I'm doing 32 things
Well, I have to say that travelling abroad is an Essential Experience for a human. It teaches you a lot, and not all of it (or most of it) is wonderful. There are good survival skills and things that happen make you stronger, but I don’t know if I’d call it an enjoyable experience. I didn’t get to go to many of the places I wanted to, and that really contributes to determining what kind of time you’re going to have. Travel is exciting and new, but you start to wonder why you care when you move from place to place you have no interest in or connection to. Know what types of things you want to see, and have at least some idea of where to go to see them. Sometimes you have to bite the bullet and not be cheap to get somewhere good.
I have to say, I got sick of travel and living in the UK after 4 weeks. A good deal of it was I was constantly worried I’d starve, another part was I didn’t really care about old castles or decaying old buildings in big cities. So I was going from place to place with little to no interest in my surroundings or their culture. Yeah, that pretty much killed it.
Also, it’s a real eye-opener realizing how spoiled you are living in a place with universally accepted hygeine standards and then living in a place where you don’t even want to touch the walls, let alone the toilet. Not wanting to touch anything in your flat is horrible. It makes it impossible to relax, and really just made me hate being in London. My life was 5 times cleaner when I lived in a campsite.
Adjusting to the trials of travel is, as I’ve said, a good experience to strengthen you. Just keep the other things I’ve mentioned in mind to hopefully direct your living – static or otherwise – towards things that you enjoy or take comfort in, so you won’t feel so alienated and homesick.
