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diff --git a/_posts/2018-09-20-mr-worldwide-pt-0.md b/_posts/2018-09-20-mr-worldwide-pt-0.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b270555 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2018-09-20-mr-worldwide-pt-0.md @@ -0,0 +1,201 @@ +--- +title: >- + Mr. Worldwide, Pt. 0: Bailtrain to Bailtown +description: >- + Wherein I quit my job and prepare to leave the country +--- + +## Denver + +In mid-2015 I moved to Denver, CO while continuing to work remotely at the +company I had helped to found back in Gainesville, FL. Florida had been my home +for my entire life, up until that point, and it felt like a change was needed. +Denver was certainly a change, and ultimately I think it was one in the right +direction, but it turned out to not be enough. + +{% include image.html src="mr-worldwide/denver-2017.jpg" %} + +While in Denver I'd rented a tiny studio apartment, which over the +course of two years I'd learned to live in. Living large is pretty easy; for +some reason we (generally) find it more difficult to throw something away than +to exert the effort to make space for it in our lives. It takes a non-trivial +amount of trial-and-error to figure out a smaller lifestyle with fewer things. +So minimalism is something I started to practice, and continue to practice, in +the literal sense of the word, often failing at it. But I find the challenge to +be worth it. + +I'd always separated my work-place from my living-place, mentally. Eventually I +realized that just because the two places were physically separate doesn't mean +they aren't a part of the same thing. At the most basic level I work in order to +afford basic necessities, like food and clothing and shelter. I have a dedicated +home because it's the most efficient way to keep myself fit and healthy and +clean, because it allows me to having my own ammenities and routines which work +best for me. + +But the more I work, the more I burn out and need to recuperate at home. The +more time spent at home, the more things accumulate there and the more upkeep of +the home is needed, which in turn requires money which requires work. The one +leads to the other, and so they are really part of the same thing. I neither +want to work nor spend a lot of time at home, but that's what my life had turned +into. It was unbearable, and I had to change it. + +## Mr. Worldwide + +In early 2016 I took a trip to Japan with some friends. It was the first time +I'd been out of the US (sans a family trip to Nova Scotia when I was like 9 or +something). Going to Japan might as well have been a trip to an alien planet, +and yet it was also familiar. I learned that no matter how different our +cultures are, the individuals of the world aren't that different at all. By the +end of that trip I felt as at-home in Japan as I did in Denver, if not more so, +because of how much time I was able to spend exploring (rather than being couped +up working). + +{% include image.html + src="mr-worldwide/kyoto-2017.jpg" + descr="Kyoto at sunset, 2017" %} + +By the end of 2016 I knew I wanted to travel and see as much as possible, while +working as little as possible in the meantime (except on my own ideas, as they +came up and I felt like working on them). I began trimming down my life, with +the aim of only having as many things as would fit into a backpack. It probably +seemed to everyone like I was preparing to become a homeless person. In a way I +kind of was. + +My plan wasn't that I would never work again, or never live in a home again. +Vagrancy isn't a sustainable way for me to live. But finding a life which didn't +involve spending all my energy working while also not being homeless is surely +possible, I knew, though maybe I wouldn't find it in the US. I began saving as +much money as possible, and began thinking about where I might find that life. + +Europe seemed as good a place to start the search as any. + +## Leaving Denver + +By the end of 2017 I was ready to go. I had saved nearly $20k, had put in notice +that I'd be leaving my job at the end of the year, and had given notice to my +landlord of the same. My friends in Denver saw me off, and my friend Ibrahim +gave me a small notebook to take notes in as I traveled, with some helpful +phrases that might aid me along the way + +{% include image.html + src="mr-worldwide/notebook.jpg" + descr="Ibrahim made sure I was covered if I ever found myself in a tight spot" + %} + +I drove all my things back to my parents' house in Miami just before Christmas, +and enjoyed Christmas and New Year's with them. In mid-January I grabbed my +single backpack, said goodbye to my parents, and headed to the airport. It had +worked out to be cheaper to fly back to Denver before flying to Europe, so I +spent another day there saying hello/goodbye to everyone again, collecting some +recommendations of places to go while I was there, and continued on to Europe. + +## The Loadout + +(Wherein I give a summary of what I had with me throughout the trip, with +affiliate links sprinkled in, cause money. You can skip this section if you +don't really care). + +I'd already had a [40L backpacking bag](zulu) which had done me well enough on a +couple trips already, so I decided to try and only use that. Other ~~homeless~~ +backpackers tend to go a little bigger, but they risk not being able to fit +their bags in luggage overhead on planes. I also ended up needing a smaller day +bag almost immediately, since being out and about all day necessitates bringing +some things with you. The big bag/day bag combo is a classic amongst ~~the +homeless~~ backpackers. + +{% include image.html + src="mr-worldwide/loadout-packed.jpg" + descr="All packed up, one for overhead and the other for under the seat" + inline=true + %} + +{% include image.html + src="mr-worldwide/loadout-unpacked.jpg" + descr="(Almost) everything, unpacked" + inline=true + %} + +Most space in the bag is taken by clothes. Which clothes I actually had along +changed as the weather changed and I gained and lost things. But my general +clothing strategy consisted of a few key points: + +* All things need to be re-wearable, 2 to 3 days at least. This is more + difficult for under layers, but wool is ideal as it's durable, warm, and it + quickly-dries (which means the fungi/bacteria, which would otherwise cause + smell, quickly-die). Wool socks were easy to find on sale for $5 a pair at the + end of winter. Wool undershirts (smart wool or merino) are findable on eBay + with some difficulty. [Uniqlo][uniqlo] makes good undershirts to fill in + when wool undershirts are too expensive. [ExOfficio][exofficio] is worth the + money in the underwear department. A pair of leggings is also super worth it + for the cold. + +* For pants I went with three pairs; one beat-up pair, one casual, and one a bit + nicer, and a few wool shirts/sweaters. Later in the trip, as summer rolled + around, I'd pick up some shorts as well. My couple of wool shirts/sweaters + were trivial to find on eBay. + +* For shoes I went with a pair of flip-flops and a pair of [waterproof + boots][timbs] (also from eBay). The boots I chose for being able to be used in + basically any occasion where flip-flops wouldn't do (marathons excepted). + +* I really can't stress enough how great wool is. That said, I would have died + without [this jacket][jacket], which was well worth the relatively tiny amount + of space it took up. Same can be said for my [linen towel][towel], which + struck a perfect balance between packability and being a towel. + +* Other random things which were must-haves: rubber bands (for tying up + clothes), sewing kit, external phone battery, tape, super glue, umbrella, and + a small package of baby wipes. + +* I also insisted on bringing a laughably small and old netbook with me, cause + I get cranky if I can't code now and then. + +Even before deciding on doing this trip I had begun purging all my old clothes +in favor of a much smaller set of more durable, though perhaps more expensive, +ones. So a lot of these clothes carried over from that, and all that I just +described is really my current wardrobe. + +[zulu]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015SBLO28/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mediocregophe-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B015SBLO28&linkId=84ffbb4c20cf4dfcee00485312c1d5c3 +[uniqlo]: https://www.uniqlo.com/us/en/men/undershirts +[exofficio]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001M0MN0C/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mediocregophe-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B001M0MN0C&linkId=a1a2a1fac9c23c44c0633d0e7170fb98 +[timbs]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019CVV1AK?ie=UTF8&tag=mediocregophe-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B019CVW406&th=1 +[jacket]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013HAXSLC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mediocregophe-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B013HAXSLC&linkId=44efbeb32af7cc0f303180ec70da207e +[towel]: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WBC17N4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=mediocregophe-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B00WBC17N4&linkId=dec48e5d729a51790abad2286f08fe34 + +## (Lack of) Planning + +The trip was deliberately not planned out. I knew I would show up in Munich, +because I have a friend who lives there as well as a distant relative. But +passed that I figured "show up and look around" would suffice. My motto for the +trip would eventually become "plans are just lists of things which won't +happen". From start to finish the only plans I had figured out at any moment +was a general trajectory and my next destination. Rarely was my next place to +sleep booked more than a week ahead of time, or my next bus or train ticket +bought more than a day before. + +It could not have worked any other way. For a short trip it might be viable to +have an itinerary with a list of destinations/sights which will be visited and +all the traveling needed in between, but the strictness of an itinerary always +adds tension. Rather than spend some pre-allotted time at each sight, adding a +feeling of being on a timer no matter where you are, I would rather just meander +around and spend as much time as feels right at each place. There's zero chance +of seeing all there is to see, no matter how much is planned, so might as well +see each thing in as much depth and detail as you feel like. + +And looking back, I don't think I _did_ miss all that much. Each city has its +notable sights, and you can know by looking around and talking to other people +which ones are right for you. Start with those, if there's time do the others, +but you won't feel like you've missed anything if you don't get to them. + +Much later in my trip someone would ask me and another backpacker (who'd been +traveling even longer than me) if we had advice for him. The other backpacker +immediately replied "Just keep your head on a swivel". As in, just look around +you, keep your eyes open, you'll see all you want and need to. My grandma gave +me similar advice before I left, when I asked her what I should do in Spain (her +home country): "Oh, you don'thave to do anything. You see something you like, +you go there. You see something else, you go there instead. There is nothing you +have to do". + +## Bailing + +In the next post I will actually leave and begin my _adventure_. Stay tuned! |