Stuff White People Like

The latest addition to SWPL definitely hit home for some friends and me. Nothing like a little internet humor to knock you dow a peg or two when you're feeling accomplished! haha.. If you haven't heard of this blog, first crawl out from under that dusty rock you're clearly living under, and then, click here: Stuff White People Like

#120 Taking a Year Off

January 11, 2009 by clander

When someone goes through a stressful experience they usually require some time off to clear their head, regain focus, and recover from the pain and suffering. Of course, in white culture these experiences are most often defined as finishing high school, making it through three years of college, or working for eleven months straight with only two weeks vacation and every statutory holiday (”they don’t count because I had to spend them with family.”)

Though you might consider finishing school or having a good job to be “accomplishments” many white people view them as burdens. As such, they can only handle them for so long before they start talking about their need to “take a year off” to travel, volunteer, or work abroad.

It is most common for the person taking the year off to use this time to travel (see Post #19 for reasons why). Generally, they will start off with a set amount of money that will use to travel for as long as possible. This explains why a white person with an $800 backpack will haggle with a poverty-stricken street vendor about a $2 dollar plate of food.

If you work with this person, be sure to give them a FAKE email address on their last day on the job or you will be inundated with emails about spiritual enlightenment and how great the food is compared to similar restaurants back home. Also, within the first five days following departure, this person will come up with the idea to write a book about their travel experience. Sadly, more books about mid-twenties white people traveling have been written than have been read.

Some of the more enterprising white people will extend their time off by working abroad as a bartender, ski lift operator, or english teacher. Their stories, emails, and publishing plans will be identical to the previous white person but will include additional stories about working and complaints about “tourists.”

Finally, there is the white person who takes a year off to volunteer at home or abroad. Though they are equally likely to write long emails about their experience, these people are often using the experience as an excellent resume pad for their application to law school. This way they are able to put off real life without the crippling derailment of a career or education.

Regardless of how a white person chooses to spend their year off, they all share the same goal of becoming more interesting to other people. Sadly, the people who find these stories interesting are other white people who are politely listening until they can tell their own, more interesting story about taking a year off.

Thankfully, there is an enormous opportunity for personal gain. You see, whenever a white person takes a year off it opens up a valuable apartment, job opportunity or admissions slot. Consider it to be the most pretentious form of affirmative action.

photo by Alex Steffler

Rainy day thoughts: Accountability

I heard recently that we are more likely to remember painful or frightening experiences over long periods of time than we are likely to remember joyful ones. For example, ask a room full of people in their fifties and sixties to clearly recall a happy memory from first grade, a moment of pride or achievement, and maybe half of them will raise their hands; but ask them to remember a traumatic experience, and chances are that every person will have something (or many things) to share. Why is that? Does it go all the way down to our primal fight or flight instincts? Do we hold on to things that hurt us so that we won't let them happen again? How is it possible that over time our minds linger, caught in unhappy memories while letting the pleasant ones float away. Try it yourself. How often do we forget the sort of Sunday afternoons of life? The trips for ice-cream or to the movies.. We lose the simple joys of our life - the times where things maybe weren't perfect, but they were good - we let them melt into a collage of almost mythic happiness locked away in our past, like some perfect summer of memories, while on the other hand we hold onto those things that pain us most, and let those experiences shape us as human beings. I think about this, and can't help but feel that the details of those happy memories are so important. The jokes you told while stuck in traffic on the way to a baseball game, or the rules of the make-believe game you invented with your friends at recess... they are the details that ground our good experiences in reality. Can you remember all the details of a good day in school? ... Can you remember all the details of a bad one?

In addition to that, I feel like we often discredit the opinions of people who care the most about us. How often does it take a complete stranger to tell us something our friends and family have been trying to tell us too before we truly believe it? That bit of objectivity offered from someone who doesn't have to have our best interests at heart allows us to finally accept whatever it may be we need to hear. Again... Why is that? I don't know. But I think it's true.

Of course that's one reason I think we all need friends, and people to care about us. At least, I know why I value mine. I think a friend can hold you accountable for who you are. A good friend tells you when you're being a schmuck as easily as they tell you when they're proud of you. Well, no, maybe not as easily - it's never easy to criticize someone you care about, is it? But they do it anyway, because they do care. I would always hope that the people I have in my life would know when to let me be and when they need to call me out on something. It's those people who know and love us best that can help us avoid hanging on to the painful memories, because we trust that they'll push us back in the right direction if we're wandering off. Of course, then you also have to trust that they will be able to recognize when that path changes. Because it does, doesn't it? Life is constantly changing. (Oh wow - that sure sounds emo... But seriously.) The lesson I am always re-learning is that we don't all of the sudden grow up and have our act together, the growing up part is in being able to handle things when they don't go as planned. To set goals for yourself, and then go about accomplishing them. But there is something to be said for living life gracefully. It's not easy to maintain one's integrity and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that those who are able to are courageous, honorable people. Life happens in the little moments and it takes a patient, self-sacrificing person to do it really well.




I've been lucky lately to realize that I have many of these people in my life, so thanks.

I did exciting things with my life once.. I swear

For all of you out there who might still be checking up on my adventures... Hello! I have loads and loads that I want to share with you all. But it's not going to be in this post, sorry.. I have been back from my year abroad and my round the world trip for about 5 weeks. Coming home has been a trip in and of itself! I have to shout out my kudos to Mullen for saying what I'm trying to with more brevity and eloquence on her blog.

As for what I have left to upload and share with you .. if anyone still cares .. I had planned to devote a week or so of posts to each country I visited to give everyone a chance to see what I was up to. But unfortunately when I was in DC around Halloween I somehow lost my camera along with a memory card full of photos from Cambodia, India and Egypt. Then when I finally made it home I discovered that a few of my packages had been opened in transit and some of my things stolen. Because of that, I haven't really been in the mood to get my few remaining pictures and journal entries in order... As silly as it might sound, but I find it puts me in a pretty grumpy mood to try and deal with it all sometimes.

I am doing well though. I am still unsettled, but doing my best not to stress out and enjoy this time of year. Life continues to throw its curveballs my way, and while I may not be hitting them out of the park I'm not striking out either. I don't want to give up and let this last year disappear as a mythical part of my life. Something that I "did" once, but now I am back to life as usual. I want the experiences I had to continue to be life as usual. As unreal as it all feels to me right now, I recognize that I have a lot of opportunity and potential in front of me.. I know I have options and I want to chose well. It gets tempting to put off all the decisions I have to make and find a new place to live or go teach ESL, or even go back to Korea, just because I would have something to be and something to do every day. But I have (and have always had) goals set for myself and I have to face them sometime. I won't say that I have a concrete plan that can't ever change... but I feel I need to hold myself accountable to the standards I've set for myself. It's strange to think that after all I've been through, that coming home could be this challenging.. but it is. It's just going to take time for everything to play out.

But what about the chronicles of my extravagant (but shockingly normal) voyages?! If you want to read about them I'll just ask you to wait!

Same ol' Bums

EDIT: It is now October 27th and I am in Washington DC. This blog, for some reason, never posted .. but I never had the internet to realize that! I will have a massive update once I am back in California next week and I have my computer back! For now, here's what I wrote two weeks ago....


I should have figured that the minute I posted about the Dodgers doing well in the playoffs that they would slump immidiately and go down 3 games in a row to the Phillies in the NLCS. Game four is Tonight (in the states) but even if they win and send the series back to Philly... the franchise has never come back from a 3-1 deficite. But there is still SOME hope! So I will think blue.. until we lose. And then I will BE blue. (bahdum-chh! haha) As they say, there's always next year. And the next. And the next.... For the record, if we get eliminated, I will be rooting for the Phillies. I sort of like the Cinderella story that the Rays have been this season ... but I have always liked the Phillies. They are a good oganization ... at least, as good as any cn be when they elimnate your team. Hmmph.


As far as my world travels go, Rome has been great! I went to the Papal audience today and hung out with Benedict XVI. I wasn't ever lucky enough to be in the presence of John Paul II, and I wish I could have. So seeing and hearing the Pope with my own eyes and ears was an experience I won't EVER forget!! Kirsten, Liz and I had a lot of fun trapsing around the city together, enjoying lots of fabulous food whenever we could afford it. We learned to tell the good Gelattorias from the bad ones. If you check the color of their Pistachio Gelatto, it should be an ochre green. If it is, it's good! If it looks like something our of a Craylo box... then stear clear beacuse they aren't making the good stuff!

Seeing the Pope and visiting St. Peter's Basillica are definitely a favorite memory of mine fom Rome... but they are sort of in a class of their own and it may not be fair to compare the rest of the city with them... PLUS the Vatican is a sovereign state, so it counts as another trip!! Haha .. but the highlights of the week have defintely been the Forum and the Musee Borghesse. The Borghesse Museum and Gallery is one f the most popular in Rome and is housed in this family's provate Villa. Because of this you have to reserve tickets ahead of time for a two hour block during the day. It houses some of Bernini's most famous sculptures and an impressive collection of portraits and other paintings (not all of which are necessarily Religious) on the second floor. My favorite was Bernini's sculpture "The Rape of Persephone" ... google it. Now. ..... There, finished? Impressive, right?! Okay ... even if you didnàt look it up .. it is incredible. It is hard to believe that the sculpture is made of marble and that your eyes aren't actually looking at really still people ... flesh nd bone like you and me. There are others of his famous works there ... including his depiction od David from David and Goliath ... that was a favorite of mine too.

Of course you can't come to Rome without visiting the Spanish Steps, or the many MANY piazzas, or even tossing a coin in the Trevi Fountain; all of which we did and enjoyed! Kirsten and Liz left this morning for Florence and I leave tomorrow to meet Rachel in Paris!! I can't wait to finish off the last leg of this incredible trip and get back to share my stories with you all... IN PERSON!!

Till then .. Ciao.

THINK BLUE!!

I may be enjoying life as a globetrotter, but that could never change the fact that deep down I am still (and always will be) a ravenous sportsfan. This leaves me at an ethical crossroads of sorts. My team ... my BOYS ... the Los Angeles Dodgers, play in game one of the National League Championship Series tomorrow. They are enjoying the franchise's first successful appearance in the post season since 1988. And I am not there to see any of it....

Of course .. it's not as if I am exactly on hard times either .. I am ernjoying the trip of a lifetime!

But, I can't help but lament the poor timing. I of course do not have it in me to root AGAINST my team. I think I am certain that I would spontaneously combust were I to root against the Dodgers. It just isn't in my nature... But I can't help but wish that they would have picked ANOTHER season to finally stop choking.

Whatever the case may be ... or whichever country I happen to be in ... I will always Think Blue. And I encourage you to do the same. I will do my best to find SOME American Sports bar in Rome so that I might be able to see even ONE of the games against Philly ... and hope that my boy pull it out in Philly and make it to the fall classic, THE series!!!!! (The World Series that is.) Whether I am there to witness it or not, history is being made and I am loving every second if it!

Just another day...

...in the life of a Globetrotter like me.

For the record, I have officially been traveling for over a month!

On Friday I left Cairo with Kirsten and Liz. We flew to Athens and got into the city and to our hostel without much hassle. The next day I spent the morning and early afternoon touring the Acropolis and exploring a few of the surrounding markets before catching my flight to... Rome!

Getting to Legends (our hostel in Rome) was pretty simple as well, and I was glad to finally reach a bed. I crashed as soon as I arrived! That next morning I found the closest church, went to Mass, and spent the day getting lost in Rome. On purpose of course. I walked a lot and saw a lot too ... not sure what I saw of course because I wasn't paying too much attention. haha. After a delicious lunch, I headed back to the airport for my flight to Dubrovnik! I was only supposed to have one layover for about a half hour in Zagreb ... but apparently most flights from Rome to Zagreb have a stopover in Split to go through immigration and to fill up the plane. with other international arrivals to Croatia... so I was startled by the 40 minute detour. The cool thing was that John Paul II flew on the same plane I was on when he visited Zagreb in 2003!! There was a plaque on the plane and everything! So that was awesome... I finally arrived in Dubrovnik and was greeted by the daughter of my host (I am staying at a guesthouse called Villa Elly) and we made the drive from the airport. It was a nice drive, and a clear night! I enjoyed seeing the coast at night and getting to see stars for the first time since I was in the Philippines. It is defnitely fall weather, so after walking the city walls today I will go out and buy a few warmer additions to my wardrobe. The Old City is nice. It is crowded with tourists from cruise shios and souvenirs stores are crammed onto the main street. But escaping into the alleyways for coffee and a sandwich is wonderful... there are a lot of small stores and coffeshops to keep me occupied. I'm off to walk the city walls and then ... we'll see. Mostly I am just enjoying my free time and taking a chance to reflect on the last month of travel!

Haha!! Still in Cairo

Wow .. you can tell that my last post was typed during my last 5 minutes at an internet cafe... haha. Sorry about that.

To clarify... Everyone involved with our trip to Egypt has been a wonderful. It is clear that this country is proud of their history. Our guides have been informative and and enthusiastic at each sight. Of course ... seeing the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramids (aka the Pyramids of Giza) within 3 days of each other is mind blowing in itself. We drove around and saw the pyramids from every possible angle, climbed down into one of the smaller ones (it's much quicker than in the main three, and all of the tombs are the same .. and empty, haha) and admired the sphinx up close. It was a shame how crowded it was near the sphinx, though. People got a bit pushy and no one could get a very good picture of it... Still though -- we got to be right up next to it! And forget all of the legends you've heard.. he lost his nose when an Islamic ruler smashed it years and years and years ago. He did it to show the people that it was just a statue, not any kind of true deity. Our last night before heading to Luxor we took a sunset camel ride around the pyramids ... but not before we ate at the Pizza Hut with a view of the Sphinx and second largest pyramid! ... they love their American fast food here ... and because it was still Ramadan (just ended today) the touristy places were the only ones open for lunch! The camel ride was fun. Just another exotic animal I can cross of my list I guess.

Luxor was much calmer than Cairo. We had a lot of free time there so we took a few strolls up and down the Nile riverside. It was all quite pleasant, except for the constant taxi offers and boater's cat-calls... we just learned to say "La shokran" or no thank you in Arabic. That usually impressed them enough that they left us alone. We got a big kick out of the Mc Donalds that was across the street from Luxor Temple, and then of course went in for ice cream. (It was hot!!!)

We made it back to Cairo without any problems; spent the day at our hotel to take everything in, and then ended the night with a Nile dinner cruise. It turned out to be better suited for travelers a few years our seniors... but we had a nice time anyway. Andrea had to leave for a gnarly early (4:30 am!!) flight home. So we stayed up watching bad movies on Egyptian TV until she got picked up to go to the airport around 1:30.

And then there were three.

We'll miss Andrea ... and we are all a little bit jealous of the comforts of home that she is so close to enjoying!! But we have had today to entirely map out our plans for Europe together, and our feet are getting itchy again and we are all excited to get to Greece!