Lessons learned
All of our possessions in South America
Originally uploaded by blmurch. A couple of different people have asked me to put my introspective hat on and ask myself who(hehe) how I have changed. What have I learned through this/these journey(s)? We have been traveling for nine months now - three in the USA and the rest of the time here in Latin America. It has been quite a trip in all senses of that word. Being with Kragen so intensely has changed our relationship, intensified it. We are more in love with each other, if possible! We value our independence and alone time like you wouldn't believe and we love meeting and interacting with new people a lot. We see a lot of our unpleasant sides - more often than I would like - but there are stresses and our sleep schedules get messed up easily. When you don't have a job it is very simple to stay up all night online, reading, coding or what-have-you. Having some obligations, even if they're just errands, is a really good thing to keep us balanced. We are somewhat both extroverts and introverts. Kragen is amazing at meeting new people and I am learning to be less fearful and have confidence in myself that indeed people will find me interesting to talk to.
Our Spanish is improving every day and we are getting complemented more and more on our l33t language skilz! Now, I don't know if that is because people have such low expectations of Americans abroad, or if it is because we talk good ;-) but it is nice to get the complement. Kragen rightly points out that we will know we are speaking really well when people no longer comment or feel the need to comments on how well we speak Spanish. I am getting better with reading Spanish and it improved my conjugating because people don't use the pluperfect and subjunctive very much in conversations.
I am learning that I enjoy/tolerate traveling much more than I anticipated. It is so awesome to discover new-to-us areas and meet new people and learn new accents. I am getting a bit travel weary though and do want to settle down soon. But, I also want to explore as much as we can because I think that we won't be doing much traveling once we settle down, but who knows, huh?
I can live with *a lot* less stuff. A lot. Of course, it is different when restaurants and hotels/hostels/apartments take care of the kitchen/bedroom stuff and come furnished. But really, day to day living is simple. We do laundry a bunch and fix our clothes as need be and buy when we *have* to, but really we don't carry that much stuff around. We don't shop very much because we don't want to lug around more crap than we have to. What we do have is heavy enough already.
Possessions come and go. Nothing is permanent. Things get lost & stolen and while it is inconvenient, it is not the end of the world. It is important to put things back where they belong soon after usage to minimize loss, but still it's not the end of the world when things go missing. We have our health, each other and contact with loved ones.
Communication is important. I crave comments on entries and photographs as I don't want to loose touch with family, friends and loved ones. Writing is hard, especially when I feel I have to perform - live up to some standard no one imposed on me, except my head! Stupid head. I don't want to forget what we have experienced, but I don't want to inundate people / bore people either. Sometimes I think of other people too much to my own detriment. I.E. public displays of affection embarrass me now - they didn't used to - because in the back of my head I'm wondering who in their right mind wants to be exposed to Kragen and I kissing in public? But then whenever I see a couple kissing and/or caressing I think "awwww, how sweet". So what gives, huh?
I don't like sleeping in dorms with bunk beds as that means hardly any snuggling and even less sex. I like sleeping with Kragen -- my skin breathes him. I don't know how else to explain it. Spooning is the shiznit!! We are in a matrimonial here in Montevideo and are making up for lost time in Buenos Aires hostels. The great thing about the hostels is the companionship of new people. I love recognizing people as I walk down the street. It makes me feel connected and I like that.
People are the same all over. People, the stereotypes exist for a reason. There are really cool people all over and assholes all over and every stripe in between. Mostly though, people are nice, and interested in learning about us as much as we are about them. Exchanging ideas brings people to life. Politics get people riled up and politicians everywhere are corrupt and people love to complain about that. Most everyone doesn't like the current US administration and strangers on the street in Venezuela hugged us when we said we didn't like bush. People are very quick to tell us how dangerous things are in their corner of the world, but we have been mostly lucky. Kragen's laptop robbery sucked big time, but we are making do sharing mine. I'm running out of space though. 60 gigs ain't enough. That's insane!
I need to learn how to write shorter entries so that people will read and comment and not be overwhelmed by the length and ignore what I write. But it is hard when there is so much I want to say.
Drinking a full thermos of Yerba Mate between 9 & 10 PM is a bad idea. Remember to drink it during the day and stop around 6 or 7. Sleep has been elusive and writing has been a bit manic/prolific.