Urban Camping: July Urban Camping Spots

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.

01 August 2006

July Urban Camping Spots

I've finished my second nomadic urban camping trip. Over the course of 12 months (and 3 weeks), I stayed in 30 places: my artist's studio, houses of friends, and an airplane.

July's urban camping spots were as follows:

My friends, Maggie and Steven, invited me to stay at their house for 10 days.

I stayed one night at the house of my friend Tricia, whom I met when we were 5-years-old.

I stayed 15 nights at my parents' house.

And I stayed 5 nights at my sister Lisa's house, the house where five generations of my family have lived.

Well, I've used up all of my travel-sized products. I've given all the house-keys back to my friends. I'm headed back to the base.

For awhile I'm going to use massive bath towels, establish daily rituals for waking up, and plan dinner parties for 10.

I might design a fourth iteration of the nomad pack. I might go nomadic again. I might come back to this spot and pick up my story where I left off.

In the meantime, I hope you'll look me up on CouchSurfing.com. Drop by. Stay for dinner. Swap stories. I want to know about the people and places you've seen.

Or leave part of your life on WhyWaitForFame.com. I like biographies. You don't have to be famous to have an interesting story. I hope to read about you there.

Wishing you a delightful mix of care and chaos,
Jennifer

Technorati tag: urban camping

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Is this blog dead? I pretty much read everything you wrote all year, and now there's nothing more to read. Why don't you just start another blog--with whatever theme you want--and I'll continue to be one your fans.

hikmet; Thursday, 14 September, 2006
Jennifer Metz said...: Hi Hikmet,

You are a kind friend! I will keep you posted. In the meantime, I am going back to posts in this blog and adding ...

--> UPDATES:

... when I come across related material.

Jennifer; Monday, 25 September, 2006
Jennifer Metz said...: The couchsurfers have started arriving!

So far, travellers going through Rotterdam have either come from or are going to London via the ferry. Or, they are taking the train to or from Brussels.

Iian (from Australia) had been driving around Europe for 2 months in his big van.

Lana (from New Zealand) has been working in England and then travelling over to see different parts of Europe before going back to make more money in England.

Steve (from Canada) has been traveling for 3 years! The day he arrived he said, "Last night I slept at Stonehenge."; Wednesday, 01 November, 2006

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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?