Feeling at Home

Home.  Such a cozy and happy yet powerful word.  It's not just a place, it's a feeling and when you feel it, it sure is good.  Fortunately, many of us have a place we call home.  A lucky bunch may have many places that feel like home.  If you are feeling lost, confused, or uncertain about your life or your day, find a place or song or memory in which you feel at home.  The certainty will return.  

Although I haven't lived in Bloomington, Illinois for about 10 years, my parents' house feels like home.  Both Oakland and San Francisco, California feel like home.  402 Cole (just the thought of it even) feels like home.  Being anywhere with my dearest friends all together is home.  Living with Brandt is home.  And cooking in the kitchen is home.  That's my home short list at least :)

So for me, currently living in Utila and not really having a permanent address anymore, I'm very thankful to be feeling so much at home.  I've got my soon-to-be-husband, Brandt, by my side and it makes everything seem right.  I don't "miss home" because I feel at home with him (wait just a minute, didn't Edward Sharpe and about 5000 other musicians write a song about this once??)

We talked just the other day about the things (not people) "from home" that we miss (it's been 1 month now that we've been away).  We realized that we really can live without whatever we were living with before but decided that we missed sandwiches the most (specifically Potbelly's).  If that's all we really miss, we are going to be just fine for a long time!  

Also, I have a kitchen now!  Granted I don't have a cutting board, measuring utensils, or the ability to cook at a temperature less than med-high, it's a kitchen and I love it!  In fact, this is it right here!  

 

My love for cooking took years to develop, but I thank my father both for my love and flare in the kitchen.  Thanks, dad!

This week, Brandt and I moved into our Eco-Cottage where we will live for the next 5 weeks.  So now I have not only him and a kitchen, but we have a permanent residence where we can enjoy our daily routines and unpack a bit which adds to the feeling of being at home.  See the pictures below!

Switching gears just a bit here… I also want to mention that the Eco-Cottage is a great house and suits all of our needs - aforementioned kitchen, flush toilet, hot water shower, small table to eat meals together, bed for 2, and sits in a semi-secluded garden area.  Basically it is a 3-room studio (is that a thing?).  Brandt and I talk about building a house one day, and something like this would be really nice.  We have talked about modifications we would make: adding 2 rooms so that there can be 2 bedrooms and a separate living space, and enlarging the porch/deck so that there is more outdoor space for our family's hammocks and a table.  And lastly, figuring out some way to have 2 sides to the shower, one outdoor, and one indoor, but still all part of 1 shower.  Who knows how I build this?  I am sure it is a possibility!  Please submit your DIY building plan for dummies to me!

At another point in time I would have thought that although perhaps functional for 1, a studio isn't really appropriate for a couple or family, but now I am thinking differently.  If you are living in a studio and it feel too small (and I'm not talking about a NY closet with a single bed and no windows, but a larger US studio apartment) then perhaps I can offer 2 suggestions: you have too much stuff and you spend too much time indoors.  If you are living in a 1BR or 2 BR apartment or a house and feel it is too small, then really, you just have too much stuff and need to spend much more time outdoors.  From my experience, downsizing isn't just for seniors and empty-nesters, it can be for anyone.  And it can make you feel free and happy.  Try it, you might like it!

I may have mentioned in a previous post how initially it was difficult for us to get rid of our material things - clothes, furniture, kitchen items etc.  We started combing through the apartment 6 months before we planned to leave.  In hindsight, our first passes were dismal.  It's like we didn't really get rid of anything.  As time went on, it was much easier to let things go, and it really felt good!  We do have some things in storage (parents' basements) and are traveling each with a large backpack and small school-book sized back pack.  Already though, we are talking about downsizing again!  I knew this would happen, but we just had to learn for ourselves what we needed to bring and didn't.  Hopefully when we stop back in the States in May (wedding celebration), we will be able to unload again and travel lighter.

Again, switching gears here, I want to update those who read our blogs and are interested in what we are "doing" here.  

Brandt switched dive schools and has started his 3-week Divemaster course at UDC and it's a great fit and is going well for him.  He is gone much more of the day, but it gives me time to enjoy things that we don't do together.   And it makes me miss him which in a weird way, I like.

Now that I have a kitchen I am doing more cooking!  And grocery shopping (which is one of my favorite hobbies).  Tonight I am making curry for the first time, so wish me luck.  I am continuing to practice yoga and it is really wonderful.  I'm grateful to have this time in my life where I have the time to practice for 1.5-2 hours (most) every day.  I walk a lot, usually 1-2 hours a day, and I read and I am studying Spanish daily.  Also, I finished the book, Mexico (James A. Michener) and I very highly recommend it.  Lastly, I'm going to try and start focusing on meditation more so just picture me picturing my breath and that's where I'm at.

I hope you enjoyed this post and are feeling at home. 

Please seek the intended message of this post overlooking any typos and grammatical/formatting mishaps. 

Never Too Much

I'm jamming out (seriously, it is my actual dance party of one) to Luther Vandross "Never Too Much" while feeling somewhat pressured to come up with a clever and entertaining blog entry.  Why don't they write love songs like they used to?  Now I'm on to "Ain't No Woman Like the One I Got" thanks be to the Four Tops.  When I was 20 years old, my best friend and I used to take a shot of bottom-shelf vodka or gin (yes, of course I had a chaser and drinking chips) to every Jay-Z song on our playlist.  Now I am merely blogging one sentence to each throwback love song on my playlist.  30 really isn't the new 20.  Who came up with that anyway?

The thing is, when you go to an island and plan to stay there for 2 months, you just don't have busy days.  Don't get me wrong, I am just fine with this change of pace, but I'm not yet sure how to translate it into really interesting public-journal information.  But I'll do my best to come up with the news of the week.

Our best friends here are Rodney and Luna.  They are a couple in their 50s who decided to quit their jobs before the conventional retirement age so that they could actually enjoy themselves while they were still spry and able.  Our best friends before that were another couple in their 50s from Canada, one retired, one taking a 6 month leave from her nursing job, to travel for 6 months.  We must have old souls, what can I say.  Anyhow, Rodney and Luna work here at Deep Blue and are both Dive Instructors, living here for about 2 years now.  They are happy, laid back, and fun - we've been out to eat with them a few times and went to a fundraiser last night for BICA (Bay Island Conservation Association).  There was a pretty decent band but the long drawn-out raffle persuaded us to make an early departure. 

I completed 14 dives since I've been here!  My favorite was a deep wreck dive at a site called the Halliburton.  It was awesome.  A purposely sunk 189 foot ship, 102 feet to the floor of the sea.  We spent about 20 minutes exploring it, including a few swim throughs!  I'll probably complete another 6-10 dives while we are here, then do some diving in Roatan too, before departing the Bay Islands.  Unfortunately I missed a couple of dives Brandt went on and hunted lion fish!  He is becoming a master hunting right-hand man!  Luna made delicious lion fish ceviche this week too for all of us to enjoy.  That was a first for me!   

I've been really enjoying reading books.  When I was an old kid, I read like a book worm all the time and I loved it!  Then college and trying to date and trying to obtain degrees happened.  Now I can read again.  Brandt and I decided just to bring one kindle and share it, which is working out ok.  Mostly he reads it and I read books I find around or switch out from a book exchange.  So far my book list includes:

        1) The Other Typist - Suzanne Rindell.  I liked this book and would recommend it.

        2) The Good Guy - Dean Koontz.  This book was garbage.  After reading books that are actually interesting, this was really a waste of time.  I don't recommend this.

        3) The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver.  This was really a lovely read.  I like so much about it and really like this author.  This is highly recommended. 

        4) My current read - Mexico - James A. Michener.  So far really interesting.  I hope to recommend it as well when I am finished.

Please, if you have read some really great books (I know you have), share them with me in a comment.  Kindle + library cards = access to great books from anywhere in the world!

Lastly, I must comment about traveling with my fiancé, Brandt!  Previously, I traveled mostly solo, and once on a great 2.5 month adventure with a wonderful girlfriend.  Of course I can't say that one way is better than another, but I can say that traveling with Brandt is a dream come true!  It's wonderful to spend so much time together, experience new things together, share our thoughts and ideas and plans, and wake up next to the one you love.  

(And as I close, I listen to a different type of love song - one that reminds me of all the greatest loves of my life.  You know who you are :) "Wagon Wheel" - OCMS)

Please excuse any typos and grammatical failures.  Sent from my dream world. 

"Be prepared to modify your plan. It'll be good for you!"

I didn't have too many last "must haves" before leaving the United States - you know, enjoying all of the things in excess that you think you won't be able to live without once you leave.  I must admit, I was really excited to keep showering with my Neutrogena Rainbath until I boarded the plane and I was happily gaining some extra padding eating my dad's home-cooked meals, but really, there wasn't much I thought I wouldn't be able to do without.  However, whether I am leaving Bloomington for 3 months or 3 years, I always have to have one last meal at The Grand Cafe (authentic Chinese food in Bloomington over the past 90+ years).  My parents ordered takeout since the Bulls were playing.  Is it sad or nostalgic that I still order the chicken-fingers-of-chinese-food, Grand War Mein Soup (specially ordering it so that basically nothing is in it except broth, ramen noodles, and sliced beef)?  I'm going to go with traditional and nostalgic (and still delicious)!!  Anyhow, the Chinese takeout experience was completed with that crunchy iconic little treat.  I opened my fortune cookie and exposed the flimsy white note, "Be prepared to modify your plan.  It'll be good for you!"  So there it was, the mantra I would embark with as I travel around the world. (It's taped in my journal lest I forget)

And so far, I'm trying!  And I think I am having some success!

We are currently living in Utila, Honduras for the next 2 months and I'm as happy as a clam!  Our adventure here wasn't too stressful and was without any hiccups along the way.  The worst part was sitting in the world's lamest international terminal - O'hare Chicago.  Jesus.  Look alive, O'hare!  I was so excited to have a celebratory beer upon our arrival only to be sorrily disappointed.  Flights were uneventful.  We had a long layover in Mexico City but that was about as good as a layover at Chuck 'E' Cheese - shops were open, every 50 feet 80" televisions showed the Olympics!!!, all of the employees we interacted with exuded happiness for their job and appreciation that you happened to be spending time in their airport (TSA could learn a thing or 50).  After that, a short flight to SPS (San Pedro Sula), a somewhat disappointing negotiation with 4 taxi drivers, another short wait at the city main bus terminal, a 3.5 hour bus to La Ceiba, and one last cab to our hotel, El Estadio.  It was nearly 24 hours after leaving Brandt's parents house that we arrived at our hotel.  Finally, beers were in order!  After 2 Imperials, we slept like babies.

The next morning we took a ferry to the island, Utila, and here we are, settled in and enjoying a different sort of life.  Paradise awaits you here, I'm telling you.  Do you have 3 weeks PTO you don't know what to do with?  You can just come here and you will be happy.  I am really really happy.   And I am warm.  Warm and happy really works for me!

We are living (rent-free) and diving at Deep Blue Divers.  Utila is a small quiet island, has no stop lights (and maybe not even stop signs), can be explored on foot in a matter of 12 hours, and is a diver's haven.  There are 10 dive shops in a 1 mile stretch, all offering something different.  We are the bologna between Alton's, in incredibly terrifying (because I'm in my 30s now) frat house of a dive shop, and UDC (Utila Dive Center), less fratastic but equally not our style - this shop apparently certifies more PADI divers per year than any other shop in the world (so factory-style I mean to say).  The delicious bologna as I mentioned is Deep Blue, a small quiet shop where people go to bed before the sun comes up and basically, we have private instruction!

Our (private) room has a great big purple octopus on the wall and I saw that as a very good sign.  Brandt and I spent a couple of days just settling in, and then completed our PADI Rescue Diver course this past week.  It was challenging, but it was fun!   Plus we have done loads of really nice diving - schools of fishes, eels, spotted eagle rays, lobsters, crabs, coral galore.  No whale sharks yet, but we have plenty of time!  Brandt will continue on to complete his Divemaster course (the first professional level of diving), and I will just "fun dive" and do the other things I do everyday - yoga, swimming, exploring, reading, etc.

I'll leave you with some random thoughts and observations that might give you a better picture of what life is like for us now:

- There are far less/no rules in Honduras 

- At the store there are bottles of pills at the counter and you just buy the number of pills you need at a time out of the bottle (i.e. 4 motrin instead of 1000) and it costs like $0.05

- In San Francisco I was living indoors.  All the time inside cars and buildings and my house.  Now we live outdoors.  Everything but sleeping is outdoors.  Common spaces and restaurants are all at least open air.  I love this the most about being here

- We don't snack between meals unless it's to share a banana

- I'm not a daily coffee drinker any more - 2-3x a week as a treat usually in the afternoon

- We make breakfast at home (toast/fruit), but usually eat lunch and dinner out.  It's much more delicious than cooking, and actually about the same cost or less (provided we tried to make the meal we ate dining out)

- Baleadas are the most common tipico food here (they are delicious)- large homemade tortilla with a layer of beans, stuffed with cabbage, onions, peppers, avocado, and meat (of your choosing)

- We play cards and learned two new games so far - Cribbage and Piquet.  248 more to learn.  Through playing cards, Brandt and I have learned we are both poor losers.  We need to work on this

- I haven't watched TV and I don't miss it yet

- The temperature is between 68 and 85 all day every day

- Some showers (sometimes called "the electrocution shower") has exposed electrical wiring and then a sliding bar on the shower head with 3 settings: winter, summer, and 0.  Winter means you will get hot water (hopefully), summer means cold water, and 0 means however the water comes is what you get.  Don't worry, we haven't been shocked yet and the water pressure is better than my parents' house so I can't complain

- I wake up at 5:45am without an alarm and it feels really good

- If you get hungry on the bus ride, don't worry.  Every 30 minutes people will come on and sell you food - cooked corn, fresh fruit, drinks, and really anything else you might want.  We bought a gigantic bag of watermelon for $0.50.  

- You can't flush toilet paper here.  You just wipe your bum and put the TP in the waste basket. 

- I drink between 1/2 and 1 gallon of water every day

Lastly, and importantly, I will update those interested on our budget situation!  As we were deciding to take this adventure, many people told us they would never be able to afford something like this.  Our point of view has been that if traveling is something you want to do, and you prioritize it above other things, then of course you can afford it.  It was close to impossible to figure out what a daily budget would be, but we decided on $50/day between the two of us which would be $18,250 for 1 year of travel (for 2 people!).  Many of y'all have cars and stuff that cost that much!  We also decided though, that somethings would not be included in that budget - flights and diving and safari mainly.  For us, we figured those would be difficult to factor into daily spending, and we would have enough budget to cover those separately.   

So are you ready for it?!?!

I'm happy to report that our 12 day budget has averaged to………………………..$32/day (for the 2 of us).

Now my point of view is, EXCUSES!, most all first-world folks can do this!  You just have to want it.  But seriously, no more gripes about the cost.  NONE!  We aren't hearing it!

Today I am going out with my fancy camera, so I will try and add more pictures this week! (sorry, few pics within this post due to painfully slow/unreliable internet connections).

Please excuse any typos.  Sent from my dream world.