Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Portland, OR -- its sunny out!

I awoke not knowing where I was. Cold, dark, rats everywhere. TdC's basement. I'm kidding about the rats - it actually is a really nice place to be. I wouldn't mind staying down there for a longer period of time. Note: TdC is a very nice girl for letting me crash down in her basement and I am not a prisoner down there. She even made me tea this morning - Il a ete tres bon, merci beaucoup, Tee.

I tested out my Mountain HardWear 32 degree sleeping back. Extremely comfortable, snug yet breathable, and lots of zippers to keep me occupied. I urge all of you to buy mummy sleeping bags and sleep with them instead of your beds.

Ok, I promised I'd tell you the reason why I am doing this trip. The biggest 2 reasons are; A. trying to network & start up my own organization that helps people who are interested in traveling to make it easier for them to do so, and B. because I enjoy it, I'm still young, I have the opportunity, and I want to live without a bed for a year. I just love couches that much. Other underlying reasons: 1. I want to research more on how TCK works (Third Culture Kids) and possibly do a bit of presentations around Europe to high school students on how to acknowledge the emotions/feelings that arise with being immersed in a different culture.

Definition of TCK: "“A third culture kid is a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside their parents’ culture. The third culture kid builds relationships to all the cultures, while not having full ownership in any. Although elements from each culture are assimilated into the third culture kid’s life experience, the sense of belonging is in relationship to others of the same background...""

I have had the honor to sit one on one with the co-founder of this TCK culture - Dave Pollock (http://www.interactionintl.org/whoisdavepollock.asp). I had the opportunity to meet him in Tianjin, China when he came through to talk about the TCK culture. It was something that hit close to heart for me as I never realized why it is that I was so very different from everyone else. Not only have I moved about all my life, I also come from different cultures as my Dad & Mum are mixed blood. Therefore, I'm just a confused little boy. But I enjoy being a "mutt"!

Moving forward. The last couple of days has been terribly chaotic. I moved from TdC's basement to Yu's place. She was generous and kind enough to host me for the rest of my time in Portland and for that I am grateful. Had to collect the rest of my baggage from my old house and re-organize everything in TdC's basement. I'm hoping to get things shipped to Singapore by the end of this week and hopefully selling the car by the end of next week. If all goes according to plan, I will be in Chicago for the 1st of March, then NYC for the 6th, and onwards to London for my first stop of my adventure, on the 15th. However, I know things never go according to plan, so we'll see how it goes. I'd like to stay as concrete on the tentative schedule as much as possible until I get to Europe, then I'd be able to be free in what I do.

Luke, thanks much for listening even when you were sick. I needed that talk, buddy.

I realized that many of you do not understand who I am and why I do the things that I do. Perhaps its because none of you have been with me from the beginning, but that is neither your fault or mine. Life is a constant change and that is what keeps it very exciting. My only regret, and I mention this to people whom I'm close with, is that I feel left out on the whole "settling down" aspect of life, and also the fact that I've done travels either with family or myself and never really had a good friend to share the experiences. I know that people will not fully understand who I am until they have traveled with me. 

I had a re-connection with Elise this evening and she talked about doing a national trip around the US. I urge my followers to follow her upcoming blog. She's an editor at the Vermillion, which is a newspaper in Lafayette, LA, so she'll probably have much more entertaining entries than mine, but hey, competition is good right? Jokes aside, she is awesome and I will be putting up a link to her blog once she gets it up and running. For the time being, endulge yourself to a scoop of icecream and immerse yourself in my entries.

Why is it that I always find myself bonding closer to people only to tear away from them? I've done that time and time again, and it tears me to pieces when I leave, but I never find happiness in the place that I'm at - it's as if I'm searching for the perfect place that may or may not exist. Nevertheless, I will keep searching as that is my addiction, purpose/aspiration, and downfall, always on the move, never settling, and leaving people behind. Perhaps one day, I'll be filthy rich and get tickets for all my friends to come visit me at my island in the tropics and we'll have a grand ole time...

Never hurts to dream, right?

Analytics

2 comments:

  1. Ok, as far as this last paragraph goes, don't ever worry about getting people closer and then tearing them away from you. People who are your true friends will always be there. I had this conversation with Wendell before he left for Japan. People come into your life for a reason, and if after today we never talked for 10 years, and then 10 years down the road you had a problem and needed to talk to someone and the only person you could think of was me, you could call me up and be like, "hey jenn can I talk to you?" and I would say, "sure shaun what's up?" like we had talked yesterday. We do this because we are friends. And a friend will not care if you don't feel comfortable settling down, because a friend will want you to be happy. And if traveling is your thing, hey, go for it. I will be right behind you. But don't ever feel like you should have to apologize for people not understanding you. If they don't understand you then fuck them. I fully support you doing this, and I wish you all the luck and safety I can hope for. You are an amazing person and I'm glad to see that you are finally doing something for yourself, something that makes you happy. Best wishes, I love you!

    Cheers,
    Jennifer

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  2. Shaun, I got 5 things:

    1. Sorry, I will not be giving up my bed for a year, but you go ahead. Let me know how that works out for you. I know it'll be amazing and yadda yadda, but I really do prefer not having back pains.

    2. I'd be interested in hearing about TCK and seeing your presentations. Must I be in Europe? (No, seriously...it does seem interesting.)

    3. I'll be sure keep my favorite icecream handy and read your blogs as often as you post them!

    4. I forgive you for not mentioning me in the previous 2 posts.

    5. I'm all for you becoming filthy rich!




    On a serious note, I'm glad we got a deeper look at what goes on inside your head! I think you've only begun to scratch the surface, and I expect many more interesting blogs!

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