Whats it like to be home?
Its good......different, but good.
By now, I have caught up with most of you at home...and there seems to be a common thread of questions that I figured I would answer for everyone on here.
First of all, the basics: What am I doing now that I am back?
Well, I was already re-hired at my job with a start date of August 6th, giving me just shy of 2 weeks when I returned home to try and reorganize myself. I spent that time hanging out with my parents, visiting my brother, enjoying one of my best friend's weddings, and furiously hunting for an apartment.
Luckily, everything fell into place in due time (as it always does :), and I settled into my (wonderful!) new apartment the very end of August. I am officially completely unpacked, about 90% organized, and am definitely back in the rhythm at work.
And now, the dirty details.....
I had an interesting conversation with one of our family friends a few weeks ago during which he asked me what the "lowlights" of the trip were. I started to say Vientiane (the dirty town in Laos that we heaved-ho out of ASAP), but then I remembered the wonderful experience we had at the COPE center while we were there, making it (albeit not a great city) a good experience for me.
After this answer, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Come on, give me the dirt. There had to have been some crappy times....."
So I thought harder, try to conjure any negative experiences we had during the trip, because EVERYONE has asked me that since returning home.
And honestly, I really can't think of any.
The sweatiest, longest bus ride (see Stories From the Back of the Bus) of my life was certainly not something that I had on my list of "must-do's" when I left for a 6 month journey, but out of it I got a wonderful story, a pretty funny blog post, and a new friend :)
The only time that I felt even the tiniest bit unsafe (while on a dala dala just outside of Arusha, Tanzania) turned out to be a good experience in that I learned to have a little more faith in the people around me, because even in a not so great town, in the dark, stuffed into the back of the local transport, with my computer on my person (stupid!), there were locals watching out for us who were willing and able to help despite the language barrier.
Then I started thinking about why. Why can't I remember anything as "BAD?"
And the I realized that without knowing it, Katy and I had such a "glass half full" attitude throughout the trip that we didn't even allow for bad days.
I was reminded of the day that we came off the mountain (Kili). We ran into some German guys back at the post-hike hotel, completely high on adrenaline (even after 20 or so hours of hiking in the past 2 days) due to our summit success. We had seen the Germans the day we got on the mountain as well, so naturally, we asked them how their hike was.
I was shocked. The one that responded seemed irritated as he said, "Well, it was alright. But it rained the whole time and it was so windy and cold and rainy that we just got up and down as fast as we could so that we could get back." Katy and I looked at each other in awe as we told him that it really didn't rain for us and we cherished every moment.
How is this possible? Well, let's start with one fact: They climbed a different route than us, and the route we picked does offer less precipitation than the route they used. HOWEVER, it is still the same mountain and its just not possible that these guys got poured on for 7 days and we got nothing. So then we started thinking. Maybe it rained more than we realized? We thought long and hard and came to the conclusion that it rained for between 1 and 5 hours each day. I guess thats a decent amount of rain. But here's the thing:
We went into this hike knowing it was the rainy season. In my head, I was prepped for heavy rain all day, every day. Guess what though? Only rained a bit each day....and the times that it wasn't raining it was sunny and beautiful. So in my head, the hike was a complete success with perfect weather.........thus reinforcing one of my beliefs that life is about 30% what happens and about 70% how you perceive it.
I guess my point is that whatever you are doing, picture it the way you want it to be. It may not turn out that way exactly, but there is a good chance that your attitude can influence the outcome.....
What Now??
Funny thing: I think most people (myself included?) thought I would go on this trip, the "itch" would be scratched, and I would nestle back into home life in Chicago and stay put for a while. Well I think anyone who does long term travel would have laughed at me for even typing this notion, and they would've been right.
Do I miss it?
YES!
Do I seriously miss hostel beds, not knowing if my bus may or may not have air conditioning and/or breakdown, not knowing if any of the next 30 people I run across will be able to speak the same language as me, wearing the same clothes every day, etc, etc?
Every day.
While there is something reassuring about knowing in advance where you are going to lay your head at night and knowing that you don't have to carry a 50 pound pack around (potentially for multiple hours at a time), there is also something very mundane about the day to day life here.
It is sad knowing that you probably will go about your daily life and NOT meet anyone from a different country who wants to sit, have a beer, and talk about life. It is utterly overwhelming watching people sit around on their IPhones while in a group setting instead of shooting the shit with the human beings in front of them (and no, I don't have an IPhone...I don't even have internet on my phone).
So what am I going to do about all this?
At the moment, I'm unsure. For now, I am enjoying the company of those that I love and channeling any negative thoughts towards positive travel concepts: ie: future trips/projects, and groups that inspire others to do long term travel (ie: I am attending a Meet Plan Go event next week!).
In summary, coming home is obviously a big adjustment for anyone who has done long term travel....and I know I just have to rediscover my place back here in Chicago....and I'll get there eventually. In the meantime, stay tuned to the blog for future travel plans as I rebuild the travel bank by working mass amounts of overtime :)
And as one final side note: I have, officially, looked at every single one of my 27,000 pictures from my trip AT LEAST once.....not bad, huh?
Its good......different, but good.
By now, I have caught up with most of you at home...and there seems to be a common thread of questions that I figured I would answer for everyone on here.
First of all, the basics: What am I doing now that I am back?
Well, I was already re-hired at my job with a start date of August 6th, giving me just shy of 2 weeks when I returned home to try and reorganize myself. I spent that time hanging out with my parents, visiting my brother, enjoying one of my best friend's weddings, and furiously hunting for an apartment.
Luckily, everything fell into place in due time (as it always does :), and I settled into my (wonderful!) new apartment the very end of August. I am officially completely unpacked, about 90% organized, and am definitely back in the rhythm at work.
And now, the dirty details.....
I had an interesting conversation with one of our family friends a few weeks ago during which he asked me what the "lowlights" of the trip were. I started to say Vientiane (the dirty town in Laos that we heaved-ho out of ASAP), but then I remembered the wonderful experience we had at the COPE center while we were there, making it (albeit not a great city) a good experience for me.
After this answer, he looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Come on, give me the dirt. There had to have been some crappy times....."
So I thought harder, try to conjure any negative experiences we had during the trip, because EVERYONE has asked me that since returning home.
And honestly, I really can't think of any.
The sweatiest, longest bus ride (see Stories From the Back of the Bus) of my life was certainly not something that I had on my list of "must-do's" when I left for a 6 month journey, but out of it I got a wonderful story, a pretty funny blog post, and a new friend :)
The only time that I felt even the tiniest bit unsafe (while on a dala dala just outside of Arusha, Tanzania) turned out to be a good experience in that I learned to have a little more faith in the people around me, because even in a not so great town, in the dark, stuffed into the back of the local transport, with my computer on my person (stupid!), there were locals watching out for us who were willing and able to help despite the language barrier.
Then I started thinking about why. Why can't I remember anything as "BAD?"
And the I realized that without knowing it, Katy and I had such a "glass half full" attitude throughout the trip that we didn't even allow for bad days.
I was reminded of the day that we came off the mountain (Kili). We ran into some German guys back at the post-hike hotel, completely high on adrenaline (even after 20 or so hours of hiking in the past 2 days) due to our summit success. We had seen the Germans the day we got on the mountain as well, so naturally, we asked them how their hike was.
I was shocked. The one that responded seemed irritated as he said, "Well, it was alright. But it rained the whole time and it was so windy and cold and rainy that we just got up and down as fast as we could so that we could get back." Katy and I looked at each other in awe as we told him that it really didn't rain for us and we cherished every moment.
How is this possible? Well, let's start with one fact: They climbed a different route than us, and the route we picked does offer less precipitation than the route they used. HOWEVER, it is still the same mountain and its just not possible that these guys got poured on for 7 days and we got nothing. So then we started thinking. Maybe it rained more than we realized? We thought long and hard and came to the conclusion that it rained for between 1 and 5 hours each day. I guess thats a decent amount of rain. But here's the thing:
We went into this hike knowing it was the rainy season. In my head, I was prepped for heavy rain all day, every day. Guess what though? Only rained a bit each day....and the times that it wasn't raining it was sunny and beautiful. So in my head, the hike was a complete success with perfect weather.........thus reinforcing one of my beliefs that life is about 30% what happens and about 70% how you perceive it.
I guess my point is that whatever you are doing, picture it the way you want it to be. It may not turn out that way exactly, but there is a good chance that your attitude can influence the outcome.....
What Now??
Funny thing: I think most people (myself included?) thought I would go on this trip, the "itch" would be scratched, and I would nestle back into home life in Chicago and stay put for a while. Well I think anyone who does long term travel would have laughed at me for even typing this notion, and they would've been right.
Do I miss it?
YES!
Do I seriously miss hostel beds, not knowing if my bus may or may not have air conditioning and/or breakdown, not knowing if any of the next 30 people I run across will be able to speak the same language as me, wearing the same clothes every day, etc, etc?
Every day.
While there is something reassuring about knowing in advance where you are going to lay your head at night and knowing that you don't have to carry a 50 pound pack around (potentially for multiple hours at a time), there is also something very mundane about the day to day life here.
It is sad knowing that you probably will go about your daily life and NOT meet anyone from a different country who wants to sit, have a beer, and talk about life. It is utterly overwhelming watching people sit around on their IPhones while in a group setting instead of shooting the shit with the human beings in front of them (and no, I don't have an IPhone...I don't even have internet on my phone).
So what am I going to do about all this?
At the moment, I'm unsure. For now, I am enjoying the company of those that I love and channeling any negative thoughts towards positive travel concepts: ie: future trips/projects, and groups that inspire others to do long term travel (ie: I am attending a Meet Plan Go event next week!).
In summary, coming home is obviously a big adjustment for anyone who has done long term travel....and I know I just have to rediscover my place back here in Chicago....and I'll get there eventually. In the meantime, stay tuned to the blog for future travel plans as I rebuild the travel bank by working mass amounts of overtime :)
And as one final side note: I have, officially, looked at every single one of my 27,000 pictures from my trip AT LEAST once.....not bad, huh?
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