Do as the Romans Do

Our journey starts in Singapore where we have a little less then 30 days to make our way up through peninsular Malaysia and Thailand. We then fly out of Bangkok in early October and head over to Nepal where we will spend 6 weeks doing community development work with the organization Global Vision International. After we finish that mid-November, we have two quick weeks in India, followed by a couple weeks in Indonesia.

Originally, Joelle and I want to head to New Zealand for a month before heading home, but New Zealand is much too expensive for us. We thought by the four month we want to strangle one another anyway.

This trip is something we have discussed and debated for years. We both caught the travel bug after spending semesters abroad (my highest recommendation to undergrads!) at Hope. Americans often don't realize that they get stuck in a bubble and are forced by society to follow this unforgiving trend:
high school...college...career...marriage...kids...BAM...BAM...BAM...BAM.

We forget that their is this amazingly beautiful world out there that is completely different then our own and even more fascinating!

I had lunch with a Potbelly co-worker of mine before I left, who gave me some good advice. He said, "Don't worry, your 401 will still be there 6 months from now, but your experience...you may never get that again."

What is so ironic about the whole trip is the response I got from others when I told them I was going backpacking through Southeast Asia. "Why???" Why would I ever want to go there? And the punch line was always the Nepal gig. "Your volunteering? For free? In Nepal??"

This is my time to reason it.

There is something I gained during my few months in Rome, Italy when I spent my semester abroad. If you were to take a vacation to Italy for two weeks, you most likely would pass through Rome for 2 maybe 3 or 4 days. If this was the case, I can tell you right now, I would have HATED Rome.

It is way too crowded, the metro smells like the half the country hasn't showered in 3 weeks. I would have been lost 90% of the time, my feet would have hurt and I would have thought the Colosseum was an absolute joke with fake American gladiator figurines dressed up out front trying to entice you to snap a photo with them so they can charge you 60 Euro. You call this Italy? Everyone around me is American, and the man selling me gelato next to the Fontana di Trevi speaks better English then I do.

However, I thank God I got the opportunity to live in Rome for 5 months, because there is absolutely nothing I love more than the eternal city.

Living there forced me to follow the ever so popular saying When in Rome, do as the Romans do. ( Which, by the way, is an actual book, "As the Romans Do" by Alan Epstein. Fascinating and a must read for anyone planning to visit. Better then any Lonely Planet -on this planet - by a long shot!)

Seriously, have you ever roamed the small streets of Trastevere? Or been able to walk through Piazza di Flora's market on a Saturday morning? The view from Piazza's di Spagna ain't got nothin' on the city view from the park on Via Cornelio. The tour books will never mention it, but the view of the city from here is imperial. I walked 2 miles once, twice, sometimes three times a day and never once did I take the same route. The Roman forum is so much more interesting when I had to meet my professor there every Tuesday morning as he watched me give the presentation on which ever monument we were discussing on that day (and you could count on tourist to join the class as you were presenting, so you better have researched-and watched the Peroni intake on the previous night-so you knew what you were talking about!)

These small Roman treasures are really what makes Rome such an incredible place.

So my point, (I promise I have one and I'm getting to it), is that when you travel it is almost essential to do it over a longer period if possible. You get a completely different perspective on a country or a culture when your completely engulfed in it rather then dropping in for a couple days and hitting the 'hot spots'.

That is what we had in mind when we decided to do work in Nepal. Nepal is an absolutely beautiful country, home to the one of the grandest mountain ranges in the world; the Himalayas.

Unfortunately, it is also one of the poorest countries in the world, who will never be able to live up to its potential of developing a proper growth setting unless it citizens are educated in how to do so. Before you know it, tourism to Everest will destroy the country because proper preservation restrictions are not enforced.

Of course there are many, many others reasons why we decided on going to Nepal. But for sake of time, I am going to summarize it to the fact that that this opportunity and our weeks in Nepal provide us the right to fully indulge, learn and live with people of a another country. And well... here comes the cliche...do as the Romans do.