Well goddamn.
Category: Travel Struggles
Another bureaucratic saga. (consider each bolded phrase a new bureaucratic obstacle) Some of you will remember that I was certified as a medic with Magen David Adom (MDA) back in November. I persisted for months against dead-end email addresses, voice mail messages, wrong numbers, and disconnected phones, to register for the month-long intensive course. It … Continue reading What Happened With Magen David Adom?
I'm generally an optimistic person. I need to be - I throw myself into new situations all the time. Without optimism I'd quickly give up, because adaptation can be mind-blowingly difficult. New challenges pop up each day, from homesickness, to cancelled bus routes, to bureaucracy mind-melts, to the ever-persistent language barriers. And yet, I still keep … Continue reading Escaping the Rat Race
I am so depressed. Working in Israel feels futile. If I were in the U.S., I could make twice as much at a minimum-wage job. I'm working at least 50-hour weeks. I'm getting paid about $5 per hour (before taxes). I am stuck on a kibbutz 1.5 hours from the nearest good-sized city, which means … Continue reading Israel: The Fount of Self-Despair and Poverty
Once again, absent for a while from the WWW world. This has been because, 1) I'm extremely busy with ulpan, and 2) I'm feeling ambivalent about social media. I'm already a self-critical person, and I'm finally noticing that I doubt myself more when I'm on facebook. And to try to quell that self-doubt, I'm tempted … Continue reading After-Ulpan Plans
I had a nightmare a few nights ago about Kurdistan. It was a bad one. When I was in Kurdistan, I felt harassed, pushed aside, scapegoated, threatened, and the subject of outright malice. The men were creeps; they often tried to touch me, to corner me, to make gross comments about my body, and at … Continue reading Nightmares
I love my backpack. I loved it to death, and now I have to retire it. The seams are coming apart. The strap has popped and it's spilling out polyurethane foam. The internal dividers fell apart somewhere around Nicaragua. It's time. Together, over the past three years, we have been to: Scotland England Northern Ireland … Continue reading The Simplicity of a Backpack
I often feel that, as a backpacker, I need to go FASTFASTFAST and have ENERGYYYYY and SEIZE THE MOMENT. But sometimes life just needs to move at a slower pace. The past two days I've mainly slept. And eaten. Honestly, I'm tired. I've been travelling for 3 months, and I'm at a point where I … Continue reading Despacio
I travel because I'm impatient. I don't want to wait for my life to start. I know what I want now, and I want to seize it now. What I want now might not be what I want next year - so I might as well realize my current dream. And man, am I living … Continue reading A Nomad’s Home
In Nicaragua, mind reeling, dreaming in Spanish, consuming lots of gallo pinto and coffee. But amidst the new, I´ve received news from home of a classmate´s death and a tragedy in a close friend´s family, and I´m wondering whether I shouldn´t return to the states to be with my loved ones. Going on a Nicaraguan … Continue reading Nicaragua
In Mutual Weirdness 