couchsurfing and travelling

It's been a while since I last posted so I thought I'd give it a whirl again. There have been several times in the last few days where I have thought, 'Ooh, I should blog about that' but alas, as with many things in my life, they have been left unaccomplished. I'll try to update this more often, and I ask you to have patience with my absent-mindedness when I forget.

London turned out to be wonderful, the last couple of days it was mostly cloudy with only a little rain. I ended up going to Stonehenge and Cambridge on my last couple of days in England. Stonehenge was breath-taking, simply has to be seen in person to be truly appreciated. My newly found couchsurfing friend, Aaron, and I laughed at all the people who were jumping for pictures. They'd try to get the timing right of course, but this usually took several tries and in the mean time the ones who were out of shape were having quite a difficult time continuing jumping. This doesn't mean I would've done any better mind you, I just know not to jump a lot anymore because I'll get unnecessarily winded and only have a stupid picture to show for it. I went on a 'punting' tour in Cambridge, where you sit in a canoe-like boat while a 'punter' stands on the back of the boat and propels it forward by using a wooden or metal pole. You don't go very fast, but that's really not the point of punting. He gave commentary as we went so it was interesting to hear about all the different colleges and how they came into being. Unfortunately it rained for about half the trip which made it a 'shame' as the Brits who I was sitting with kept calling it. Afterwards I went to the King's College Chapel which was quite inspiring. A ton of stained glass, and the largest vaulted fan ceiling in the world. My only real regret about Cambridge was that I wasn't able to stay longer, I had to be back in time for my couchsurfing host's evangelistic service at church.

My couchsurfing host was a devout Christian, and I was inspired to live more for Christ on a daily basis by being around him, something I hope to inspire in others as well. His church was quite interesting and definitely different from the church that I go to back home (shout out to all you Creekers, you know who you are.) They sang hymns with an organ, and not just hymns but 17th and 18th century hymns, by people such as John Wesley and Martin Luther, among many others. Some would argue that the old hymns have more depth than today's worship songs and after singing some of them, I don't necessarily agree with them. The main difference is more verses and words, but essentially a lot of the verses say the same thing, just with different words. Modern worship repeats the same words over and over again, allowing you to really concentrate on the meaning of the words and ideally enter into a more worshipful experience. Often though, the songs go on, and on, and on, as my parents used to lament after church when I was growing up. We would laugh about who counted how many times we would sing the chorus to many of the songs. Obviously you have moved past a worshipful experience at this point and are either irritated or glad to practice singing. My hats are off though to those of you who can worship for the entire time, I really wish I could but I simply can't, either because I'm just not spiritual enough or because I have adult ADHD. My psychiatrist assures me that it's simply the fact that the symptoms of bipolar and ADHD overlap, but I wonder as I often have a hard time concentrating on one thing for very long, as this blog can attest to. Now, what was I talking about again? haha

Richard was my couchsurfing host in London, and he was great. Very hospitable like all couchsurfers and opened his home to the stranger as we're commanded to do in Scripture (can I say that being a couchsurfing host is commanded by Scripture? Probably not, but I think it's safe to say in the states that Christians need to be better practioners of hospitality than most of us currently are.) He was confused at the notion of how Aaron (another couchsurfer who stayed there and also happened to be American, and taking a round the world trip, and starting in London, and from Florida, weird, but anyways) and I would use the word 'awesome' to describe seemingly ordinary things, such as public transportation. We said that was our culture, to say awesome all the time and to exaggerate in general. It makes life better, and stories way more interesting, oops, there I go exaggerating again, haha. He made us this stuff called Holix, which helped me to get to sleep since I was fighting jet lag so badly. He also made us traditional English porridge, known more commonly in the USA as oatmeal. I've never been a fan of oatmeal, and still don't like it, but I at least ate most of it as not to be rude. Richard lived with 6 others, according to him, who all came from different walks of life but shared a common faith. As those of you who know me can imagine, I loved staying there for a week as it was something that was right up my alley.

Yesterday I arrived in Amsterdam after a short 40 minute flight and was amazed at how quickly I got through security. In London it took two hours to get through security whereas in Amsterdam it only took probably less than 5 minutes. The passport control officer barely looked at me before he stamped my passport and sent me on through to get my luggage. Another thing I forgot to mention, apparently my bag doesn't count as a carry-on, d'oh! So now I have to pay those annoying checked bag fees which I've managed to avoid for the most part on my travels, usually only carrying a backpack for trips of a week or less. Admittedly, I'm a little ashamed that I couldn't fit it all into a carry-on, but in the same breath they let me use it as a carry-on from Sarasota to New York City.

Karl is my host in Amsterdam, and he's awesome! He's really funny, having what he refers to as Dutch sarcasm. I remember that a little from my time here in '07, and I remember enjoying it thoroughly then as well. I'm sleeping on an air-mattress this time around, last time in London it was an actual bed. In both places I lucked out with getting a room all to myself, which my mom will say is a very good thing since I tend to 'spread out' as she calls it. Probably each of my former roommates would say the same thing, I guess we all have our flaws :) We have talked quite a bit about politics and healthcare since I've arrived. As many of you know, I love to talk politics, although this time it's with someone I agree with, in the states it's usually with people I disagree with, which makes it a little more fun and animated. Is it really any surprise that I agree with a European on politics more than Americans in general, at least the Americans I associate with? I'll try not to dive too deeply into politics right now, as I like to save that for little bits here and there, sometimes a little more than a 'bit.' We had pizza tonight, and laughed when we were in Albert Hein (their national grocery store) and saw the difference between an 'Italian' pizza and an 'American' one. One was even called the 'Big American' as a title of the pizza, hilarious. We opted for the Italian one, probably a good choice since I need to watch my weight. Tonight he asked me who my favorite singers were and I told him Jack Johnson and Ben Harper. To this he replied, "Is Jack Johnson the one associated with the monkey movie?" "Yes, if you're referring to Curious George." haha He hadn't heard of Ben Harper so he pulled him up on a website and I've been listening to him through his great sound system ever since. Meanwhile Karl has gone to bed but the blog calls for me to stay up a little bit.

Travelling is a big part of me, and probably always will be. I love experiencing other cultures, although sometimes I do listen to my I-pod just to hear some English speaking people if nothing else. What is it about travel that lures me in like a fish attracted to worms? I think it's just the different and 'out of the ordinary' that comes with it. For whatever reason I tend to thrive in these situations where I'm dropped in a country and need to find my way around. That's one of the few things I would argue I'm decent at. For this, my life is deeply enriched. During the housing market crash I was tempted to buy a house. It was basically a decision between that and this trip, and I couldn't be happier with my decision. Who wants to take care of a house when you can travel the world for 8 months instead? :) Actually, I know quite a few people who would seemingly rather that, at least that's where their money goes if that says anything, which it usually does. Nothing wrong with owning a house, mind you, it's just not for me at this point in my life. It seems like the more stuff you have the more you have to worry about, so I like to keep it simple and have a car and relatively few other possessions when compared to most other people that I am around. It's different, I know, but it works for me and I love it.

jet lag

Well, it's 6:10 am and I haven't fallen asleep yet, so I guess the best thing is just to stay up the rest of the day and then sleep tonight hopefully. This jet lag is killing me. I now remember last time I went to Europe it took me about 5 days to adjust to the time difference. Oh well, yesterday was a really good day. Wanna hear about it? Good, I thought you did :)

Went to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery on Trafalgar Square. Personally, I liked the National Portrait Gallery better than the National Gallery. They had an exhibit on the road to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games that are going to be in London. It was interesting because it had photographs of different athletes and people who had worked behind the scenes to get the Olympics to come to London. I liked it because it shared a part of their story next to the portrait. I love hearing people's stories. Not sure what it is, but I find it absolutely intriguing to hear where people have been and where they want to go in the future. There were also other floors with different portraits of famous people throughout England's history. I didn't find those nearly as interesting, but it got me thinking along the lines of, 'What is my life going to count for when it's all said and done?' Is it going to be worth anything to anyone besides myself? I certainly hope so. I also people watched out of a cafe today which got me thinking along the same lines of there are so many people and so many stories to be told.

After going to the galleries, I went to St. Martin in the Fields church for a concert. It was Mozart's Requiem and also a world premeire of another conductor's piece. It was absolutely phenomenal and well worth the 10 pounds that I paid to get in. The violinist was very impressive as well as the chamber choir blending with the orchestra. A few times I would just close my eyes and try to soak in the moment and capture the beauty with my ears. It was simply magnificent.

I went to a cafe today called Petra and was really encouraged to see their commitment to sustainability and good wholesome food. Instead of just a garbage bin they had a few different slots and had the statement above that 96% of their packaging was recyclable. Obviously this stood out to me as that's a pretty bold claim. I think they would probably do a really good business in America as we're also going that way as a society. England seems to be ahead of us in the green movement, as is the rest of Europe from what I remember. Hopefully we can catch up in the near future. It's going to take the right policies though, which seems to be beyond our state and federal governments on just how to do that. And now corporations can support politicians with unlimited funds? How is that democratic? Corporations have an ungodly amount of money and now they get to back politicians with those dollars? I really hope that's overturned soon as that is going to undermine our political process and democracy even further than it already is. It'll stand if the corporate-hugging Republicans have anything to say about it though.

Today I'm going to go to Greenwich and see the international date line so that should be cool. Also planning on going to Westminster Abbey and that whole area over there, just need to get proper directions, as they say here in England. My couchsurfer host Richard told me there's a boat tour that goes from Greenwich to Westminster Abbey that would be worth the ride as they have commentary along the way and it's a good scenic route that's a little different than the usual walking tour. In a couple of days I plan on making a day trip to Cambridge to check out some of the history there.

Hope you're all doing well back in the states!

goodbye

Well, the day has finally come...August 22nd, the day I take off for my round the world trip! It's been really hard this last week saying goodbyes, especially to my friends' kids. Admittedly, I got rather choked up when I said goodbye to Josh and Missy's kids last night and Ryan and Lori's kids this afternoon. They hold such a special place in my heart. It's hard enough to say goodbye to my friends, but my friends' kids have really worked their way into my heart in a big way. I don't know what it is about kids, but I envy them. They are so happy and care-free it seems like. Saying this, I realize from seeing it many times firsthand, that kids aren't always care-free as they can shed a lot of tears sometimes. During the times when they're happy, though, you can't wipe the smile off their little faces. It seems like I've lost that to a degree. The ability to truly live in the moment and soak in all that life is giving you right then, right there. More often then not, my mind is distracted with other things while I'm physically present somewhere else. With kids however, their whole being is thrown into the moment they find themselves, they simply don't know any different. It's a fascinating thing to watch, really, to see them live in the moment with reckless abandonment. I'm thankful that their parents are able to provide a safe and loving environment for them to become the person God created them to be. It's been an honor to watch my friends' kids grow up, and I look forward to getting back to that when I return.

Well, I've managed to pack my life for the next 8 months into a carry-on backpack and a little backpack, which I'm going to refer to as my small personal item if they ask me about it. That's crazy when I think about it, everything I need is in a backpack, and my electronic goods in the smaller backpack. I pack pretty light as it is, but this is pretty impressive even for me :) This backpack will be my life for 8 months, wow, interesting, isn't it? How many of you could pack your life into a carry-on backpack and a small personal item? Of course, as many of you already know, I'm not the most normal person to begin with, so maybe this just fits that idea. This backpack will see a lot of couches on this trip, as I'm going to try and couchsurf most of the time I'm overseas.

My trip will cover 6 continents if you count my starting point and ending point as North America. Well, gotta go, my plane's leaving...I better not be late for this trip!

How Often Is the Gas Tax Raised? Most Americans Have No Clue

How Often Is the Gas Tax Raised? Most Americans Have No Clue

gas tax

The average state and federal tax on gas combined is 47.7 cents per gallon. What's scarier is the fact that the federal gas tax has been unchanged at 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993! See above post for a link to that info. Also in the above article it states that 60% of Americans think the federal gas tax increases every year. It doesn't even change for inflation, which means that 18.4 cents per gallon does a lot less towards rebuilding infrastructure today then it did in 1993. Gas is about $2.67 per gallon in Sarasota today, depending on where you fill up.

How do we expect to get off fossil fuels if we continue to fill up for incredibly cheap prices? We'll only get off fossil fuels this way when the demand starts to exceed the supply. I would argue we need a much higher gas tax in order to ween us off oil sooner than later. As my friend Tim put it, we didn't run out of stones before the Stone Age ended. Look what happened back in 2008 when gas went up to $4 a gallon. People started car pooling more, biking to work more, using public transportation more and even selling gas guzzling SUV's in order to get more fuel efficient cars. Demand went up for hybrid cars and demand went down for SUV's. Desperation leads to innovation. If gas goes up in price dramatically we will find alternative modes of transportation and learn how to get more bang for our buck with gas, i.e. much higher miles per gallon in our cars and trucks.

Now, some obvious problems arise with this. I read a book called Naked Economics that described what some of these problems would be as creative destruction. The idea is that as we move off of a certain technology there will basically be growing pains along with it. One of the creative destruction things along with getting off gas would be learning how to retrain mechanics to work on electric cars and hybrids rather than just your typical gas powered car like they do now. Obviously, this is doable, but would probably involve a pretty steep learning curve. Another problem is the car batteries found in electric cars include quite a bit of mercury, so we would have to put investment towards finding either a way of recycling that mercury once the battery is finished or how to make a battery without mercury to begin with. Another thing, and this is perhaps the hardest pill for me to swallow, is that it would effect poor people on a much higher percentage of their income than rich people. Maybe this could be offset by offering discounts on public transportation passes based on income level. The other problem, is that with making more electric cars are we just increasing our dependence on other fossil fuels such as coal? How would we incentivize towards getting off of coal for electricity at the same time? One suggestion is a Feed In Tariff, which Germany has successfully implemented to move towards a much higher renewable energy production.

I used to believe that Americans would want to get off oil just because it was the right thing to do. Now I realize that beyond environmentally conscious people and Christians who believe in creation care, this will simply not happen. Unfortunately, the only thing that really speaks to most Americans is what effects their pocketbooks. Rather than get off oil, we have many politicians, Republicans mainly but even some Democrats, who want to expand our offshore drilling. And this is after the BP disaster! Are you kidding me?! So not only will we run the risk of more oil spills (sure, we can increase the chance that it won't happen but the only sure way of not having an oil spill is by not drilling for it in the first place) but we will also prolong getting off oil due to the obvious consequence that gas will stay cheap or possibly get even cheaper? And this is coming from people who claim to have the best interests of their children in mind? How is raping the earth even further having the best interests of your children in mind? So we can live how we want now and in essence say "Screw you" to our children when we run out of fossil fuels and they're stuck having to find alternatives when all along we had the brains and technology to get off fossil fuels but simply lacked the will to make for a smoother transition? Are we really that reactionary as to not be proactive at all? Really?