For the last four days, I’ve been without my cell phone.
Phone
I had envisioned a different week. One where I’d be able to contact friends, remain in touch with family and friends at home and check my email on the fly. I haven’t been able to do any of it.
The first day, Tuesday, was the most challenging. I’ve been so ‘connected’ and always ‘on’ that being without my phone felt like I had lost a vital body part.
At first, I did everything in my power to get re-connected. But nothing I tried worked. Plus, I couldn’t focus on fixing my phone when I had other more important matters to deal with.
So I realized that I had to chill. Being stressed about something I couldn’t change wasn’t doing me much good so I shifted my focus to what I could control.
Once I did that, I began to relax and remember now what life was like way back when I didn’t have a cell phone or a laptop. I survived then and I will now. Besides, it’s only temporary.
I hope to get my phone sorted out tomorrow but if I don’t, I know I will be fine.
I’ve been thinking almost all day of travel’s downsides and I think I’ve hit on a solution.
(Things like missing my own bed or dealing with unfamiliar surroundings I really can’t do much about, I’ll just have to live with them.)
My solution is to create a ‘travel bag’ so I can use on my next trip. It’ll be the bag that will contain the essentials: moisturizer, lotion, deodorant, etc., phone and laptop chargers, adapters, batteries, memory card for my camera, cable and whatever else I tend to need when I travel. So next time, all I’ll have to do is pick up my travel bag and put it in my suitcase. Kind of like those little portable inner bags they’ve been promoting to women who change their bags, so they don’t forget anything.
What do you think?
Besides forgetting your essentials, what are some of your travel downsides?
I’m curious to know.
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Sometimes, one of travel’s biggest downsides for me is having to be someplace else besides my own surroundings. It makes me feel quite discombobulated.
Whether it’s a trip I’m looking forward to or one of necessity, when I get to my destination, initially, I long for things I left at home.
Home is where I can walk around (almost) blindfolded because I know where everything is.
It’s where I don’t have to unpack.
It’s where I know how everything works and if I can’t find what I need, like the tea or a towel, it’s because I’ve put it someplace else (or I need to do the laundry!).
Home is also where I know how to get around, almost without thinking about it.
No matter how well I plan, how many lists I make, there’s alway something I forget – and it’s usually something I really need. Like the time I forgot my toothbrush. Now, that might not sound like much, but it really caused me stress until I could locate a drug store and buy one.
What did I forget this time? My moisturizer. And I know exactly where I left it too! So I’ll be in the drug store first thing in the morning trying to find one, preferably one small enough to fit TSA guidelines.
Please don’t read this and think I hate to travel or I’m letting little things spoil my trip. I don’t and I won’t. I love it! Each trip, no matter how short – whether in distance or time – teaches me something about myself, the world and people, relaxes and re-energizes me. It’s just the first few hours of adjustment to a new place when I don’t have the trappings of my life to support me.
As long as there’s a store, I’ll find what I need.
Sometimes though, it’s not as simple. Like tonight when I tried to log in, the wifi connection wouldn’t work. Thankfully, I was able to get hooked up with a dial-up modem or I would have had to miss my post for Wednesday.
So what downsides do you face when you travel and how do you handle them?
Let me know.
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Discovered on April 18, 1947 by Dr. Robert Broom and John Robinson, Mrs. Ples is the nickname given to the most complete skull of an Australopithecus africanus specimen ever found in South Africa. Mrs. Ples is estimated to be about 2.05 million years old.
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I blame Mrs. Anderson, my high school Spanish teacher, who planted the idea in my head. She had studied in Spain and brought back fascinating stories that she shared in class.
Paseo de Gracia corner Mallorca, March 1977
So when I discovered that my university had a semester abroad program, I signed up right away. Three months in Spain? I knew there would be adventure ahead.
Our group of about 15 arrived in Barcelona on January 5th. My friend Gloria and I were selected to stay with the Rodriguez family, a busy household with boarders from Southern Spain.
(I still remember how Sra. Rodriguez would go food shopping everyday — and I thought my grandmother was just disorganized — and how Sr. Rodriguez would call us to the table, “Al ataque!” basically, Come and get it!)
I fell in love with Barcelona. It appealed to me on several levels: the food, the architecture, the wines, museums, the cathedrals, the Ramblas, and it was difficult for me to leave.
Each week, we visited a different museum, and every other week, we traveled to a different city. Weekends were free so we spent the time exploring Barcelona on our own. I still have very fond memories of these places:
When I look back now, I’m surprised by how few photos I took and how grainy they are. Had I done that trip today, I would have had thousands of photos, everything I saw would have been documented. But I have very good memories and I hope someday to return to Barcelona to see how much of what I remember remains.
Ciudadela Park, 1977
I often wonder what happened to the other students on that trip. We were all at different stages on the road to graduation and didn’t have the same classes. Gloria and I did and we still keep in touch.
I don’t think I ever thanked Mrs. Anderson for putting the bug in my ear, or Prof. Lopez-Saiz for facilitating such a wonderful program. (I always said I wanted a job like his: half year in Spain, half year in Canada – the best of both worlds.)
I lived a lot, learned a lot and loved a lot in Barcelona. After those three months, I promised myself to do a few things the next time I travelled:
Stay off the beaten path
Learn the language (or at least learn to say hello, good morning, thank you, etc.)
Talk to the people
Always take 3-month vacations (Ha!)
What lessons have you learned from your travel experiences?
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Each time I think about this trip, I’m amazed that it ever happened. Almost everything that could go wrong did.
I was teaching basic Spanish to 11 year old students in Jamaica when my school received an invitation to take part in a one week trip to Merida, Yucatan. We jumped at the opportunity.
Three students, another teacher and I decided to go. Several weeks before we were scheduled to leave, we sent our passports to the travel agency that was taking care of the arrangements and get us our visas. But when we arrived to pick them up, we discovered that our passports had been destroyed in a fire at the agency. No one had even bothered to inform us.
So while the other students were jetting off to Merida, we were stuck in a police station in Kingston reporting the loss of our travel documents. We would spend the next few days waiting for the police reports, taking new photos, completing new application forms, getting them notarized and resubmitting them to the passport office.
A few weeks later, the 5 of us, passports in hand, we were on our way. We spent 7 wonderful days in Merida.
I’m glad now that I kept a journal because the few photos I have of that trip are so grainy I can hardly make out our faces.
Here’s what I remember:
Twisting my ankle in my clogs on the slippery stairs at the hotel.
Going to the movies – why we decided to go to do that escapes me now. Saw La Bruja en Amor, Man with Icy Eyes, Red Devils.
Going to Progreso Beach, twice.
Roberto and Belgio telling me “Te amo” and falling over themselves to show me around.
Having liver and onions for breakfast several mornings at a diner near the hotel. I never liked liver but I really enjoyed the way the Mexicans made it, with lots of onions. I tried to make it the same way when I returned home but it just wasn’t the same. I doubt I’ve eaten liver since.
Being invited to the home of the owners of a small restaurant, sneaking away when we saw how drunk they were getting. (I wasn’t used to seeing people just sit around and drink.)
Being stranded. According to our itinerary, we were scheduled to leave on a 10:15 a.m flight to Montego Bay. We were up and ready at 7:45 a.m. but when we arrived at the airport here was no 10:15 flight and there wasn’t going to be another direct flight to Montego Bay for several days. We were stuck in Merida with little money left. Thankfully, the agency in Merida found us a connecting flight to Miami the next day and paid for us to stay one more night. (I think we all bunked in the same room.) The next morning, we were at the airport long before check-in time. Our flight on Pan American was the best part of the trip. I think we were the only ones on the flight and they fawned over us.
Looking back, I’m surprised we even made it to Merida and I laugh now at all the problems we had. But when I think of trip, I don’t think of any of that. I think of the ruins at Chichen Itza and how they sparked my interest in ancient cultures. Sometimes, I wish I had better photos but the memory of what I saw is etched forever into my brain.
What was your first trip like?
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We had requested rooms facing the Indian Ocean so we could watch the sunrise on our last day in Durban.
Sunrise on the Golden Mile, Durban
At eight floors up, we had a perfect, unobstructed view and spent the better part of the morning watching the sun as it climbed peacefully over the horizon.
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Walking around New York City last week with my sister and niece forced me to pause and look up at buildings I have come to recognize only from eye level.
It was the refreshingly bright gold of the cupola against the grey sky that caught my attention and caused me to look up.
Met Life Tower
Then I took in the rest of the building and wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before.
At 700 feet high, the Met Life Tower was, according to Wikipedia, the tallest building in the world from 1909, when it was built, until the Woolworth Building surpassed it in 1913. There are 50 floors.
Clock faces on each side of the tower measure 4 feet tall and 26.5 feet in diameter.
The gilded cupola provides constant illumination.
Next time you’re in the vicinity of 1 Madison Avenue in the Flatiron District, take a look up. I’m sure you’ll be pleased by what you see.
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