Consume & Update: Keynote, Vancouver and Your Thoughts

Man, the internet is fantastic. I love unlimited, free wireless internet and all the fruit it delivers. Check out my basket this week!

Fast-Forward Vancouver

"Vancouver City" music video is an artistic collaboration between Innerlife Project and TimeLapseHD. For more information and music downloads go to www.innerlifeproject.com These time lapses are shot with 12 mega pixel Nikon digital single lens reflex cameras. Original resolution is 6 times better than HD (high definition).

Excellent Travel Writer Advice

I don't know how to introduce this piece by Jeffrey Tayler, nor can I sum it up better than by displaying the following excerpts. Basically my advice is for you to read the entire post from start to finish, if it's of any interest to you to travel, write, read, or write about your travels.

Writers must, initially and throughout their lives, be readers first and foremost, and readers not primarily of journalism, but of the classics, both modern and not-so-modern.
“The Death of Ivan Il’ich,” by Tolstoy, was the short story that taught me about the brevity of life and the need to act at once; the protagonist finds himself on his deathbed, and only then realizes that he has wasted his life by following social convention, never doing what he wants.
I conceived early on the conviction that one should lead one’s life as if one were the protagonist of an epic novel, with the outcome predetermined and chapter after chapter of edifying, traumatic and exhilarating events to be suffered through. Since the end is known in advance, one must try to experience as much as possible in the brief time allotted.
Conventions now are hardly less pervasive than they were in Tolstoy’s day; we’re pressured to start a career, build our résumé, earn a certain amount of money, and so forth. But remember: None of us gets out of here alive. So don’t fear risks. Rebel. Be bold, try hard, and embrace adversity; let both success and failure provide you with unique material for your writing, let them give you a life different enough to be worth writing about.

When Do I Succeed?

Screen-shot-2010-02-25-at-5.02.15-PM.png — Success is...

I'll get into that later. For now I'll let these bloggers dig into the definition of "success." Be sure to download the free ebook for the visual and inspiring compilation of these perspectives.

The TBEX '10 Wants You...

...to write a beautiful travel narrative for the Community Keynote. Unfortunately, the world of travel blogging can easily fall victim to the search engine attraction game and disguise the reason why we love to write and read about traveling in the first place. Whether you were fortunate enough to reserve a space at this years TBEX in New York City or whether you sulk on the waiting list like myself, any independent travel blogger may submit a narrative that falls under one of the following categories:

Twinkle in a Traveler’s Eye – The Ideas That Inspire the Trips
In Transit – The Perils (and Joys) of Transportation
Talking to Strangers – The People You Meet
Spit or Swallow – Culinary Conundrums
The Power of Places – Inspiring Destinations
You Did What? – Adrenaline Rushes and Adventures
Love at First Flight – Tales of Romance on the Road
Trips & Falls – Embarrassing Tales & Travel Fails
Home, Bittersweet Home – Reverse Culture Shock & Many Happy Returns

If you can perfect your piece by April 16th and fill out this form, you're golden. I'm assuming nine writings will be chosen to receive TBEX fame and fortune (in the form of a link), but don't apply if you're hungry for prize money. This looks like quite a forum to complete for. I know I am.

Dakota Skies

Gary's got a nice camera and a nice eye.

North Dakotas Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Other Discoveries

One man's luxury antioxidant boost is another's staple dinner item

One seat or two? The NY Times addresses the overweight flyer debate

Vote and send someone to Costa Rica thanks to Nomadic Matt and GAP Adventures

This girl has some great ideas for 10 hour layovers in empty airports at night

Update on Nomadderwhere

Even though I've been blogging for three years and have archives stretching back to January of 2007, Nomadderwhere as you know it is nearing its first birthday - March 29th! As the site receives more input from readers and inspiration from the web and the world, you will see a variety of new developments in the coming weeks and months. January 1st brought the newest addition of the Photo of the Day, and coming Nomadderwhere's first birthday, a new series will appear, inspired by the many e-mails I receive about various topics on travel, the STA internship, and more.

In the meantime, fill me in on what you think.

Consume & Update: Blogtoons, Stress-Free and Flying Home

I'm back! And some of you will be pleased to know that Consume & Update is also back and temporarily on steroids! This edition will be bursting at the seams due to the hundreds of articles I missed while in Fiji that I just browsed all in one intense sitting. Grab a Red Bull for this one...

Good vs. Evil vs. Crazy

Brave New Traveler's editor Ian MacKenzie lets this cartoon open up the age-old conversation of humanity, while then linking it to a traveler's belief in people to do and be good.

We're Getting Soft

"Savvy traveling is all about the tentative and skilled balance between confidence and caution." Natalie Grant gives us something to think about in her article entitled "How to Defy the Definition of Dangerous." If we allow ourselves to be completely turned off a country for fear of a publicized threat, among many other great countries, America wouldn't see one tourist...and would probably lose some paranoid residents.

As someone who developed a somewhat fearful mentality of the world growing up, I feel a great deal of triumph every time I travel and overcome something that was seemingly tough and scary. Makes me feel like I'm putting my dull blade up to honing steel and becoming a "badass."

Sometimes it feels like self-induced stress, self-flagellation, or just plain unnecessary, but giving yourself the opportunity to realize most worries are unfounded is a liberating experience that allows the world to open up beyond your predetermined agenda.

This is why someone who has camped out in Burma might still fear walking alone at night in Brooklyn, or why someone can improvise à la 007 when his car breaks down in Egypt but can’t change a tire in Montana. This is why so many of us crave those hard-knock travel lessons like junkies: because that kind of traveling very easily shreds the definition of ‘dangerous’ into tiny pieces of arbitrary, amusing confetti.

Blogtooning

I've missed my daily readings from Problogger and how to improve upon my wobbly, self-taught skills. In this post, he uses Andertoons to explain why animating your post could be a nice way to freshen your blogs drink. Not sure if I'm interested in doing this, but I really like the idea and wanted to pass it on. Check out the post, fit with six cartoons illustrating his wise points.

Tips for Stress-Free Travel

Hey! What a title! Even if you're flying in Air Force One, getting rubbed down with coconut oil, and completely drunk, you're going to have some stress while on the road. However, Chris Guillebeau offers some good tips, some of which are fairly obvious and others that come with experience, perfect for applying to a budget backpacker's travel style. For instance:

Spend more money. I often get stressed out spending small amounts of money. Overall, this isn’t always bad—it’s led to a healthy paranoia about debt and a lifelong adherence to frugality. However, it has its downsides too, in that I can spend hours walking around trying to decide what to eat, or hours trying to figure out the public transit system somewhere instead of just flagging down a taxi.
It only took me about 100 countries—I’m a slow learner—but I finally created a $10 rule for myself that has been rocking my world. The $10 rule is that when I’m traveling, I deliberately avoid worrying about most things that cost $10 or less.

Tony's at the Keyboard

Before I left for Fiji, Anthony Bourdain hadn't updated his blog in months, sadly. I felt like one lucky little girl with a stuffed stocking when I saw many a posting from Tony in my reader. His writing style is so expressive of his personality and certainly has a modern storyteller, sarcastic tone to it. Check out three of his most recent tales, including one on Bill Murray's haphazard driving skills: Backstory, Working in a Coal Mine, Crystal Blue Persuasion.

Metropolis?

Who took film history in high school? Doesn't Shanghai here look like Fritz Lang got his hands on it? Lovely shot, Vagabondish.

Other Discoveries

30 Funny Travel Quotes to Make You Smile...including #22. “I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places”. – Henny Youngman

Just heard about this...lucid dreaming and dream control

In Defense of the Introverted Traveler. Something that makes me feel better for spending so much time writing instead of clubbing.

Problogger claims to have the Best Writing Advice. Ever.

Get a discount on the new AFAR magazine, thanks to Martha.

Update on Nomadderwhere

At this moment, I'm flying over the East coast in search of my home land: Indiana. Soon, I'll revert back to "home mode," where I work online for about 16 hours a day, babysit on occasion, and plan for the next big event. I may pick up a part-time gig involving singing, dancing, and oodles of smiling, but the primary focus of this period will be reworking The Nakavika Project and preparing for what could be my ideal work situation.

I'll be making a few changes on the site in the coming weeks, including a new series inspired by readers. More updates to come!

Less Consume, More Update: Week Eleven

Today I'm flying home. I have no other quotes to share but these...not about travel but about education and ignorance.

If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. -Abraham Lincoln
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. -Albert Einstein
A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again. -Alexander Pope
To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. -Amos Bronson Alcott
Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. -Daniel J. Boorstin
An age is called Dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it. -James Michener
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong. -Thomas Jefferson
A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. -Thomas Paine
Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. -Will Durant

Update on Nomadderwhere

I'm tired, and I've smelled like a bus station bench for over two months.

After months in a highland village, weeks recharging in village beach resorts, and days talking out issues with Fijians and like-minded thinkers, I'm ready to meet my family in Florida for a wee reunion before heading back to the snow of Indiana.

The project will involve a lot of work and a lot of explaining right here on good ol' Nomadderwhere before it can become anything. But we've got tenacity and don't take this project lightly.

Also, it is with sincere apologies that I report there will be no Video of the Week tomorrow, as internet time here is too expensive and I've been too busy doing absolute squat. But check out Alongside the Village to recap the experiences we've had thus far. And be prepared for the onslaught of good stuff come this Wednesday as I lay out the plan for Nakavika Project content. There's still OH-so much we haven't told you.

Wish me luck that this flight is somewhat smooth...and without snakes.

Less Consume, More Update: Week Ten

One more week before I head back to America, flying home on the 14th. Get this - I get to enjoy two Valentine's Days this year. Let's take one more look at some travel quotes (since I don't have time to check out my favorite travel blogs) before we bring an end to The Nakavika Project.

If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One's destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. -Henry Miller
As a member of an escorted tour, you don't even have to know that the Matterhorn isn't a tuba. -Temple Fielding
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. -Augustine
Travel doesn't merely broaden the mind. It makes the mind. -Bruce Chatwin
I travel a lot; I hate having my life disrupted by routine. -Caskie Stinnett
Travel is the ruin of all happiness! There's no looking at a building after seeing Italy. -Fanny Burney
There is nothing like a comfortable adventure to put people in a good humor. -Peter Mayle

Update on Nomadderwhere

So the fundraiser...we made $171.80 FJD (roughly $90 USD) by selling our donations to the villagers - clothes, purses, backpacks, balloons, rings - and then doubled this amount with our own project funds to use all the profits on supplies for the dispensary. We ended up sending nearly $400 FJD worth of Band-aids, anti-biotic ointment, and more supplies than I can remember. Vita, the dispensary manager and the village first-aid guru, received the box with her ever-present gratitude.

After two months of setting up a volunteer-based project up in the Highlands of Viti Levu, it has come to our attention that changes have to be made in our plan. I'm in the process of detailing the shifts in concept for a future posting. The project will continue on but in a different vehicle, rather than through volunteers. And in a month or so, a new subdomain will be created just for the Nakavika Project. Look forward to that, why dontcha!

Less Consume, More Update: Week Nine

Once again, I fall victim to the paucity of internet in the village. I don't know what people are writing about or what's going on in this world. It's kinda nice, I gotta say. I'm instead looking inward while on The Nakavika Project. Let's make like Janet Jackson and go deep in our thinking, facilitated by some travel quotes:

Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way. -Ralph Crawshaw
If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well enough to travel. -Sir Vivian Fuchs
They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea. -Horace, Epistles
A traveler without observation is a bird without wings. -Saadi
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read. -Oscar Wilde
I like terra firma - the more firma, the less terra. -George S. Kaufman

Update on Nomadderwhere

Sunday evening we came down to town via Rivers Fiji truck for some much needed rest and internet work. The three of us (Jackie Knowles has joined the project...have I mentioned that?) promised the village we would create a video in honor of the funeral week and the passing of Elias. Thus far, the video is half-way finished and 30 minutes long. We still have a lot of work to do.

We're also in the process of developing written agreements with the village and with our 0n-site coordinator, Abel. Having our main points written on paper makes things much more official in Fiji but still doesn't save us from any future headaches. Making deals and having understandings has proved to be difficult thus far. We'll see how this project pans out. Although, as much trouble as we've had with all this, the reasons for us to be here have solidified even further. There's a reason why humanitarian projects aren't covering every inch of the communities that need them. It's not easy.

Returning on Wednesday to the village, we will be having an immediate meeting the headmaster, as he has returned from school break for the first week of classes. We're hoping to discuss the needs of the school, identify things in our power we could do to improve the school, and develop the project even further.

On Saturday, we are also having a fundraiser for the project, which will function much like a yard sale. Using donations both Jackie and I brought over from America, we will provide the village mothers a chance to peruse clothing, purses, backpacks and knick-knacks at a very low price (think a $.25 USD or less). Every mother will be allowed one item per child, and the profits of this fundraiser will go toward buying fever reducer for the village dispensary. The project will also double the final earnings in order to enable more medicine to get to those who need it. The idea behind selling our donations is about teaching the mothers to invest in their child's health, not just use what medicine is free and continue to give money to their children only for candy and billiard games. We'll see how this goes.

Less Consume, More Update: Week Eight

Sadly, I'm not able to read the blogs I regularly follow, thanks to a lack of internet in the village. Instead I'm looking inward while on The Nakavika Project. Join me in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay at home. -James A. Michener
Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God. -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts. -Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
If an ass goes traveling, he'll not come home a horse. -Thomas Fuller
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. -Yogi Berra
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. -Izaak Walton

Update on Nomadderwhere

Without a doubt, the most dramatic week in Nakavika yet...

A 45 year-old man died of a heart attack this week in the village, and the stress of the week has caused some interesting, some negative, some unexpected changes in the village. Updates will come very soon in the form of blog posts, as this weekly space isn't sufficient for telling the stories of these surreal and movie-like adventures.

The bottom line for this project: whatever program we create in Nakavika will certainly be an adventure for the strong and the tough-skinned. This is no trip to paradise. This is true work against the odds for the good.

Good Global Citizen

After running across ProjectExplorer.org a couple months ago, I've been contemplating this topic in hopes I could really tap into the depths of my beliefs. What does it mean to be a good global citizen?

Less Consume, More Update: Week Seven

I've got no clue what other bloggers are up to these days, nor the latest in news or developments in...well, nuthin'. But I'm instead looking inward while on The Nakavika Project, and I am inviting you to join in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast. -Ernest Hemingway
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. -Robert Louis Stevenson
Travel is 90% anticipation and 10% recollection. -Edward Streeter
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. -Confucius
The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has comes to see. -G.K. Chesterton
There is a ghost that eats handkerchiefs; it keeps you company on all your travels. -Christian Morganstern
The more I see of other countries the more I love my own. -Madame De Stael

Update on Nomadderwhere

Welcome to the weekend update with Lindsay Clark, Garrett Russell and Tina Fey.

The chief of the Namosi province announced this week that all kava drinking must stop by 10pm, in order to improve province health, productivity and family time. Noble plan, chief…I'm on board. However, when no one seems to have watches, it's going to be hard to gauge the cut-off, especially when there's no one in the village interested in ratting people out. Noble plan…ain't gonna happen.

Garrett and I found out this week there is a village "nurse" - someone with basic aid training and a government funded dispensary. She happens to be the coolest women we've met thus far up here, and we've given her all of our medical resources in order to train children and adults to find her for first aid. Throughout this experience, we've expressed the interest in finding Garrett a protege to carry on with first aid help in the village. We found it mildly funny, and a wee bit annoying, we never knew she existed until now. The project's potential has just tripled in the health department.

The Nakavika Project is gaining momentum as many talks have occurred between the village and ourselves. It looks as if, after proper introduction and explanation of the whole concept to the elders, we'll be all set for having our own volunteer program in the highlands. Details are fairly squared away, and a website is in the works. Abel will be our point man in the village and the main coordinator of all things NP locally.

Speaking of the NP, our team is not just two but three! Jackie Knowles has joined the project and is currently enjoying day three up in the village. She will be staying with Vita, the village nurse and our new best friend, along with her very smart and adorable children. They also have a cat I earned the privilege of naming "Lady Snugs" after a long petting session where I gained a friend and also determined the gender of this previously androgynous cat. Don't read that last sentence with a dirty mind…sicko.

We experienced our first fundraiser in the village this week, one dedicated to collecting funds for a village lady headed for teacher's college. The evening involved dancing, kava, Akon, island rhythms, and most likely a little fire rum. Details are to come.

Less Consume, More Update: Week Six

What's going on in the world? I haven't the slightest, but I'm instead looking inward while on The Nakavika Project, and I am inviting you to join in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

Twenty years from now you will be mor disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain
The heaviest baggage for a traveler is an empty purse. -English Proverb
Travelers never think that they are foreigners. -Mason Cooley
The Promised Land always lies on the other side of the wilderness. -Havelock Ellis
He who never leaves his country is full of prejudices. -Carlo Goldoni
I have found that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them. -Mark Twain

Update on Nomadderwhere

After a very appreciated vacation to Rakiraki and Pacific Harbor, Garrett and I came back to the village in full force, prepared with more resources (adult and children's books, supplies for managing money, instructional tools, sharpeners, etc.). We're making the following changes to our schedules and classes:

Creating weekly schedules for ourselves to feel and be more productive in work as well as cover more ground in our cultural pursuits
Establishing a set time for children's classes every weekday to keep from the kids lingering around all day long
Create and publicize two weekly seminars for the youth members and adults that will cover various topics of their interest (see The Itinerary for details)
Incorporate reading time after classes with the kids, which will include reading to groups of kids and asking questions and promoting individual reading if they're curious

We also came back to the village before our host mother returned from her trip home (Savusavu). I was appointed the woman of the house and had to clean and prepare food for ourselves. Garrett and I wanted to make American dishes with Fijian ingredients, such as:

Mashed cassava (with butter, salt and maybe a little cream?)
Vegetable soup (with beans and veggies)
Whole wheat tortillas with a bean and veggie mixture
Who knows what else...

We'll be back to the internet on the 14th of January! See you then!

Less Consume, More Update: Week Five

You've heard the story. I don't got no internet up where I'm living. I'm instead looking inward while on The Nakavika Project, and I am inviting you to join in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

The sea that calls all things unto her calls me, and I must embark. -Kahlil Gibran
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Confucius
It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. -Ursula K. Le Guin
A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. -George Moore
Bless not only the road but the bumps on the road. They are all part of higher journey. -Julia Cameron
A good traveler has to fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. -Lao-Tzu
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindness. -author unknown

Update on Nomadderwhere

First things first. Check out the second issue of the Nomadderwhere Newsletter, which features sneak peaks at future written posts, travel recommendations, developments with the site and more.

Free wireless internet. Ocean views from our $13 per night clean dorm room. $2 beers and free snorkeling. 88°F and sunny with a breeze that does its job to cool our steamy bodies. World-class scuba diving a couple meters off shore. Independence, protein and the termination of our farmer's tans. Oh sweet life.

We needed a break from the village, not just emotionally or mentally but physically. Both Garrett and I have contracted minor gastro-intestional issues due to either the diet change or bacteria in the highland water. It's possible the hurricane we braved a couple weeks ago made the water source a little questionable. The river water was possibly septic, and the force of the river knocked out the village's water pipes.

While we hit up the beach this week, we're in the process of revamping our project objectives and creating more structure to our daily programs. Now that we know what works, what doesn't, what's needed and what the village people relate to, we can allocate our funds in the right direction and be more productive and valuable to the village. We'll return this week in full force.

3 Questions...do you have 30 seconds?

If you've got a moment, I created 3 quick questions to find out how to best offer and create value to those of you following Nomadderwhere. I want to know why you keep coming back and what you hope to see in the future. Thanks for your help!

Less Consume, More Update: Week Four

I don't know what's going on in the world, thanks to the paucity of such luxuries as internet or power. Instead of checking out the world hum, I'm looking inward while up here in the Fijian highlands on The Nakavika Project. Join me in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

I am one of those who never knows the direction of my journey until I have almost arrived. -Anna Louise Strong
Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey. -Babs Hoffman
Through travel I first became aware of the outside world. -Eudora Welty
The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist. -Russell Baker
My favorite thing is to go where I have never gone. -Diane Arbus
A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving. -Lao-Tzu

Update on Nomadderwhere

Oh boy. This week has been interesting - our third up in the village and one that has presented its share of cultural obstacles. We're feeling a smidge "nickel-and-dimed" by our hosts, but the main factor that contributes to our frustration comes from the lack of planning and informing. We are left out of many discussions that involve us, but we're getting our thoughts and points across slowly but surely.

This week, we celebrated Christmas in the village - the first white people ("kaivalangi") to do so in the village. Now we are on our way to somewhere touristy, beautiful and relaxing for a week or so.

When we return, we'll be revamping the project to accommodate all the new developments and needs of Nakavika's youth. It will be a real defining moment for us when we get back in January. Also, we plan on implementing these new goals and following them up with a discussion with the village adults to see if this thing could be sustainable and up for another year! We'll keep you up to speed on the progress of the NP!

Less Consume, More Update: Week Three

Maybe some day, villages in the highlands of Fiji will have internet cafes and ...wide spread power outlets. But today, this isn't the case; there fore it's a bit difficult to keep up with what's going these days. I'm looking inward while up here in the Fijian highlands on The Nakavika Project. Join me in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it. -Lord Chesterfield
If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading. -Lao-Tzu
A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other. -M.C. Richards
I sought trains; I found passengers. -Paul Theroux
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we would find it not. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Update on Nomadderwhere

The Nakavika Project is still trucking along, and not only are the children expressing interest in our services, but the youth of the community have started coming over after dinner to review the spelling of their English and expand their vocabularies. They are a hilarious bunch and make it easy to stand in front of people much older and wiser in an attempt to teach.

They've also asked Garrett about how to deal with first aid issues. These boys are rough, and the way they treat their injuries from rugby would make you cringe. Not only are we teaching them about first aid, but we're also learning about Fijian medicine and what they already use in the village (I have already experienced the benefits of Fijian medicine when I cut my hand on bamboo last week).

Garrett is going to participate in a volleyball tournament which is taking place in Nakavika this week, and afterward there will be a dance. The funds for the whole event will go toward acquiring internet in the primary school. We're definitely going to dive into that project and see what we can do to help.

Less Consume, More Update: Week Two

Thanks to a lack of reliable power or internet connection, it's difficult to keep up with what's going these days. I'm looking inward while up here in the Fijian highlands on The Nakavika Project. Join me in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Make voyages! Attempt them...there's nothing else. -Tennessee Williams
The road recedes as the traveler advances, leaving a continuous presence. -Richard Le Gallienne
Travel should be no occasional fling, but a normal and frequent, integral part of one's life. -Arthur Frommer
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust

Update on Nomadderwhere

I made it to the internet this week! Sitting here in Suva, I am realizing my senses have been either heightened/sharpened from village life. The rancid smells of city life are hitting me quite hard today.

What has happened thus far?

After some wee immigration issues with getting an extension for a volunteer visa, we visited Lautoka to see our contact, Kimbo, and then took the bus along the Queen's Road toward Suva. Fluttering our eyelashes a bit got us dropped off at Namosi Junction, which is a gravel road inland that only carriers and some trucks venture up. We waited for a carrier for three hours before hopping into a packed village truck (where I sat on the floor and Garrett mounted a propane tank). Eventually we made it to the highland police post, where we caught a ride with the police into Nakavika.

Our arrival was greeted by about twenty members of the village along with a scattering of kids. We drank kava and laughed and reminisced about the last time I was in Fiji. We asked for permission to stay in the village, and the spokesman agreed to meet us the following day to hear our plans.

Garrett and I are living with the hosts from my previous trip, and we each have our own room, which is incredibly nice and hospitable of them. We've started weekday classes with the kids, which are going extremely well. The kids hang out around our house all day waiting for "class" to begin.

Next week is all about hand washing, and we'll be turning this rather mundane habit into a fun activity with racing games. More to come next week!

Reviewing Chris Guillebeau's Overnight Success

Flying nearly five hours across the majority of America, I had time to kill, or perhaps, stolen time from Mother Earth to finally do things I usually put off in the name of productivity. These items stack up on my desktop, free ebooks and copied posts, awaiting the moment I have time to tap into them - notepad and pen poised.

Somewhere over the Great Plains, I tackled Chris Guillebeau's 279 Days to Overnight Success, an ebook on becoming a full-time writer I downloaded eight months ago. Boy, did I reap the rewards...

In the recent months, I've read a select few ebooks on various topics all relating to my desire to do what I love and get paid to make these activities sustainable. While some have been purely technical and others simply a momentary injection of inspiration, Chris' points got me buzzing for action. I filled an empty document with so many notes, I had to stop mid-way through to organize the avalanche of thoughts.

Chris outlines the basics of his success for the people he most connects with - the artists, the bloggers and the entrepreneurs - and discusses how he became a full-time writer in 279 days, what income he has earned from his blog, how he establishes his brand and avoids being pulled down by online critics. I found an incredible amount of good ideas from this free ebook, some of which I've detail below:

Continue to put an emphasis on building online relationships with other bloggers and those who express interest in my site
- Connect using LinkedIn
- Develop ideas for symbiosis between these online entities
- Tell those I follow "Thank You" for the work that they do and explain the value I reap from seeing their work
- Ask my followers why they visit my site and what they perceive to be the value I can offer

Understand how to use what strengths I've got working for me
- Site the publications that have endorsed my website
- Promote the posts viewers seem to find more relevant
- Use what connections I have to leverage my possibilities for income-making endeavors and answer questions about what I don't yet know
- Begin turning my most prized information into compact, helpful, entertaining guides or ebooks for possible income

Redefine the mark of success with my blog
- Prioritize my time to have writing and creation at the top of the list
- Nurture my current followers and speak as though I have the number I hope to attract from producing quality content
- Create more posts on "Why" and further push the direction of my content toward my preferred destination
- Value constructive criticism but learn to recognize toxic criticism and not let it suck my energy like that one vampire everyone's obsessed with at the movies

That's only a fraction of my potential action inspired by this free ebook, not to mention the four new blog posts ideas I came away with.

The 79 pages took me a couple hours to read thanks to all the note-taking and thought-provoking that went on. It's hard to find or rationalize that time to read such resources, but I definitely found value in checking out Chris' personal advice on improving what I love to do.

Read Chris' ebook on Online Success for yourself

Has anyone else read Chris' manifesto on full-time writing yet? What was your reaction, and did you find any value in his words?

Less Consume, More Update: Week One

Since I no longer have reliable power or internet connection, it's difficult to keep up with what's going these days. I'll be looking much more inward, I 'spose, while up in the Fijian highlands on The Nakavika Project. Join me in some deep thinking facilitated by some travel quotes:

I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. -Hilaire Belloc
The use of traveling is to regulate the imagination by reality... -Samuel Johnson
Travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of frivolous ones. -Anne Sophie Swetchine
The place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes. -Jan Myrdal
The thing I do most is look at maps. I study them. If I'm going to a place, I get all the maps and look at them. There's a lot of information on a map. -Paul Theroux
Direct your eye right inward, and you'll find A thousand regions in your mind Yet undiscovered… -Henry David Thoreau

Update on Nomadderwhere

We're in Fiji! Garrett and I have made it to the village safely and are living the dream, getting settled and getting the conversations flowing.

Unfortunately, that's about as much details as I can deliver at this point, but be sure to keep checking for new posts with photos, videos or updates on the project! If you have any questions about what we're doing up there, check out the NP page or post a question below!

Interview a traveler: The Fulbright scholar in Dhaka

She's sailed around the world's circumference and traveled alone across the Subcontinent of India. Passion fuels her global pursuits, and today she's investigating women's rights and human sex trafficking in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Let's check her out.

Amanda Ferrandino was a fellow student on the Spring '07 voyage of Semester at Sea who has been doing amazing things ever since the final disembarkation. This series of Interview a Traveler continues to give kudos where they are due...to fellow travelers doing some very cool things.

Her Bio: Sup, traveling dogs! I'm Amanda, guilty of being from Long Island but a NYC girl at heart. I think the best way to bond with people is through dancing. I studied abroad with Lindsay on Semester at Sea Spring '07 then studied abroad in Kolkata, India with IPSL while working in a shelter for survivors of sexual violence.

In May '09, I finished my Bachelors in Anthropology/Sociology and Women & Gender Studies from Pace University in NYC and currently living in capital of Bangladesh on a Fulbright Scholarship studying the independence of women after sexual violence.

"Moon River" is my favorite song. I shaved my head on Semester at Sea. I could live off of trail mix, and I have a slightly odd fear of peacocks.

Have you always been very globally-minded, or was there a life experience that got you thinking and caring beyond American borders?

I never was globally-minded as a youngin'; Long Island was a safe little bubble that didn't need to burst. But my high school teachers led a trip to Italy my senior year in '05 - first time I left the country. I remember sitting in St. Anthony's Basilica in Padua, staring up at the endless ceiling, crying with a good friend, realizing that we didn't know who we were. A little existential, I know, but from then on, I keep running to try to understand the world and myself. The same teachers pushed me to explore the world on my own, so I spent a summer working in the slums of Lima, Peru and that's when my learning turned in activism.

How did you grow to have such an affinity for South Asia, and what calls you back over and over again on your travels?

It's such a simple answer in my heart but expressing it is so hard. It's cliche, but you just have to go to South Asia to understand. Everyone should. The best I can describe it: South Asia is real. Everything is just real - a punch in face of beauty and ugliness, poverty and wealth, color and grey, joy and suffering. There's not a particular moment that represents this; it's more the accumulations of experiences over almost 9 months of living here. South Asia is so loyal to all the positive and negatives of that is life, and that's what makes life, and South Asia, beautiful.

Tell us briefly how you decided to pursue the study of human/women's rights in Bangladesh.

My study abroad program in Kolkata, IPSL, required us to volunteer for credit hours. Working in the shelter with these amazing young girls left such an indelible impression on me that their nickname for me is tattooed on my wrist: paagli didi (crazy big sister). It grew to reflect how, yes, I'm slightly off my rocker and can entertain the masses with creepy renditions of Ursula from the Little Mermaid...but more importantly how I felt this deep connection and sisterhood with these girls. I'd do anything for my own sister, Camille, and I felt the same love and responsibility to help their growth toward independence.

As soon as I arrived home, I shouted "How can I go back?" My university advisor said, "Here, apply for this." Fulbright is, as an advisor said, "a crapshoot" in terms of being selected because there are thousands of perfect candidates...and I was lucky. What's great about Fulbright is that I have freedom to explore all depths of my location, discipline and topic.

What have you discovered about the anti-trafficking programs in Dhaka thus far?

My focus is mainly on sex trafficking, so that's what I'll be talking about here (but please note that labor-trafficking exists too). Most the programs in Dhaka are pretty comprehensive and multi-faceted. They are trying to cover all sides of the issue: rewriting policies (obvious illegal loopholes are taken advantage of), providing awareness and sensitivity trainings to families and communities (it takes a village to raise a child, so let the village stand guard against trafficking; also erasing the 'stigma,' which is another word for "blaming the woman") and offering health, social and legal services to survivors (i.e. What does she need now? She was just raped for two year).

What I am looking at exactly is how the NGOs treat the survivors: are they victims needing to be saved from the evils of the world? Are they sinners in need of redemption? Or are they active agents in their own lives? The last view is the ideal: don't victimize them, and don't blame them - empower them. It's too soon to say for sure, but I think some aid worker's attitude DO need adjusting toward the women. But stay tuned to know for sure.

The biggest factor facing both changes in attitude and trafficking is how taboo sex is. It's an uncomfortable topic anywhere, but especially here, being an Islamic country. Sex is to remain inside the home between married couples; therefore it's hidden and also immoral. Most people don't know about it, and if they do, judgement is placed on them without knowing the situation. Sexual violence needs to be pushed into the public space if it's going to change.

What were some of your greatest fears about living in Bangladesh before you arrived, and where do they stack up now?

I was too excited to start my project, and too sad to leave my perfect NY life to be afraid of Bangladesh. Mostly my thoughts ranged from,"What can my research contribute to the global fight against violence against women?" to "How will I survive a year without penne alla vodka?"

The first few months living here created my greatest fears. It's Bangladesh: as a Westerner, even a well-traveled one, it's scary when you first arrive to armies of armless beggars, stormy seas of angry vehicles and endless types of crime. I never wanted to leave the house past sunset. Now, I go home at 3:00am on a rickshaw and still have the audacity to argue with the driver. I've learned to adapt.

Traveling to a place, and living there is completely different, so I experienced culture shock for the first time. Recognizing it as cultural shock, I had no choice but to adapt. Please note, this involved a lot of crying to my mother, angry that a man on the street couldn't understand me. But I had to feel the emotions then overcome them. My biggest fear now is not learning everything I can in the next 7 months.

Describe a day in the life for you in Dhaka.

Awkward, wonderfully awkward.

My house mother pounds on my door to wake me up and feed me potato parata and eggs. Throwing on a salwar kameez and orna (affectionately named 'boob scarf'), I go to the old, bustling part of Dhaka (as if the whole city isn't either of those characteristics) and work in a center for women who are trying to leave prostitution. They learn crafts and skills and once they receive their certificate, some can work making crafts for the organization's shop.

As an anthropologist, I perform participant observation for a few months until they feel comfortable enough to share their lives in a structured interview. Right now, I sit on the floor with them and help them do their crafts and try to gossip with them in Bangla.

Lunch is always the same: rice, potatoes, mixed vegetables, dal (lentil soup). I complain, but I'll miss it when it's gone. After spending at least an hour in traffic to go 2 km in a baby taxi, I have meetings with different NGOs to make myself known in the women's rights community (it's all 'who you know' here). I love listening to the different programs development organizations offer and will conduct structured interviews in January. Nights and weekends are with my fabulous new friends, getting tea and chilling on someone's roof, attending a few shows of local bands and trying to score illegal substances (i.e. alcohol is illegal for Bangladeshis by Islamic law.)

Any plans yet when you return home in 2010?

HA! I always laugh at that question. The only plan I have is spending 4th of July with my best friends and family at an outdoor concert on Long Island with buckets of wine and cheese. I don't know what I'll learn from this experience, and what I learn will shape what I want to do when I'm back. Then again, what falls in my lap first might be the thing that I'll do. I believe in serendipity; that's the only plan.

Is there an effective way your fellow Americans at home can impact issues of human trafficking globally?

Talk about it. Believe me, I know how it is kind of a downer at parties, but if you don't create space for it, how will it ever change? Read The Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam, a first account experience of sexual exploitation and share with people what you learned. And please realize that it could be your neighbor exploiting these young women and girls, either in a foreign brothel or downtown America. People are trafficked to America too.

One reasons for trafficking is the want for exploitative labor: it's our corporations and our people that demand cheap labor or sex as much as foreign countries do. If there is ever going to be an effective way that we can impact human trafficking, it's starting with our own awareness and choices.

Visit these sites: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2009/ http://www.catwinternational.org/ http://www.antislavery.org/english/default.aspx

Do you have any questions for Amanda about Bangladesh, the Fulbright, or human sex trafficking? Leave a comment, and I'll make sure she gets the question!

Consume & Update: Air Traffic, Hatred and Two Days To Go

Soak it in, boys and girls. This is the last dose for a while! This week's good news...

World Air Traffic in 24 Hours

The yellow dots are aircraft. It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. You can tell it was summer time in the north by the sun's footprint over the planet.

Really Going Rogue

Numbers 15 and 31 on my Life List mention an inexplicable draw towards countries not easily accessible to foreigners (or just Americans). Well, maybe not so inexplicable...

Pakistan = mountains
Afghanistan = rural landscapes
Cuba = culture and salsa

Digging into the archives a bit, I found Chris Guillebeau's How to Travel to Rogue States, which of course got me salivating for Cuba again. Who knows when my next new country will be blazed and if it could be one of these massive non-trail destinations. Any plans for a trip like this in your future?

When To Put The Camera Away

I've been checking out the Acumen Fund this week and found a compelling blurb on travel and documentation called When To Put The Camera Away. Marc Manara makes a comment on our intentions for taking photographs and how they come off to the subject of the moment.

Though the desire to snap a telling shot of reality may seem harmless for the sake of your own memories or appear a good move for the sake of informing others of what you've seen...you may be bruising someone's dignity or making them feel like a mystery species on a game drive.

There are times when I truly wish I could have secretly snapped the photo, but I also think that frequent inner turmoil - when these opportunities present themselves - has a lot of truth and validity. I think spending more time with the people/potential subject matter of the photograph(s) helps smooth over many of the worries one has with taking vulnerable photographs of others.

I get upset when people stare at me, and I get especially testy when people photograph me without my consent (e.g. in Doha, Qatar). I definitely don't want to make others feel the same way, especially when there could appear to be a socio-economic difference and a stress on personal dignity.

Travel and Hate

What has often been a companion of my culture shock is something akin to hatred, an ugly emotion that has the ability to take hold of my soul even against protest. I've come home angry at many things, and though it's not the way I actively choose to be, Joel Carrilet gives me a little comfort in knowing it's not just a massive character flaw. It happens with due cause.

Travel frequently introduces us to beauty, but it shows us other things too. As we lay eyes on situations and listen to voices in places we previously knew little about, our love for the world and its people will deepen. The flipside of this, however, is that our hatred—of attitudes, ideologies, and policies that take advantage of others and harm—will also deepen. For if we love with all our might, we will also be bound to hate some things with all our might.

Read Joel's article on How Travel Teaches Us To Hate, and let me know if you find travel's combined effects of love and hate in yourself.

Other Discoveries

Chris Guillebeau's new site for Unconventional Guides

Rolf Potts' interview with new writer and former English teacher in the Marshall Islands

Join in the conversation about Women Hitchhikers over at Vagablogging

Don't forget to have quiet time on the road

28 Things I Wish I Knew Before Traveling

Update on Nomadderwhere

In the coming months, I'm going to be a bad consumer. This will be the last weekly Consume & Update as you've know it until I return to reliable internet coverage, constant electricity and a life not centered in a remote village. However, I will still attempt to keep updates coming on a weekly basis or as often as I can.

The last steps in preparation:

1. Buy mosquito net: check. All supplies in bag: also check. Empty the piggy bank and cash in for dough: oh geez check. The village knows we're coming, and we have two days until departure! Nothing left to do but document every step and meet Garrett at LAX! Our sponsors are stacking up and sending their contributions. We're so grateful for all the people finding this project relevant.

2. I threw a Michael Jackson Dance Party in my basement to fundraise for the project. It involved Dirty Diana martinis, trivia and prizes, black and white food and a chronological ordered playlist with every great hit by MJ ever created. I also dressed up as MJ throughout the decades: the Jackson 5 era, the Bad/Thriller era...yeah, I get carried away. I'll let you know how the event went and how much was raised at a later date.

3. BJB Challenge: Remember this? I wanted to write 20,000 words in my narrative on the Big Journey. This challenge began a month ago, before I had booked the tickets for Fiji. Needless to say I was preoccupied this month to keep up with my own, self-imposed deadline for writing. It was sad, as I continue to grow away from these experiences from 2008. But among other things in Fiji, I hope to find time to write about this experience in the detail it deserves. I'll be a word machine before you know it.

Consume & Update: No Music, Sunrise and New Pages

I read. I watch. I hand it over to you. Here's what I found interesting this week.

Turn That Racket Off!

What's your reason?

Why We Climb Mountains

Those of us hoping to make a living doing what they love of an unconventional nature continue to read the works of Chris Guillebeau and hope his success rubs off from his text to our eyes to our brains to our wallets. This week Chris discussed his motivation for travel and his perspective on the fear of failure. Why do people travel? Why do people climb mountains? Why do people risk so much for experiences they don't love 100% of the time?

With a big mountain, you know you’re going to need more than just stubbornness. You may get wildly off track. You may encounter unforeseen difficulties. You may even have to come back down the mountain at some point before resuming the climb. Thus, you’re going to need some form of internal motivation.

I appreciated his comment about the correlation between small goals and small worries. As we dive into our own project, Garrett and I will need to remember flexibility and that we won't be able to control very much of what we're able to accomplish. But our goal is fairly large, with realistic baby steps, and we'll have to find that happy medium between flexible and stubborn in order to make something [the village wants] happen.

25 Seconds of Morning Glory

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkIwaF2ujs

Thanks to World Hum for this find.

Other Discoveries

Lego + World Landmarks = a holiday favorite

Brushing up on my packing skills and finding ways to travel lighter

Something to chew on when it comes to culture shock and being ready for the next adventure

Princess to the rescue!

Update on Nomadderwhere

This will be a quick update as this next week brings some frantic preparation and documentation.

1. The Nakavika Project pages are published and ready for your lovely eyes. There are many subpages that detail various aspects of the trip, such as our objectives, our visuals and the status of our sponsors and donations thus far (which is in it's last construction phase before publishing). Next week, I'll be posting two missives on how this project came to be - entitled The Birth of The Nakavika Project, a multi-part series. If you'd like to know more and/or help out, please send me an e-mail!

2. My talk at the Honeywell Center for the Clark Gallery Photo Show went very well, and I was happy to be speaking to such a large group of passionate artists. In my short talk, I covered my three big trips and how photography has playing a documentary role with surprising effects on the memory of my experiences. I also informed another group of people of The Nakavika Project, which always feels good.

3. Remember that whole writing challenge I had for myself? 20,000 words on my Big Journey Book by November 30th? Well the status is dismal, since this whole Fiji project came underway after the announcement of this challenge. I'm still keeping it in mind for Fiji, however. The deadline will come to pass, but the challenge still draws me in while I'm up in the village scribbling words by head lamp light.

Interview a traveler: the ski-crazy humanitarian

He's conquered the slopes of Vermont and explored 23 countries across the globe. He's got the amazing ability to befriend anyone and has committed the next three years of his life to working for others. Let's check him out.

Garrett Russell is one of my favorite travel buddies and my partner on the Nakavika Project. Once again, this series of Interview a Traveler is not just an outlet for me to gab about my best friends; these people are my favorite and worth mentioning because of their amazing character and ambition that spans continents for the purpose of learning and doing something they can stand behind.

His Bio: Garrett Russell hadn't left the country until he boarded the MV Explorer and embarked for a 100-day, 11 country journey with Semester at Sea. Since then he has had the opportunity to visit Europe twice and can now reminisce about his adventures in 23 countries on 4 continents.

Currently residing in Vermont, Garrett is an avid skiier and hiker with a passion for outdoor adventure. With the upcoming winter season biting at his heels, a call to service has changed his mindset and brought his attention toward Fiji.

In the very near future, Mr. Russell will be joining the Peace Corps to teach Secondary Science Education. But before this big leap, he's leaving December 1st to coordinate the Nakavika Project and immerse himself in a Fijian village for 2.5 months.

Why on Earth do you travel?

When I step onto a plane or hop in my car for a long distance trip, I feel a sense of independence and courage. A lot of trips I take are low budget, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, flip a coin to find the next location type trips. Traveling like this gives me a thrill and scares the crap out of my mom.

When you click the "submit" button for that next flight to wherever, how do you justify spending your hard-earned money to see the world?

I work in an environment where people are stuck in one mindset. The monotony of everyday life can suck you in and but also give you the comfort of stability. I want to stimulate my mind and mix things up. My entire senior year of college I saved for my trip to Europe, and everyday I think back to the crazy things I did and the knowledge that I gathered and feel proud. Being young and having a flexible (and seasonal) job is a plus. So spending my money on travel is why it's there.

What are some of your travel goals or "bucket list" entries (if you make such lists or goals)?

I have started making a bucket list, but as the years pass, things change. There are a lot of things I want to do and my mind flies a mile a minute. Most of my bucket list contains things like having a cabin in the mountains, owning a dog...more permanent things.

What was your initial motivation to study science, and what are you reasons now for pursuing this area of study?

I was exposed to the sciences my whole life and proved to be a natural. My junior year of college was a huge turning point where I had no idea what my goals were or why I was a Biology major. I really had to find out who I was first, and travel helped me to do so. Life has a way of choosing your path for you. I never thought I would be a teacher, but in the upcoming fall I will be a science teacher in East Africa. Ask me this question again in 3 years.

Tell us a little bit about the process of applying to the Peace Corps. How did you make the final decision to join, and what did you have to do in order to complete this process?

The Peace Corp was a huge defining decision for me that started out as an excuse to not continue on to grad school and for a lack of knowing what I wanted to do. It took me a year to complete the application, not because its long but because I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. I feel that I made the decision because I wanted an experience to work independently and make a difference. I finished my application in February 2009 and was accepted in April. After you are accepted you are put on a list for available positions. I had to wait until July 30th to be nominated, which happened to be my birthday. I have finished my medical evaluation and am waiting to hear back. The Peace Corps involves a lot of patience and time. It will be a year and a half or more from the date I sent in my application to the day I leave for training. I hope it's worth the wait.

Where did this Nakavika Project come from? And why do you stand behind it?

This project was thrown into my lap, and within 24 hours I had bought a ticket. Whoa! I know now that I have [an affinity] for traveling and an education, so I have to be productive. This project will give me the chance to work toward a goal, to help people and to learn more about myself and my future. Am I capable of giving up my current life for others in a far off place? The Nakavika project will test me, and I believe in it 100%. It is something that anyone with an idea, a place and the means to accomplish can create for themselves. I hope that people are inspired by our trip and have the courage to travel themselves.

When you consider your future life in the Fijian village, what are you most excited about?

I'm really excited to get to know the people of the village. To play games with the kids, learn to cook and do things their way. When I have traveled before, I have not been able to immerse myself into another culture. I'm pumped!

You're going to miss being home for the holidays for the first time. Why did you allow yourself to miss out, and how do you hope to spend this time abroad?

This is an opportunity of a lifetime, and missing Christmas is not a problem. My family is super supportive and as long as I make intelligent decisions, I have their support...except for last Easter when I ditched the family to climb and ski down Mt Washington in New Hampshire, my brother was quite upset.

I thank my family, roomates and especially Lindsay for supporting me and introducing this opportunity to me.

Do you have any questions for Garrett about the Peace Corps, the Nakavika Project, or skiing? Leave a comment, and I'll have him respond!

Consume & Update: Global Citizenship and Geography

Ahh, back from Chicago and back to my armchair office. And here are the interesting tidbits for this week!

Being a Good Global Citizen

Brave New Traveler brought my attention to a website this week that barks right up the tree I'm climbing these days. Project Explorer makes free educational videos for school children as a non-for-profit organization, and a dialogue they've opened up to the world is on the topic of "global citizenship" and what it means to people everywhere.

Here are some of the well-known participants in this conversation I thought you'd find interesting.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu discusses how we can only be human together...

Andrew Zimmern refrains from chomping on scorpions and large intestines to talk about being a global citizen...

Russell Simmons talks about giving as a part of your job on this earth to be a global citizen...

Anthony Bourdain shares his thoughts on how travel can change your perspective...

Find more videos like this on ProjectExplorer.org's Good Global Citizen

Other Discoveries

The artist culture is returning to my old Florentine neighborhood: Oltrarno

Thanks, Intelligent Travel Blog, for reporting on the new fruit labeling technique, soon to sweep the nation.

Next week is Geography Awareness Week!

Update on Nomadderwhere

I've got a lot of things to cover, I tell you what!

Someone's gotta tell this guy he's in Chicago

1. I returned from my six day trip to Chicago and am thoroughly pleased with what I accomplished. My activities ranged from touristy to local favorite to rare and offbeat. I saw friends and family and ate great food. Chicago is a comfortable and dynamic city, and you can expect a few blogs and videos to come in the next couple weeks.

2. My writing challenge is off to a predictably slow start, especially since I wasn't at home this week and the Nakavika Project is just launching (and taking up all my time). I'm still on for the November 30th deadline of 20,000 additional words to my manuscript. Is anyone else pushing themselves on a challenge this month?

3. Many of you have been click on the Nakavika Project page above and presumably found disappointment in its password-protected status. These pages will soon be public as soon as plans are finalized with my travel partner. This should occur this following week, so stay tuned for the launch date of the NP!

4. I am giving a small talk at the Honeywell Center in Wabash, Indiana on Tuesday (the 17th), which will focus on some of my better travel photos and the stories behind capturing them. If you're in the area, come check out the Clark Gallery Photo Show going on right now, and then stick around on Tuesday for the reception! I'm flattered they wanted me to talk, as I am far from even pretending to be professional, but I hope to give them something to think about. The coolest part about all this is that the gallery is named after my late grandfather.