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After a crazy, face-stuffing couple of days in MSP (that’s Minneapolis for all you non-midwesterns), I finally got back into my car, stopped briefly in Milwaukee, and drove straight home. Yes, I mean 18 hours of driving straight back to Brooklyn. I am finally recovering from the coffee intake and sleep deprivation.
I don’t know how long I will be back, but I think that I will probably book my flight for September 12th (Yes, Virginia, Tuesdays are the cheapest day), and then it is wildly uncharted from there.
In the meantime I am trying hard to sit still and not incur any more charges than absolutely necessary. I did get scouted for a possible magazine article (which I followed up on, ’cause it pays). And I have been wracking my brain for other ways to make some money before I go. Unlike some of my friends.
I will keep y’all updated on my flight/travel plans.
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Did you know that you can order Miller High Life with champagne service in fine dining restaurants (okay, nice hipster hangouts) in Minneapolis? And gourmet fried cheese curds? This is my kind of city!
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Since my arrival in Kearney, Nebraska, where my parents now reside, I have been reminded several times of a discussion I had with a friend and co-worker shortly before I left New York. My friend was asking how New York is different from living in the Midwest. “It’s just harder,” I replied. And I couldn’t explain it any further, but being back in the Midwest has reminded me of the truthfulness of the complications and stress of the New York life. Here, the food is lackluster, the farmer’s market has actual farmers, and the entire town smells like a feedlot when the air is humid. It is also 100 degrees every afternoon. But the difference is that if you want something, it is possible to get it with a minimum of struggle. You want to go out to eat? Jump in the car and drive to the half empty restaurant. Want to get your car washed, no line at all on a Saturday afternoon. The lanes are wide and the roads are empty. Striking up conversation at the coffeeshop is easy. Don’t get me wrong, I love living in a city, and (for me) the drawbacks of living in a smaller place far out measure the ease, but there is a certain culture of the Midwest that will always be home to me.
During the same conversation with my friend, he asked me if I always dressed as well as I do in New York. Looking through old photographs at my parent’s house, I can say maybe. I always put together my own look, rather than relying on a blueprint from the mall. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Today I was gratified to receive two separate compliments on my outfit by perfect strangers, and the thing of it is, I am wearing all mall clothing, certainly not unavailable to the people of Nebraska.
There should be some tidy little summation here, but the heat is frying my brain.
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Disclaimer: This post deserves a lot more effort and consideration that I am actually going to put into it, ’cause I am just bored with talking about it. If you have questions, concerns, or advice, feel free to shoot me an email, or post a comment and I will attempt to revisit the matter more throughly.
Those of you who are tracking me via this poorly updated blog are a little out of the loop. There has been a somewhat severe change in my plans for next year, namely, I am not going to be teaching in Honduras. Now don’t fret, and don’t frown, I am still going to Central America but instead of an imminent departure I am traveling back to NYC and flying to Guatemala in September. In Guatemala I will be taking an intensive language course in Spanish, and then going door to door to offer my English teaching skills to various institutions. I hear that it usually works out, if you are outgoing enough.
I made this decision because I felt like it would offer me more in terms of what I was hoping to get out of the trip down south. and the August departure was not feasible for various reasons.
So, that’s the update, but otherwise the Central American Adventure remains the same (that is, it still exists).
