When embarking on this trip, I expected to see amazing things, meet a whole slew of cool new people, and take about a million pictures. I knew I would learn about myself, about others, and about the world. But what wasn't I completely prepared for????
Read on......
The Great Depression:
As you know, Katy and visited 14 different countries in our 5.5 months. I was anticipating being excited as I entered each new country: what would I see, who would I meet? But what I wasn't prepared for was the sense of sadness that I experienced as I left each region. It happened more when we had flights between places (ie: the bus ride between Cambodia and Vietnam wasn't a monumental moment for me, and driving over the border of Wales and England was extremely uneventful (in fact, it wasn't even marked!).....but the day that I left Hanoi, Vietnam for Nepal took me on a completely unexpected emotional roller coaster. I'm pretty sure that I wrote about it in a previous blog post, but Southeast Asia had become our home for 6.5 weeks: we knew the routine, we saw the same people, we were acclimated to the 100+ degree heat.....it felt like a community that we belonged to....and venturing off into the unknown, where we would join up with a group of 10+ new people to hike in chilly weather for 10 days, was a daunting task.
After our depressing day in Hanoi, I figured the worst was over and next time, I would be prepared to leave whatever country I was in for my next destination.
Wrong.
For as settled as you can get in a place for 5 days or 2 weeks, we seemed to do so in each place.....and moving onto the next destination, while exciting, proved to be hard each and every time. The reason I write about one of the only "negative" aspects of this trip is so people who are planning are ready for the "travel day depression" that may come with the transition between countries. I actually looked at Katy while we were on the tube to Heathrow (headed to Iceland), and I said, "How come none of the RTW bloggers that I follow write about travel day depression?" So here it is--I am doing it :)
The positive? Without fail, every time we showed up in a new country, things obviously worked themselves out and we settled oursevles into a new routine.
To become so possessive of my belongings......
I wouldn't say that I developed selfishness....but something definitely happened over the past 6 months between me and my bags :)
Living in Chicago, I see homeless people on a daily basis. Whether they are pushing a grocery cart full of (what is in my mind) crap, or they have a death grip on a plastic bag filled with odds and ends, I always wonder why the hell they care so much about whatever it is they are so closely guarding.
Well now I understand.
Regardless of the fact that at first glance, my large pack may look HUGE (it just weighed in at 23.5 kg at Heathrow airport), and that my day pack is busting at the seams....I do not, at this moment, have a lot of possessions. These two bags that I have been lugging on my back around the world literally contain what has been my life for the past six months. They are my only belongings; they contain everything that I could possibly need over this trip- from my camera to a first aid kit to padlocks to hiking pants to contact solution to the (very) few odds and ends that I have picked up along the way. And when you have so few belongings to literally get you through your life, its not surprising how quickly you become quite protective of them.
Let's take this even further: could you imagine having a polite argument about whose Ziploc bag is whose? I bet Katy and I can :) The littlest possessions have become such a necessity that it is almost comical how possessive I am of them. Could you imagine using a small, cheap bar of soap for three days and then actually putting it in a baggie and bringing it with you across continents to use at the next destination? I can! That's my soap, man--and you bet your butt I'll save an entry on my budget spreadsheet when I don't have to buy a new bar of soap when I land :)
To become comfortable with the phrase "clean enough:"
Let's clarify. I have in no way crossed the lines of personal hygenie (save the week on Kilimanjaro, but what would you expect?). However, I have become quite comfortable with the phrase, "Eh, looks clean enough." Do I enjoy finding a rogue bug in a coffee or a bathroom here or there? Not really. And when did I abandon the habit of using antibacterial hand gel every hour? Pretty quickly into the trip (in fact, I am not even sure that I own any anymore). And does it now bother me to sleep on a pillow that most likely, someone else slept on the night before? Maybe a little, but not enough to prevent me from snuggling into the hostel bed at the end of the night and falling asleep faster than I can pull the blanket over myself.
But let's be realistic: we have been in a number of places that are not quite up to the cleanliness standards that we are accustomed to at home.....and the only way to really enjoy yourself in places like this is to forget about all the germ statistics you learned in nursing school and accept that some things will just have to be clean enough....And let's face it, my immune system definitely kicks ass now :)
And to finish off, a few unexpected skills I have acquired along the way:
Driving on the left side of the road: I may not be a pro, but the fact that Katy and I returned our rental car unscathed after our time in England, Scotland, and Wales (via a handful of single track roads, I might add) says a lot for us :)
The use of the squat toilet: We don't need to go into details, but the squat toilet is definitely not something I ever figured I would become comfortable using. Long story short, no big deal now :)
Distinguishing languages: I am no linguist, but I am far better at guessing which foreign language is being spoken next to me than I used to!
To think in metric. I am not completely fluent, but I am much improved from when I left at kilometers, kilograms (I know, I use it at work--but on a much smaller scale :), and the Celsius scale!
Up next for tomorrow: learn how Katy and I stayed friends this whole time :)
Read on......
The Great Depression:
As you know, Katy and visited 14 different countries in our 5.5 months. I was anticipating being excited as I entered each new country: what would I see, who would I meet? But what I wasn't prepared for was the sense of sadness that I experienced as I left each region. It happened more when we had flights between places (ie: the bus ride between Cambodia and Vietnam wasn't a monumental moment for me, and driving over the border of Wales and England was extremely uneventful (in fact, it wasn't even marked!).....but the day that I left Hanoi, Vietnam for Nepal took me on a completely unexpected emotional roller coaster. I'm pretty sure that I wrote about it in a previous blog post, but Southeast Asia had become our home for 6.5 weeks: we knew the routine, we saw the same people, we were acclimated to the 100+ degree heat.....it felt like a community that we belonged to....and venturing off into the unknown, where we would join up with a group of 10+ new people to hike in chilly weather for 10 days, was a daunting task.
After our depressing day in Hanoi, I figured the worst was over and next time, I would be prepared to leave whatever country I was in for my next destination.
Wrong.
For as settled as you can get in a place for 5 days or 2 weeks, we seemed to do so in each place.....and moving onto the next destination, while exciting, proved to be hard each and every time. The reason I write about one of the only "negative" aspects of this trip is so people who are planning are ready for the "travel day depression" that may come with the transition between countries. I actually looked at Katy while we were on the tube to Heathrow (headed to Iceland), and I said, "How come none of the RTW bloggers that I follow write about travel day depression?" So here it is--I am doing it :)
The positive? Without fail, every time we showed up in a new country, things obviously worked themselves out and we settled oursevles into a new routine.
To become so possessive of my belongings......
I wouldn't say that I developed selfishness....but something definitely happened over the past 6 months between me and my bags :)
Living in Chicago, I see homeless people on a daily basis. Whether they are pushing a grocery cart full of (what is in my mind) crap, or they have a death grip on a plastic bag filled with odds and ends, I always wonder why the hell they care so much about whatever it is they are so closely guarding.
Well now I understand.
Regardless of the fact that at first glance, my large pack may look HUGE (it just weighed in at 23.5 kg at Heathrow airport), and that my day pack is busting at the seams....I do not, at this moment, have a lot of possessions. These two bags that I have been lugging on my back around the world literally contain what has been my life for the past six months. They are my only belongings; they contain everything that I could possibly need over this trip- from my camera to a first aid kit to padlocks to hiking pants to contact solution to the (very) few odds and ends that I have picked up along the way. And when you have so few belongings to literally get you through your life, its not surprising how quickly you become quite protective of them.
Let's take this even further: could you imagine having a polite argument about whose Ziploc bag is whose? I bet Katy and I can :) The littlest possessions have become such a necessity that it is almost comical how possessive I am of them. Could you imagine using a small, cheap bar of soap for three days and then actually putting it in a baggie and bringing it with you across continents to use at the next destination? I can! That's my soap, man--and you bet your butt I'll save an entry on my budget spreadsheet when I don't have to buy a new bar of soap when I land :)
To become comfortable with the phrase "clean enough:"
Let's clarify. I have in no way crossed the lines of personal hygenie (save the week on Kilimanjaro, but what would you expect?). However, I have become quite comfortable with the phrase, "Eh, looks clean enough." Do I enjoy finding a rogue bug in a coffee or a bathroom here or there? Not really. And when did I abandon the habit of using antibacterial hand gel every hour? Pretty quickly into the trip (in fact, I am not even sure that I own any anymore). And does it now bother me to sleep on a pillow that most likely, someone else slept on the night before? Maybe a little, but not enough to prevent me from snuggling into the hostel bed at the end of the night and falling asleep faster than I can pull the blanket over myself.
But let's be realistic: we have been in a number of places that are not quite up to the cleanliness standards that we are accustomed to at home.....and the only way to really enjoy yourself in places like this is to forget about all the germ statistics you learned in nursing school and accept that some things will just have to be clean enough....And let's face it, my immune system definitely kicks ass now :)
And to finish off, a few unexpected skills I have acquired along the way:
Driving on the left side of the road: I may not be a pro, but the fact that Katy and I returned our rental car unscathed after our time in England, Scotland, and Wales (via a handful of single track roads, I might add) says a lot for us :)
The use of the squat toilet: We don't need to go into details, but the squat toilet is definitely not something I ever figured I would become comfortable using. Long story short, no big deal now :)
Distinguishing languages: I am no linguist, but I am far better at guessing which foreign language is being spoken next to me than I used to!
To think in metric. I am not completely fluent, but I am much improved from when I left at kilometers, kilograms (I know, I use it at work--but on a much smaller scale :), and the Celsius scale!
Up next for tomorrow: learn how Katy and I stayed friends this whole time :)
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