Jenni Jen
La Vagabonda Joined: November 11th 2004
Logged in: November 5th 2011
Logged in: November 5th 2011
So I did it, escaped the conformity of the corporate ratrace while I still had my youth and sanity, to see the world with my own two eyes and embrace all its beauty and ugliness. Central America to Europe to Southeast Asia in 2005; 2006 will find me exploring Seoul, Korea and environs in depth, since my travels never did bump me into those trees on which money grows....Escaped just when the culture shock became unbearable for some travels in Taiwan, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Peru before coming back again twice in 2007, with some Caribbean, European, and East African hopping in between! Got hitched to my TravelBlog soulmate in September 2007 and welcomed our baby boy into the world in December of that year. Spent a year towing him around Asia, Europe, the U.S. and South America bringing his passport stamp collection to 19.
The latest music I heard, however, has not exactly left me free and uncommitted! The backpack has been gathering dust in the storage room of our townhouse in our new semi-stable life as graduate students in Alberta, Canada for two months now, and will likely stay there until our western Canada tour with family and friends in spring, when we will also welcome a new baby! But in anthropology, foreign fieldwork is the name of the game, so our semi-nomadism will resume in Ecuador next summer. Now back to the books....
Travel Blog Posts
Guimaras sunset
As with any couple expecting their first child, the excitement, anticipation, and the challenge of the learning curve were colossal. Unlike most couples expecting their first child, we were living a drifter’s lifestyle and had none of the traditional logistical groundwork laid, not even a particular country we could call home. Pragmatism was the new name of the game; our four months in Africa were scaled back to six weeks, our plane tickets to Turkey and Nepal were binned in pursuit of practical considerations like health insurance and jobs with flexible schedules. Our guidebooks were replaced by pregnancy manuals and our backpacks by a one-year apartment lease. In the race towards what for us was a completely off-the-beaten-path destination, our former travel days were usurped by the lifelong journey into parenthood. Despite the tedium of hour-long ... read more
Passing time in Rweetera
Peeking out from over the yellow grassy bank, seven little sets of brown eyes widened, eyebrows and mouth corners arching upwards in unison as the rest of their bodies whipped into motion, waving, pushing, laughing, and running down to the road. “Mzungu!!!!! Mzungu!!!” Having rallied dozens of their fellow red and blue uniformed classmates with the call, a fusillade of high-pitched “OW are YOU?”s rained down on us. When a camera surfaced, their unbridled vivacity displayed itself in alternating games of one-upping each others’ ridiculous poses and silly attempts at hiding. As our share-taxi rounded the bend and their baby-toothed grins were slowly veiled behind the curtain of dust kicked up from our wheels, my heart thawed. On our way back around the Rwenzori Mountains from the Congolese border we finally broke free of the hostility ... read more
The trials of teaching
"You speakee English? You want easy money? Come work my school!" -- (Excerpt from my third phone interview) OK, actually that was about the WHOLE interview. The bank account was looking rather paltry and I jumped on the train of easy employment, teaching English in Seoul along with tens of thousands of other native speakers. Despite my cynicism on life in Korea, I have to admit that the work itself was surprisingly pleasant and rewarding, even given my initial hand-wringing at the thought of having to entertain children all day long. And, while it is easy as pie to hop on a plane and instantly have a job in Korea, certain bits of information can drastically improve your position in life. I personally read through lots of blogs while searching for a teaching job to glean ... read more
The Geisha at Yasaka Shrine
So .... do they or don' t they? This question undoubtedly enters the mind of many a tourist that strolls the narrow alleys of Hanamikoji Dori at night, while a soft golden glow inside the buildings lets them snatch a quick glimpse of those lucky few being entertained in the “world of willows and flowers.” Admittance beyond the quasi-impenetrable gates of the geisha houses generally requires a personal introduction and invitation from existing clientele, and, from what I hear, getting into the inner circles of wealthy Japanese businessmen is a pretty lofty achievement for a foreigner. Being outside the ranks of their potential invitees, I could only muse on how far the entertainment obligations go these days for the young painted ladies. Surely it is fascinating just to observe the geisha, who are trained in the ... read more
Dragon Water Fountain
“The Land of the Rising Sun” … it really evokes a mystical romanticism, doesn’t it? But as with all clichés, one can’t help but expect that it has been over hyped. So I hovered outside the airplane lavatory with nose pressed to the frosty emergency exit window to make my judgment. (Of course, anyone with a little bit of forethought would have selected a seat viewing east to catch Japan’s namesake in full swing.) I scrutinized the dark bubble-gum pink ball bringing the Pacific Ocean slowly into view. Frothy white foam slept on the deep blue waves below, with a broad band of coral floating and obscuring where the liquid horizon gives way to the clouds above - and all the while I am making these breathtaking observations over the roughly discernible island outlines below, the ... read more
Pyramid of Perfection
Hustling hawkers, exhaust fumes, international fast food chains, neon lights, traffic…. Though this was not the vision I had conjured up with Malaysia’s tourism mantra, perhaps Kuala Lumpur was a good microcosm of Southeast Asia’s cities. For the bad and the ugly in this part of the world were also accompanied by the bright and beautiful …colorful tropical fruits and flowers in the marketplace, the bold saris and skirts of the women, artistically carved temple decorations, eternal t-shirts and flip-flops weather, softly glowing paper lanterns, and the smoky aroma of tandoori chicken grilling. Beyond all the activity at street level, a forest of chrome towers rises up to remind one of the development the region has witnessed, while a small army of beggars demonstrates whom the development miracles have excluded. Leaving Thailand we hurtled even further ... read more
Boats at Tup Island
In a candlelit room in Kanthaya, the beach that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the world, we learned via BBC radio that Burma had secretly changed its capital. Overnight the generals pulled out of Yangon and snuck 400 km farther north to Pyinmana, an out-of-the-way blurb on the map where plans for new government and army headquarters would be accompanied by fortified bunkers and tunnels. The official reason for the move given to the BBC Reporter in Thailand was to protect itself from a military attack by the U.S... ???? Arriving in Yangon one day before our visas expired, we were told that it was impossible to get a visa extension since the government workers weren't even 100% sure where the administration had moved to, nor how we could get an extension. So ... read more
Cute Ngapali kids
It is said that one can only know one extreme once she has known its opposite; such as sorrow carving out a space in your heart so that you may also know love more deeply. And so it goes with life on the road as well, for the plucking of a travel pearl increases in value with every tight-lipped sea creature you have to battle in pursuit of it. Since the buses only run at night, getting from Bagan to Ngapali Beach overland is a two and a half day journey via Pyay. In theory, each journey takes about 10 hours, although Burmese transportation systems seem to be designed to test the Burmese virtue of ah har de (not losing one's temper or causing a commotion over your discontent) by understating the journey's length by a ... read more
The She Monks
Upon finally reaching the big city, I somehow feel tricked; for instead of springing into the modernity that metropolises often bring, it seems that I stepped back into a bygone decade. Bus videos censor through the “love scenes,” music videos depict a would-be suitor trying desperately to wrest his young love from her parents’ ever-watchful eye for an innocent handhold, the after-dusk city streets are empty save for the occasional ice cream parlor patrons making their way home. The movie theater is showcasing an American film featuring Angelina Jolie, who might find the plump, size 12 representation of herself on the hand-painted poster marquee somewhat less than flattering - but for the Burmese ideal of an attractive woman, she probably looked like heaven. Ladies of even the most modest means, in their ubiquitous ankle-length skirts and ... read more
Floating out of the fogs
The night could be described as nothing less than magical…sitting on the veranda of a restaurant in Nyaungshwe after dark, I watched the town slowly come to life as each restaurant, home, and shop lit dozens of candles and paper lanterns on their streetfront sides. The chanting coming from the main pagoda in town had been going steady for the past 24 hours, and the faded sing-songy mantra gave a sense of direction to the countless bicyclists and pedestrians making their pilgrimage towards the glow coming from the lambent golden stupa. Inside the temple grounds, worshippers found the shrine dedicated to their astrological sign among the soft golden firelight and performed their rituals, first pouring water over the Buddha image to cleanse themselves from their wrongdoings before kneeling to pray. As your attention was drawn upward ... read more
