Tag: sushi

My Favorite Adventures of 2015

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Adventure!

This post started because I was weary. Not sleepy and tired, but sluggish and unmotivated. Maybe I’ve been a nomad too long. Maybe I’ve been away from work too long. Or maybe I’ve been without a mission too long.

Coincidentally, I downloaded book Level Up Your Life by Steve Lamb. It showed up on the Art of Non-Conformity blog, and resonated with my neediness and video-gaming tendencies. The title refers to the way you gain experience points in games like Dungeons and Dragons or Legend of Zelda or Call of Duty.

Steve encourages you to think of achievements and adventures you want to complete. His suggestions include holding a handstand, speaking a foreign language, or volunteering at a children’s hospital. As I brainstormed what I would like to accomplish I kept thinking I just did something like that!  Here are some of my favorites.

  • Nighttime Segway Ride
  • Raw Shrimp Dinner
  • Cat Island
  • First Class Transpacific Flight
  • Opening Day Oktoberfest
  • Two Nights in a Bazaar

As you read things, think of the adventures you’ve had recently, as well as the ones you would like to have.

Nighttime Segway ride

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The Romans built the forum with the Segway in mind.

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Rainy Rio

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Gratuitous rainforest mammal. (Good name for a band)

My mission in Rio was simple: escape winter. The plan was formed after enduring the piercing, freezing wind of Nurnberg in October. As the chill followed me to Berlin and Prag, I booked the first leg of my mileage run as a summer week on Copacabana beach. I was also looking forward to:

  • Sunny beaches
  • Cristo Redentor and Pao de Azucar hill
  • Pao de Queijo
  • Brazilian Portuguese

Sunny Beaches

I had visions of myself becoming lean and bronzed, erasing my ghostly beer belly. (Though I would probably clear out the beach for the first afternoon.) Between relaxing walks in the sand, I would visit the majestic Cristo Redentor sculpture Pao de Azucar hill. From these iconic vantage points, I would take gorgeous photos of the translucent turquoise ocean and the green offshore islands dramatically lit with soft morning light or striking ruby sunsets.

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It’s Copacabana beach, after all.

And then the clouds engulfed everything.

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How I Learned to Love Routines

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Routines suck. They’re dull and boring. Who wants the same, old same-old? Well, I do.

Leaving my job and moving to Italy, Japan and Germany was great. I was freed from the boring old routines! No going to work at the same time every day. No more driving the same commute! No eating at the same place for lunch. No going to the gym every afternoon. No gym membership at all! No more shopping at the same Whole Foods grocery store. Everything is new and wonderful and shiny.

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Uber Shiny!

Except, a lot of those things were useful and even healthy. Without them, I was starting over.

Here’s what I learned about routines.

  • Routines lead to success!
  • Routines are efficient
  • But you need breaks

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Whine

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OK readers, switch on Pandora radio and find some pouty, minor-chord tunes. Break out the cheeseboards and stemless glassware. It’s time for a full-on whine session.

What do I have to whine about on this trip-of-a-lifetime?

(Besides the fact I can’t get Pandora. And don’t even mention Netflix.)

Well, here are the top 4.

  • Japanese is hard
  • Everything I do is wrong
  • I can’t read menus
  • Moving is a pain

Japanese is hard

There. I admit it. For today only, I’m going to say it’s hard. Difficult. Frustrating. Dizzying, confusing, confounding. It’s really just the verbs and the nouns. And the adjectives. And the prepositions. So basically just everything.

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