Really enjoyed this quick piece by Paul Theroux....
http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/travel/paul-therouxs-travel-wish-list.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&src=dayp
Particularly this paragraph... I just never really thought of it in that way before...
"The ultimate travel fantasies are, of course, unattainable. William S. Burroughs said in the 1950s, “What I want for dinner is a bass fished in Lake Huron in 1920.” In that spirit, I’d like to spend a Sunday in the West Medford of 1951, play bocce with my grandfather and eat some of my grandmother Angelina’s tortellini; I want to revisit the jolly bazaars of the Peshawar of 1973, the hopeful Nyasaland of 1964, the bike-riding China of 1980 (no private cars on the empty roads), and while I’m at it, I would like to return to the Borneo of the 1960s and again climb Mount Kinabalu."
Personally, I would want to go to church and then eat lunch with my grandparents in Spain. Or I'd want to work in the fields with my grandpa. I'd want to be surrounded by the activists of the 1960s in Berkeley. Travelling history... what a dream.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
I'm now a DC Metro Area Expat
On July 6th, 2012 I stepped out of the Dulles Airport in Virginia to the most overwhelming, body-engulfing humidity I have ever experienced. It was 6:55am. I had packed my life into two suite cases and moved across the country for a job in the corporate world. It was one of those, 'what did i get myself into this time' moments.
That's right, I now live in the DC Metro area. After graduating May 2012 and escaping to South America for 6 weeks, I made the move. No, I can;t say I haven't looked back. It i not because I dislike DC, or my job, or that I'm homesick. I just really appreciate value, adore obsess over how amazing California, more specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area is. Not many Cal graduates leave California for full-time work. For me, its a "if not now, when?" opportunity.
I live in Arlington, VA. It's right across the river from Georgetown, and driving over the bridge I get some of the most beautiful evening views of the glowing monuments overlooking the Potomac River. I've learned to really appreciate my surroundings--as I do any place, but I have to say, the melting pot of people you meet in DC has really opened my eyes to what exists in our county. I used to think I grew up in a suburb bubble in the East Bay, but really it surmounts to a California bubble.
There are many things that have struck me, surprised me, just made an impression on me. For example... I've never been around so many well dressed twenty-something boys before...Never seen so many salmon colored shorts or Sperry boat shoes. I've never met so many former veterans, current marines, or military personnel. I've definitely seen more American flags in the past 5 months than my entire lifetime living in this country. And of course, most of the people you meet will either work for the government, sell to the government, or fight the government.
DC is surprisingly beautiful. There are so many bike and running trails along the river, throughout Virginia or Rock Creek Park in DC. People are active. There is incredible amounts of green, and as I've always said, a city isn't complete without a body of water--in this case, the Potomac. The buildings are big--the national mall is just big building after big building. It's a cool place DC, its a cool place.
That's right, I now live in the DC Metro area. After graduating May 2012 and escaping to South America for 6 weeks, I made the move. No, I can;t say I haven't looked back. It i not because I dislike DC, or my job, or that I'm homesick. I just really appreciate value, adore obsess over how amazing California, more specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area is. Not many Cal graduates leave California for full-time work. For me, its a "if not now, when?" opportunity.
I live in Arlington, VA. It's right across the river from Georgetown, and driving over the bridge I get some of the most beautiful evening views of the glowing monuments overlooking the Potomac River. I've learned to really appreciate my surroundings--as I do any place, but I have to say, the melting pot of people you meet in DC has really opened my eyes to what exists in our county. I used to think I grew up in a suburb bubble in the East Bay, but really it surmounts to a California bubble.
There are many things that have struck me, surprised me, just made an impression on me. For example... I've never been around so many well dressed twenty-something boys before...Never seen so many salmon colored shorts or Sperry boat shoes. I've never met so many former veterans, current marines, or military personnel. I've definitely seen more American flags in the past 5 months than my entire lifetime living in this country. And of course, most of the people you meet will either work for the government, sell to the government, or fight the government.
DC is surprisingly beautiful. There are so many bike and running trails along the river, throughout Virginia or Rock Creek Park in DC. People are active. There is incredible amounts of green, and as I've always said, a city isn't complete without a body of water--in this case, the Potomac. The buildings are big--the national mall is just big building after big building. It's a cool place DC, its a cool place.
It is as if I had written this myself
I can relate to this article more than it makes me comfortable to admit. Check it out for a glimpse of my daily habits and thoughts. I probably do check kayak.com at least once a day, lonely planet once a week, and independent travel blogs constantly. But actually, though.
As a friend, Logan, once said "And I thought these were feelings/thoughts only I had--that they weren't so mainstream."
The Traveller's Curse--as told by travelers before us
Shared from traveler to traveler before me. What are your thoughts?
"Have you heard of The Curse of the Traveler? It definitely resonated with me, albeit now with technology and travel companions it can be mitigated. Enjoy the adventures! Love, your fellow obsessed traveller :)
An old vagabond in his 60s told me about it over a beer in Central America, goes something like this: The more places you see, the more things you see that appeal to you, but no one place has them all. In fact, each place has a smaller and smaller percentage of the things you love, the more things you see. It drives you, even subconsciously, to keep looking, for a place not that's perfect (we all know there's no Shangri-La), but just for a place that's "just right for you." But the curse is that the odds of finding "just right" get smaller, not larger, the more you experience. So you keep looking even more, but it always gets worse the more you see. This is Part A of the Curse.
Part B is relationships. The more you travel, the more numerous and profoundly varied the relationships you will have. But the more people you meet, the more diffused your time is with any of them. Since all these people can't travel with you, it becomes more and more difficult to cultivate long term relationships the more you travel. Yet you keep traveling, and keep meeting amazing people, so it feels fulfilling, but eventually, you miss them all, and many have all but forgotten who you are. And then you make up for it by staying put somewhere long enough to develop roots and cultivate stronger relationships, but these people will never know what you know or see what you've seen, and you will always feel a tinge of loneliness, and you will want to tell your stories just a little bit more than they will want to hear them. The reason this is part of the Curse is that it gets worse the more you travel, yet travel seems to be a cure for a while.
None of this is to suggest that one should ever reduce travel. It's just a warning to young Travelers, to expect, as part of the price, a rich life tinged with a bit of sadness and loneliness, and angst that's like the same nostalgia everyone feels for special parts of their past, except multiplied by a thousand."
"Have you heard of The Curse of the Traveler? It definitely resonated with me, albeit now with technology and travel companions it can be mitigated. Enjoy the adventures! Love, your fellow obsessed traveller :)
An old vagabond in his 60s told me about it over a beer in Central America, goes something like this: The more places you see, the more things you see that appeal to you, but no one place has them all. In fact, each place has a smaller and smaller percentage of the things you love, the more things you see. It drives you, even subconsciously, to keep looking, for a place not that's perfect (we all know there's no Shangri-La), but just for a place that's "just right for you." But the curse is that the odds of finding "just right" get smaller, not larger, the more you experience. So you keep looking even more, but it always gets worse the more you see. This is Part A of the Curse.
Part B is relationships. The more you travel, the more numerous and profoundly varied the relationships you will have. But the more people you meet, the more diffused your time is with any of them. Since all these people can't travel with you, it becomes more and more difficult to cultivate long term relationships the more you travel. Yet you keep traveling, and keep meeting amazing people, so it feels fulfilling, but eventually, you miss them all, and many have all but forgotten who you are. And then you make up for it by staying put somewhere long enough to develop roots and cultivate stronger relationships, but these people will never know what you know or see what you've seen, and you will always feel a tinge of loneliness, and you will want to tell your stories just a little bit more than they will want to hear them. The reason this is part of the Curse is that it gets worse the more you travel, yet travel seems to be a cure for a while.
None of this is to suggest that one should ever reduce travel. It's just a warning to young Travelers, to expect, as part of the price, a rich life tinged with a bit of sadness and loneliness, and angst that's like the same nostalgia everyone feels for special parts of their past, except multiplied by a thousand."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)