Urban Camping: Fast Forward

Urban Camping

In a foreign country at the end of my marriage, I traveled nomadically for 11 months staying in 24 places throughout Holland, Portugal, Canada, USA, Brazil and Argentina before buying a home.

It made such an impression on me that I intentionally set out on a second nomadic trip to further explore the concepts of mobility, simplicity, and perspective. While doing my graduate degree, I camped in 30 places in 55 weeks. Now I host urban nomads through the Couchsurfing Project.

15 September 2005

Fast Forward

A month after the cool summer house of July 2004, I took two more trips and then I stopped traveling.

I went to Kosovo to participate in an arts festival and I went to visit my friend, Angelita, in London.

Then, I put my nose to the grindstone and worked mad hours until January 2005 when I knew it was time to change directions.

I believe that 'considering options' should be a life skill taught to small children.

After thinking through several scenarios, I decided to quit my job and start a masters degree in discourse and argumentation studies at the University of Amsterdam.

If I were independently wealthy, I would have an entirely different set of options to consider.

Instead, I am creative and resourceful.

Therefore, it was about time to start urban camping again.

This would be my second urban camping trip! My first trip started in Rotterdam at the end of my marriage and my very first experiences with urban camping were in Chicago when I lived in a 'walk-in' closet.

Technorati tag: urban camping

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Hey, Jen, - It's Sherry. I did a search in Yahoo for "urban camping" and your blog came up #13 on the list. Pretty funny!; Monday, 31 October, 2005

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About Me

Name: Jennifer Metz

Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands

Thinking outside the box
by getting out of my box.

I want mobility:
Get-up-and-go in the global village. Navigation to other vantage points. What does the world look like from there? Is there room to move? Or am I tied down to my stuff?

I want simplicity:
Real needs and wants are fewer than they sometimes seem. 'Accumulation' is as inevitable as death and taxes. Can I prune back the attention-stealing stuff to give space to the useful and meaningful things?

I want perspective:
Understanding of how multi-faceted life is. Consideration of options. Is the world getting smaller? Or is MY WORLD getting smaller? How many viewpoints have I seen so far? Is there a 'road less traveled' or a million billion different roads? Can I 'get out of the woods' and look for multiple angles?