Following numerous months of preparation, google searches, idea dismissal and you-tube spree's, I have finally decided on the location of my next culture gathering life mission (Journey).
Just after I spent the last few months watching the political and social unrest in a country I always imagined to be subtle, pacifistic, and harmonious, I realized there is nowhere left in the world where one could feel entirely at ease with their political and environmental surroundings.
I knew I wanted to get away and I knew it had to be soon.
Normally every year, I go back home, to my wonderful family and spend about two weeks with them, laughing, shopping, eating, sleeping, recovering from jet lag and preparing to get back to the hustle and bustle of everyday, work your ass off, life. Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying, I love going home and being with my family, friends, and America, but there were a few variables in which pulled me from repeating this again...
1. Sarah. Sarah is my wonderful, extra intelligent, hard working younger sister. This past March, her and her boyfriend Tyler came to visit me here in Germany to spend time and view life on my side of the big lake. It was an incredible feeling to have members from MY FAMILY come here giving me a feeling of my two separate lives converging. The time made me realize what I have here is life, not some superficial, junction where I spend 6 years, go back to the states and start over again. What I have here is special, individual and self sustained. I have what I earned, and I am in control of where I will go, logically speaking.
So because of the fact I had members of my family visiting me here, this was one more added variable which allowed me to hold off on going back to Wisconsin this Summer.
2. Time Management: This one can be perceived as laziness and or a blatant lack of preparation, whichever it is defined as, it is my decision.
In the past, I was a soldier, and "bureaucratically" unable to take vacation when I wanted. When my leadership allowed me to, I was able to start the long, lengthy process of submitting my leave form packet. This process was frowned upon, because us Soldiers were all desperately needed on a day to day basis for various highly important missions, such as picking up cigarette butts, sweeping an outdoor driveway and preforming weekly maintenance checks on vehicles which never moved further than a few inches during inspections to confirm each truck was "dress right dress" against each other. Vehement importance is placed on these life supporting tasks.*
Soooooo, because of the fact I never really had much time to plan my trip in advance, it often led to a very high paced, "vacation" where I was expected to see everyone in the short 14 days
I was back home. This resulted in people being upset with me that I did not see them, others thinking they were not important enough for me to spend time and me being in a constant panic to please all.. ----- Stress at work, stress on vacation... CAN I PLEASE GET AWAY FROM IT!!!
For the most part, I usually made the best of it and didn't so much mind the ones who were upset and ignored the rest.
Being that I am now a civilian, I have been introduced to what most people (outside of Soldiers) know as life, full of what I am learning are independent decisions, endless possibilities and justice. Accountable, consequential justice, someone does something wrong, they are punished, and it doesn't happen again (THANK YOU RESPONSIBILITY AND PUNISHMENTS) With this newly established life comes individual freedom (what we as Soldiers "fight" for). I am now able to prepare IN ADVANCE, how and where my life is headed and when I would like time off. So with this, I have had several months to decide on my next travel location...
And now getting to where I was at the beginning of this long, drawn out story...
Steph and I have decided on a semi-spontaneous journey. The semi is for predetermination of location and possible activities, the spontaneous is for where we will be staying, how we will get there and what we will do. We made this decision based a little on environment and weather conditions, culture and hospitality (or what we though to be) and the desire to learn the unknown.
In T-2 days, we will embark (yes I just used embark) on a journey through Southeast Asia. We will be starting the backpacking route from Frankfurt am Main, International Airport leaving with a short layover in Doha Qatar. From Doha, we will be flying into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the actual foot journey will commence.
We plan on sightseeing, jungle trekking, beach laying, river rafting, eating local food from street vendors and attempting to immerse ourselves into the culture as much as possible. From here, we plan on making our way using public transportation, walking and other non conventional methods or vacation travel through Singapore and eventually up move up into Thailand.
I plan on attempting to keep everyone updated on current status and events while away.
If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to comment as I will be checking this as often as possible. Take Care and will talk to you soon!
Just after I spent the last few months watching the political and social unrest in a country I always imagined to be subtle, pacifistic, and harmonious, I realized there is nowhere left in the world where one could feel entirely at ease with their political and environmental surroundings.
I knew I wanted to get away and I knew it had to be soon.
Normally every year, I go back home, to my wonderful family and spend about two weeks with them, laughing, shopping, eating, sleeping, recovering from jet lag and preparing to get back to the hustle and bustle of everyday, work your ass off, life. Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying, I love going home and being with my family, friends, and America, but there were a few variables in which pulled me from repeating this again...
1. Sarah. Sarah is my wonderful, extra intelligent, hard working younger sister. This past March, her and her boyfriend Tyler came to visit me here in Germany to spend time and view life on my side of the big lake. It was an incredible feeling to have members from MY FAMILY come here giving me a feeling of my two separate lives converging. The time made me realize what I have here is life, not some superficial, junction where I spend 6 years, go back to the states and start over again. What I have here is special, individual and self sustained. I have what I earned, and I am in control of where I will go, logically speaking.
So because of the fact I had members of my family visiting me here, this was one more added variable which allowed me to hold off on going back to Wisconsin this Summer.
2. Time Management: This one can be perceived as laziness and or a blatant lack of preparation, whichever it is defined as, it is my decision.
In the past, I was a soldier, and "bureaucratically" unable to take vacation when I wanted. When my leadership allowed me to, I was able to start the long, lengthy process of submitting my leave form packet. This process was frowned upon, because us Soldiers were all desperately needed on a day to day basis for various highly important missions, such as picking up cigarette butts, sweeping an outdoor driveway and preforming weekly maintenance checks on vehicles which never moved further than a few inches during inspections to confirm each truck was "dress right dress" against each other. Vehement importance is placed on these life supporting tasks.*
Soooooo, because of the fact I never really had much time to plan my trip in advance, it often led to a very high paced, "vacation" where I was expected to see everyone in the short 14 days
I was back home. This resulted in people being upset with me that I did not see them, others thinking they were not important enough for me to spend time and me being in a constant panic to please all.. ----- Stress at work, stress on vacation... CAN I PLEASE GET AWAY FROM IT!!!
For the most part, I usually made the best of it and didn't so much mind the ones who were upset and ignored the rest.
Being that I am now a civilian, I have been introduced to what most people (outside of Soldiers) know as life, full of what I am learning are independent decisions, endless possibilities and justice. Accountable, consequential justice, someone does something wrong, they are punished, and it doesn't happen again (THANK YOU RESPONSIBILITY AND PUNISHMENTS) With this newly established life comes individual freedom (what we as Soldiers "fight" for). I am now able to prepare IN ADVANCE, how and where my life is headed and when I would like time off. So with this, I have had several months to decide on my next travel location...
And now getting to where I was at the beginning of this long, drawn out story...
Steph and I have decided on a semi-spontaneous journey. The semi is for predetermination of location and possible activities, the spontaneous is for where we will be staying, how we will get there and what we will do. We made this decision based a little on environment and weather conditions, culture and hospitality (or what we though to be) and the desire to learn the unknown.
In T-2 days, we will embark (yes I just used embark) on a journey through Southeast Asia. We will be starting the backpacking route from Frankfurt am Main, International Airport leaving with a short layover in Doha Qatar. From Doha, we will be flying into Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where the actual foot journey will commence.
We plan on sightseeing, jungle trekking, beach laying, river rafting, eating local food from street vendors and attempting to immerse ourselves into the culture as much as possible. From here, we plan on making our way using public transportation, walking and other non conventional methods or vacation travel through Singapore and eventually up move up into Thailand.
I plan on attempting to keep everyone updated on current status and events while away.
If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to comment as I will be checking this as often as possible. Take Care and will talk to you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment