While Eli perfects the art of frugality and researches other important details for our trip, such as required vaccines and possible routes, I find myself somewhat stuck. What should I do? How can I contribute to this project?
As we were walking through the travel section of the bookstore last week, I picked up No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late
In addition to taking on the communication aspect of this endeavor, I’ve also taken to reaching out to those I, or someone I know, may know who are overseas, not because I’m expecting we’ll go to them instead trying to make it work on our own, but because it’s always good to have a back up plan. Is it my pessimism that makes me prepare for a plan gone sour? Absolutely not! This nagging voice in my head that’s urging me to have a contingency plan earned a place in the department in my head called “voices I listen to” while we were in Puerto Rico in January.
Condado, PR. On the north coast of the island, Condado is bursting with tourists, English-speaking natives, and condom worlds...
I lost my debit card and license on the second day we were there. How lame. We didn’t let that little mishap ruin anything though; instead we continued on and had a pretty awesome trip. Besides having an awesome trip however, and perhaps something more important than having had a great time on our trip, we learned a few things about Puerto Rico, from how to be a frugal tourist to places worth seeing to, on the last day of our trip, what normal, non-tourist life in Puerto Rico is like.
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Out of downtown Mayaguez, PR. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Bayamon. However, I do have this picture of Mayaguez, which is where we stayed for four days awaiting the arrival of my passport. I posted this picture because it illustrates what non-tourist Puerto Rico is like. Oh, by the way, Mayaguez is not a "touristy" area.
We stayed with a family of a friend of mine in Bayamon, PR the night before we left. They were incredibly hospitable, understanding, and hilarious. I feel forever indebted to them for providing us with insight into Puerto Rican life as well as a lift from the other side of the island, warm satisfying meals, and for taking us to the airport on our scheduled departure date. To the Roman family, thank you very much. Also thanks to mom for sending me my passport and some cash. And, of course, thanks to Eli for being so incredibly awesome about everything.
Along with learning the above, I learned that asking for help from others WILL NOT KILL YOU as I’d once thought. Instead, it will teach you how to temper your pride and you’ll learn how great others can be. Having hope in humanity makes welcoming the unknown a more manageable task and also provides a lesson in resourcefulness.
So I guess the moral of this post is to use your experiences to prepare and to keep your eyes peeled for what lessons you may learn from things to come. These seem like pretty obvious concepts, some may even say like common sense, but how common is common sense really?
Well, that’s all I have to say for now. Děe-o póp gan mài (See you later)
