Search by tags Hello Big Adventure
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Lost in Translation
Even after five days in Colombia, I had to admit that as much as my Spanish conversation skills had improved, they were still limited to the point that carrying on a conversation in sign language, baby talk or even dog would have had a better success ... -
Terror in a Taxi
As our taxi rocketed down the narrow cobble-stoned street and weaved in out of the traffic at maniacal speeds, it became clear that our driver was, as they might say in Colombia, a few llamas short of a herd. We were in Colombia and we were trapped in a cab ... -
Colombia Calling
I was on a bus in a foreign country and I was lost. But given the events of the previous two years, this situation wasn’t unusual or even, for that matter, all that surprising. In fact, if I’d had a nickel for every time I’d gotten lost abroad, I would ... -
A Fool's Fortune
I knew I’d lost touch with my inner cynical New Yorker the moment I decided to go fortune teller shopping in a Hong Kong strip mall. Under normal circumstances, I never would have paid a shopping mall psychic ten dollars to read my palm (or any other body ... -
Karma Police
If I were a superstitious person, I might have claimed it was my mother’s fault my camera wound up in the handbag of a Chinese woman. If I were a superstitious person, I might have said my mother had jinxed me when, only minutes before I’d abandoned my ... -
Hard Up in Hong Kong
I was standing in line in front of a fried chicken food stall on an island off the coast of China when it happened. My mother had just placed her order with the woman behind the counter when I noticed the crumple of violet-colored currency peeking out from ... -
Singapore Sling
Every country has that one illustrious ‘must-see’ attraction. India has the Taj Mahal, Japan has Mount Fuji and Singapore, well, it has a zoo and a cherry-flavored cocktail. “It’s a night zoo,” the hostel owner had clarified, as if ... -
Solo in Singapore
It was two in the morning and I was alone in the deserted parking lot of a strip mall in Singapore. Piled on the sidewalk next to me was the sum total of my worldly possessions: two 30-pound suitcases, a backpack full of baked potato and wasabi-flavored Kit ... -
Excess Baggage
The day I left Japan was the day I tossed the majority of my worldly possessions into an airport trash can. It was also the day I flew to Singapore; a country which, until I’d booked a plane ticket there the month prior, I’d barely known ... -
Read It and Weep
One Saturday morning in May, I woke up, stepped into the shower and sleepily pushed the button that turned on the hot water heater. Or so I thought. Suddenly the bathroom erupted into chaos; sirens blared, an automated computer voice shouted ... -
Flower Power
Out of all the ludicrous activities I’d paid money to do in the previous nine months (volcano-climbing in the rain and skinny-dipping in the snow, for instance) paying eight dollars to gawk at the old tree of a dead general was definitely one of the ... -
Frolicking at a Fertility Festival
It was a typical Sunday morning in Japan. I was drinking an Asahi beer, gawking at partially-clothed Japanese men and waiting in line to purchase a lollypop in the shape of a piece of male anatomy that would have been blurred out had it appeared on basic ... -
Monkey See Monkey Do
“Don’t look now, but there’s a monkey behind you.”
Grin and Bare It
It was a chilly January afternoon in Japan and I was outside and naked. Tiptoeing barefoot across an icy bridge in nothing but my birthday suit, I clutched my tiny hand-towel to my chest in an attempt at a little modesty. The gesture, however, was pointless. ...
A Hairy Situation
The man frowned as he examined my head, seemingly debating on the best way to proceed. He slowly ran the blade down a wisp of my blond hair, conferring with his assistant in hushed tones as he did. His assistant pointed at something at the back of my ...
Not All Who Wander...
In the Lord of the Rings, Tolkein wrote “Not all those who wander are lost.” While this may be a prolific statement about the motives behind why many people travel, it was certainly a quote that was, ahem, lost on me. Sure, I’d ...
Into the Woods
Culture shock has a funny way of sneaking up on you when you least expect it. One minute you’re sitting on a Tokyo subway reading about the fascinating world of Japanese verb conjugations and the next minute you’re tearing up over the sentence “I want ...
Stranger in a Strange Land
Moving to a foreign country, as I was fast discovering, is a lot like being the new kid in high school. You aren’t familiar with the rules, don’t know the lingo and can never seem to locate your homeroom. Worse, you won’t ask for directions or ...
Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Um, excuse me,” I said timidly and in broken Japanese. “Where are the trees?” The man looked up from where he’d been pulling weeds out of a rice field and then stared, looking bewildered. “Trees?” He repeated, gesturing at the ...
It's All Downhill from Here
The Japanese have a proverb about their famous cone-headed friend: “He who climbs Mount Fuji once is a wise man; he who climbs it twice is a fool.” Although I had no intention of climbing Mount Fuji a second time, I’d certainly been a fool to think ...
