What I’ve learned on the road

Travis and I began this year with a goal and a dream. The goal was to learn Spanish. We feel we got an excellent start on this endeavor, although we will need a major refresher course when we come home. The dream was to pack up everything, leave home, and see how long we could live abroad. At this point last year, I could never have envisioned what this year would look like or feel like. All that was planned was two months in Madrid, and from there we were not sure what would come next. Would I have guessed I’d have opportunities such as exploring the souks of Marrakech, teaching English in Nicaragua, planting lavender plants in Italy, herding camels in Austria, or biking the bike lanes to beer gardens in Germany? Never. Funny how life can evolve when you give it the chance to divert from the norm. With just one week remaining of what some might consider a daring undertaking, I wonder if some of the things I have learned will to transfer to my life back at home.

To encompass the whole scope of things learned would be impossible in one blog entry, not to mention some of its content will best be kept in my journal for personal reflection. My guess is that many of the lessons I have learned this year I haven’t even realized yet. Here are just a few discoveries of what I picked up along the way.

1. Life does not have to be so fast-paced. Coming from Los Angeles, life moved a mile a minute. I spent a lot of time in my car, liked to keep my calendar full, and thrived on familiar, busy routines. Living in countries this year with a different take on how you spend your time has shown me it’s okay to slow down a little, move away from the predictable, and take moments to pause in your day to sit on a rocking chair or slowly sip a cup of tea without feeling guilty for doing so.

2. I can spend 24 hours every day with my husband, and still be entertained by his witty remarks and entertaining stories. Just get him on the topic of 80’s TV commercials, and he’ll be singing the jingles to you for hours.

3. Working with my husband is a true delight. Again, not just kudos to Travis, but also a revelation to both of us that we are taking into consideration as we make goals for our future. We so much enjoyed the opportunities this year provided us to do things together: teach English, learn and practice a new language, and even work in the fields. We are not sure if this might lend itself to side-by-side positions or working as a team someday, but we are definitely open to the idea. Thoughts, anyone?

4. I love teaching adults English. Who would have known that spending my time educating adults would feel more richly rewarding than some of my previous experiences teaching younger children? Could this be a possible revelation for a future profession? Hmmm…. we will see.

5. Living on a very tight budget is doable, and a good challenge. Rarely have I questioned the cost of a cup of coffee or a scoop of ice cream as much as I did this year. Categorizing our budget and setting monthly expenditures and limits helped me appreciate even more all those things that came with a cost.

6. I can survive without hot water for 3 months. Okay, this is rather trivial, but it’s something I wouldn’t have discovered had I not been forced to make do. I can’t say this is one I enjoyed, but I endured.

7. Living in busy cities invigorates me. Ever since I was a little girl, I always wondered if small town life might be a good fit for me. Well, after living in tiny villages and isolation on the farms this spring, I believe I have found my answer. City life in Munich has been the perfect way to end our trip.

8. Sunny days are happy days. I guess I’m just a true California girl at heart. Multiple days in a row of cloudy skies and pesky rainstorms do little to boost my spirits. This spring and summer we have experienced more rain than what 10 winters in Los Angeles could produce. I love the sun.

9. Being flexible can actually be fun for me. Amazingly, I have adjusted to this traveler lifestyle much easier than I expected. For my well-planned nature, having to live with only about one week ahead planned out has been challenging. Fears of the unknown often crept in, and my tendency to fight them off by over planning had to be quelled. There was just so much completely out of my hands. You can read all you want about a country and its people, but until you settle down and live life for a while, you cannot predict if you will like it. So with that, I have learned to take things as they come, be more flexible with our schedule, and not let my personal expectations get in the way of seeing or experiencing a place just as it is.

10. Stepping out of my cultural comfort zone leads to colorful adventures, enhanced taste buds, great stories, and a better awareness and understanding of others. This can be attributed to the large variety of people I’ve met this year from different families, backgrounds, social classes and locations.