Traveling with Depression

[jimhines]

I’ve talked before about dealing with depression. Last week’s trip to Buenos Aires, combined with next week’s trip to France, got me paying attention to the ways depression impacts and is impacted by travel, especially bigger trips like these.

It hit me the most on my first day in Buenos Aires, after I’d been dropped off at the hotel. I was

Comments

[markbernstein]

I don't know if this will be useful, but I've been to Paris on business, and I encountered very little of the rudeness that Parisians are supposed to display towards Americans. I think the secret was that I would routinely start encounters with some form of "Pardon, je suis American. Je ne parles pas Francais. Parlez-vouz Anglais?" By acknowledging that my lack of French was a shortcoming on my part, I took myself out of the "Ugly American" category.

In my case, I did take French in high school, so while I couldn't keep up in an actual conversation, I did pretty well with ordering in a restaurant or buying something in a shop, so that helped, too.

I don't recall the if or where of a McDonald's in Paris itself. But I remember there being one when I got off the train when I went to visit Versailles. :) If you can manage it, you'll do much better if you just go into any small bistro for lunch, and ask for the plat du jour.

[kaph]

That totally sucks, and I'm sorry. What a lovely interaction with that woman at McDonald's, though! It's got me smiling, too. :)