Someone's home!
This poor blog was started as my "travel exclusive" site and lasted barely a year before life got complicated and it was put on the back-burner. As with most blogs, they are equal parts narcissism and altruism. Who really cares about what we have to say? And yet we continue to write to an audience we think wants to read about what we have to say. It's a tricky business, especially when you run out of time to say the things you want to say.
2010 was a great year. It would be the final year of my employment in Shanghai, the final year of travel within our most beautiful motherland, China. In an effort to see everything left on my China bucketlist, I went a little mad: Anhui, Macao, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Chongming, Hunan, and a dream come true, the Silk Road (Gansu to Xinjiang!). I finally saw Vietnam and Cambodia, the latter being one of the most incredibly magical places I've ever seen.
In 2011, I decided to leave Asia after calling it home for 7 years. Without a job to hold me back, I decided to make it a good year. Borneo, Korea, India, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan. I led a family tour of China (10 people, 2 weeks), completed my Province (minus Tibet) tour of China with Yunnan, and said goodbye to Shanghai, my love, my heart, and my world for almost a decade.
Returning home after such a long time is jarring. One of the most confusing experiences in my life. It took me months to stop bowing and head-nodding to people in public, months to stop handing my credit card to the cashier with both hands, months to learn how to *slow. down* and breathe fresh air. I sort of reverse-touristed, rediscovering (or seeing for the first time with global eyes) America and learning how to be American again. I got very micro, exploring the nooks and crannies of New England -- my home -- and visiting places I'd taken for granted for the first 3 decades of my life. I explored Washington DC and realized that -- despite our lack of history and culture, comparatively speaking -- we have quite a wealth of awesomeness in the USA. I even went to San Diego Comic-Con, which would have been a fantastic event to write about, had I kept this blog running.
But sometimes life happens. In the fervor of saying my goodbyes, saying my hellos, traveling here and there and back again, I just didn't have the time or energy to update my blog. If you're reading this, maybe you know what I'm talking about and are nodding your heads. We have family, friends, jobs, lives. I want to write all the time (seriously) but sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I forget, sometimes it's the very last thing I want to do when I get home at night. And I regret that.
Looking back, however briefly, on the 5 years since I last updated this blog, I see how much my life has changed. And yet, I also see things that I couldn't have known at the time. As my travel fever hit its peak in 2010-2011, I had no idea that it would come to a relatively screeching halt. Once the novelty of "being home" wore off, I had plans to write a book. I still have these plans, but as I mentioned in my previous "excuses" paragraph, life keeps happening. I spent months editing, writing, sprucing up, re-living, remembering... and then I got a job. A completely unexpected and completely life-changing opportunity. I became a teacher. And then I became a counselor. And now, half a decade later, I remember that I love the written word, I love sharing my experiences and advice with those who will entertain my musings, and above all, I love spreading happiness and knowledge. And as I look back on all the trips and travel that I wish I had written about, both for posterity and remembrance's sake, I remind myself that the core of each experience is still held deep within. I've surely forgotten the smaller details, the minutiae that would make for outstanding advice to fellow travelers and trip-planners, but the energy, love and enthusiasm that I felt with each new discovery will always be there. So I'll write about that. And hopefully there will be someone out there who, like me, is searching for something a little different when planning that trip with friends, a loved one, or a large group of demanding, high-maintenance family members who expect the trip to be absolutely perfect. A little pressure and push in the right direction for all of us.
This poor blog was started as my "travel exclusive" site and lasted barely a year before life got complicated and it was put on the back-burner. As with most blogs, they are equal parts narcissism and altruism. Who really cares about what we have to say? And yet we continue to write to an audience we think wants to read about what we have to say. It's a tricky business, especially when you run out of time to say the things you want to say.
2010 was a great year. It would be the final year of my employment in Shanghai, the final year of travel within our most beautiful motherland, China. In an effort to see everything left on my China bucketlist, I went a little mad: Anhui, Macao, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Chongming, Hunan, and a dream come true, the Silk Road (Gansu to Xinjiang!). I finally saw Vietnam and Cambodia, the latter being one of the most incredibly magical places I've ever seen.
In 2011, I decided to leave Asia after calling it home for 7 years. Without a job to hold me back, I decided to make it a good year. Borneo, Korea, India, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan. I led a family tour of China (10 people, 2 weeks), completed my Province (minus Tibet) tour of China with Yunnan, and said goodbye to Shanghai, my love, my heart, and my world for almost a decade.
Returning home after such a long time is jarring. One of the most confusing experiences in my life. It took me months to stop bowing and head-nodding to people in public, months to stop handing my credit card to the cashier with both hands, months to learn how to *slow. down* and breathe fresh air. I sort of reverse-touristed, rediscovering (or seeing for the first time with global eyes) America and learning how to be American again. I got very micro, exploring the nooks and crannies of New England -- my home -- and visiting places I'd taken for granted for the first 3 decades of my life. I explored Washington DC and realized that -- despite our lack of history and culture, comparatively speaking -- we have quite a wealth of awesomeness in the USA. I even went to San Diego Comic-Con, which would have been a fantastic event to write about, had I kept this blog running.
But sometimes life happens. In the fervor of saying my goodbyes, saying my hellos, traveling here and there and back again, I just didn't have the time or energy to update my blog. If you're reading this, maybe you know what I'm talking about and are nodding your heads. We have family, friends, jobs, lives. I want to write all the time (seriously) but sometimes I'm tired, sometimes I forget, sometimes it's the very last thing I want to do when I get home at night. And I regret that.
Looking back, however briefly, on the 5 years since I last updated this blog, I see how much my life has changed. And yet, I also see things that I couldn't have known at the time. As my travel fever hit its peak in 2010-2011, I had no idea that it would come to a relatively screeching halt. Once the novelty of "being home" wore off, I had plans to write a book. I still have these plans, but as I mentioned in my previous "excuses" paragraph, life keeps happening. I spent months editing, writing, sprucing up, re-living, remembering... and then I got a job. A completely unexpected and completely life-changing opportunity. I became a teacher. And then I became a counselor. And now, half a decade later, I remember that I love the written word, I love sharing my experiences and advice with those who will entertain my musings, and above all, I love spreading happiness and knowledge. And as I look back on all the trips and travel that I wish I had written about, both for posterity and remembrance's sake, I remind myself that the core of each experience is still held deep within. I've surely forgotten the smaller details, the minutiae that would make for outstanding advice to fellow travelers and trip-planners, but the energy, love and enthusiasm that I felt with each new discovery will always be there. So I'll write about that. And hopefully there will be someone out there who, like me, is searching for something a little different when planning that trip with friends, a loved one, or a large group of demanding, high-maintenance family members who expect the trip to be absolutely perfect. A little pressure and push in the right direction for all of us.
