same positive reaction. Here on out I hope I don't come across as that quiet lonely person sitting in the corner, keeping to themselves, when there are travelers just a few feet away with stories to share over beer and Oreos...and who are waiting to hear my story as well.

Lessons of a simple traveler

Planes are my new bike. Airports are my new outlet source. I now sit in O'hare, on my 4 hour layover to Munich. Lots of thoughts processing from the last couple weeks, mostly just thoughts of when I can catch up in sleep! I probably should have slept instead of boarding yesterday but oh well. I explored back bowls I had never seen before, and of course, got super sleepy at the furthest point away from the base of the mountain! It was worth the few hours...even saw a little bit of South American flare.

I think back to when I was so nervous to travel...packing huge roller bags packed months in advance, dreading the flight, and overall making a huge deal of trips. Now that its become second nature, I wonder how these trips will look in my overall life picture. Just some trips or will they be life-changing?

I'm definitely learning little things here and there. Jess gave me a ton of pointers in Argentina that I can use while I travel solo this round. Help from others have been huge for this trip. It would not be possible without upper management laying me off, my coworkers and friends who encouraged me about the safety of flying, my friends who shared their travel experiences for the countries which I will see, and of course my lovelies who send me off and welcome me at the airport, with Starbucks and fresh fruit and the best hugs ever! How have I been so blessed? And how can I reciprocate?

The second thing I've taken away from this trip is learning to live more simple. I consider myself pretty good in this area, especially for a chic. But while I prepped for my subleasers, my closets are filled to the brim, just like in the movies...one open of the door and it will be messy. As the Four Hour Work Week book references, we only use 20% of our stuff, so why not cut out the excess 80%? Easier said than done. But I did pack lighter this time without my laptop or camera! Lets see how this pans out!

I understand that I have a skewed view, being unemployed...not sure if that puts me more or less in the 'real world' though. I'd like to think that I'm seeing the true meaning of life on this journey. And I realize in poorer countries that I have even less control of situations. Two of our buses and a taxi broke down, everything is dirty, there won't always be waffles when I want them!, I can't pick my hostel roommates, internet is slow, weather, businesses being open certain days of the week, subleasers settling into my apt, etc etc. Good thing I'm going to yoga countries! This will be great practice for the farm when we will have hardly any control! Maybe this trip is going to be life changing after all...

here goes nothing!

It's the feeling of driving up to the mountains on the biggest powder day of the year...sheer excitement. It's the moment you've been waiting for all year. You've planned, you've dreamed. That feeling of going to a big high school dance with the person you've always wanted to go with. The feeling of driving across the country to leave behind what you know to pursue your dreams.

The feeling of cold feet.

Few have seen me cry on those epic powder days. And trust me, they aren't good tears until my car tires are back on dry pavement. I've bailed on some great dates and wondered why they deleted my phone number. And as difficult as it always is to leave, the most difficult step always seems to pay off the most.

So yes, I'm stoked beyond words for my trips. I planned these for a reason and I can't wait for the follow through, knowing that these experiences will be probably more than I ever imagined. And yes, I'm nervous. What single female traveler wouldn't be?! Especially sharing my vague plans with family and friends...isn't it ok to fly by the seat of my pants?!

Speaking of family...it was great to see 'em for Christmas, even if I do wish it was longer so that I would get sick of them :) And Denver and friends, I love y'all, but I'm glad I haven't seen you this week because I hate goodbyes. Two months sounds like forever to leave a home I love.

And I refuse to look at snow reports and I will change all my friends' facebook snowsport photos into pictures of cubicles until my round-trip just so happens to bring me back for a couple *hopefully snowy* days :D

first souvenirs of the trip

three in each arm!
adult polio, yellow fever, japanese encephalitis, hep a+b, flu...just a few more to go :)

week two...trips booked!

After an unproductive couple days and circle discussions with travel agents to spend less than $3K on flights, my round the world flights are finally booked!

Here it is, starting December 29:

Dec 29: Denver >> Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jan 16: Buenos Aires >> Denver - crossing my fingers for a couple great powder days!
Jan 19: Denver >> Mumbai, India - via 22 hour layover in Munich, Germany
Jan 28ish: India >> Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
Feb 27: Bangkok >> Denver - just in time for the annual family ski trip :)

Send me a note if you have any recommendations on what to see or do...or if you want to join. I'd love travel partners!