I am being deported.
Three months in one place seemed like a long time back in December. I could unpack! Use a machine to wash my clothes! Cook food!
I’ve enjoyed this time in Santa Cruz. I got some work done on my project(s), socialized with Americans, and took lots of pictures. (Hence I’ll be spraying a few on each blog from now on. I also tried a shareware HDR program to blend images…but it’s free and ergo, crappy.)
Three months has become three weeks.
I decided I wanted to stay here and work some more, but then I started looking for housing. I knew the housing market here is crazy, but I didn’t have the perspective before. For example, according to this blog, a proper 1 bedroom apartment in the upscale Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona costs the same as a crappy little 310 square foot studio with half a kitchen and no insulation in Santa Cruz, and you’d be lucky to find the studio at all.
I’ve walked through the Eixample. It should cost twice as much as here.
According to this site which compares Cost of Living between cities, rental prices are 68% lower in Barcelona than Santa Cruz. 46% lower in Rome. 42% in Paris.
I am being deported. By the rental market. So where do I go?
I only got to see the corner of South America, with a long beautiful loop of countries starting in Peru and winding south, east, then north. I have a prospective project I could work on there, a list of great NGO’s to visit, and most importantly, I speak the language. That is invaluable in improving a traveling experience. I loved the parts of the continent that I saw, and am hungry for more.
(Rental prices are 80% cheaper in Lima than Santa Cruz…)
Or, do I go to Southeast Asia? Specifically, Mynamar is just opening up, and going now would be a different experience than it will be in even a few short years. It’s more…authentic…today than it will be after tourism really gets going. I hear tales of what Thailand was like 20 years ago… I want to be telling those tales about Myanmar in 20 years.
So, blog reading people. Where do I go?
Wonderful to experience Santa Cruz. But also wonderful to be where the economics of your heart, mind and wallet find happiness, ease and safety.
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Entirely true, throughout, Ms. Smilecalm. Thank you and good luck to you as well in finding all of those things.
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Myanmar is on my list of next to see places for sure.
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And Japan is on mine! I am still looking for a chance to ask somebody toire wa doko desuka?
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The chance will come, my friend. Hopefully not in an emergency though of course…
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Oh Tim, if you go anywhere other than my neighborhood, i am sad, but glad fro the postcard.
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I’m thinking you will have more fodder for blogging if you go to Myanmar…blogfodder – that’s my new favorite word.
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south africa – capetown if you can afford it 🙂 but asia is a great budget choice too
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Ooh, I like the idea, thank you. I have heard only good things about Capetown (well, mostly good things anyway). I think this next trip will swing a little too far north for that one, but I’ll put it on the To-Do list.
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Dude, you should make the whole trip poll-based! And the vote needs to be between one regular option and one extreme option, like “okay, should I eat this papaya or go naked bungee jumping?” Bungee jump! Bungee jump!
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I like that idea, though I’m not sure I trust my state of relative undress to you internet monkeys…
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Wherever you go, you should come stay with us for a bit before you leave. I didn’t get enough Tendick time while you were here. 😦
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I wanted to vote for Myanmar because you made it sound so cool to go there before it develops so much, but I voted for Peru for the project, the NGO’s, and that you speak the language. Whatever you decide, I envy your bravery and enthusiasm as you see the world.
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