Microadventures
In my writing and rhetoric class this last quarter, a classmate did her final presentation on the importance of adventuring. In it, she touched on a book by Alastair Humphreys, Microadventures.
Humphreys won the 2011 National Geographic Award - Adventurer of the Year and now works as a motivational speaker as well. His bestseller is meant to inspire people of all backgrounds and means to adventure. He acknowledges that barriers like finances, time constraints, or fitness levels often make it difficult for people to plan adventures, but presents many options that are accessible to everyone.
“Sometimes all you need is to climb a simple hill, to spend time staring at an empty horizon, to jump into a cold river or sleep under the stars, or perhaps share a whisky at a small country inn in order to remind yourself what matters most to you in life.”
I have yet to read the book, though it’s definitely on my reading list. But as my classmate pointed out, adventure clearly matters a lot to a ton of people in this world - after all, here you have a man who has sustained multiple injuries and mishaps while traveling, yet now dedicates his life to inspiring the world to adventure more.
The biggest takeaway I got from my friend was that adventure is key to helping us, as individuals, discover a bit more about ourselves and in turn, relate to other people better. But my friend, in her project, also touched on how to get the most out of your adventures. Naturally, we all have preferences, but cliche as it sounds, I think that what makes all the difference is an element of tension. By tension, I mean situations where you’re not completely comfortable, or where things aren’t so familiar to you.
Venice and Berlin
Since my last post, I’ve taken a day trip to Venice, and then spent a weekend in Berlin. You can imagine that the two are drastically different places. Though I don’t mean to dissuade anyone from visiting Venice, after traveling to so many places in Italy, I found this particular trip to be very underwhelming.
In hindsight, I think it had to do a bit with Venice being such a huge tourist site in the first place. Think for instance, how many pictures you’ve seen of people in gondolas surrounded by colorful buildings. Venice had exactly the things I expected it to, and nothing more. It didn’t challenge me to think beyond that.
But then again, perhaps the same could be said about Berlin. Like Venice, it’s a top 10 European city to tour on TripAdvisor. Berlin is known for being rich in World War 2 historical sites and exclusive clubs, among other things. So, I think there were three things in particular that helped make this my most memorable trip thus far.
- People
- Hidden Gems
- Reflection
People
Since I’ve started at Stanford, my perspective of what a friendship is has changed quite a bit. Up until college, you’re surrounded by people that you’ve likely grown up with or known for a good amount of years. Meanwhile, I’ve made tons of close friends at Stanford, but I do think it’s interesting that the longest I have known some of them for is less than 2 years.
What I discovered last summer in Singapore is that travel adventures really help me bond with others. Whether it was my mentor or friends I met from other American universities, exploring new places together gave us some of the most exciting memories that come to mind most when I think of defining life moments. Being thrown into a completely new situation together forces you to work together to understand relationships between what you’re learning and what you already know, to open up about past experiences that everyone can relate to, to slow down and reflect.
What I discovered in Berlin is that just as exciting is exploring an unfamiliar area with someone who is familiar. I was lucky enough to meet up with some good friends from Stanford in the Berlin study abroad program. As I’m typing, I realize that interactions with friends on campus are often very routine. You maybe see them in class, before you leave in the morning if they’re your roommate, for coffee one a week, etc. Going to a new place with someone you already know forces you to try new things - there’s no way you have routine established in a place you’ve never seen. For me, that naturally breeds closeness. You're bound to learn some new things about a person you thought you knew already.
A Hidden Gem - Teufelsberg
My absolute favorite place that I went to at Berlin was not the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag, or even the Birkenstocks factory store. It was a less hyped up place called Teufelsberg, a man made hill of debris created 20 years after the war. Underneath the debris is a buried, unfinished Nazi training camp. Clearly, the place may not be for everyone. It isn’t manicured in any sense - it’s quite the opposite. You see graffiti artists taking their places at a small slab of a wall, or get a bit of a scare when you walk up the stairs to the top level in pitch darkness. But then, you reach the top and you have a breathless view of everything below you. The slight discomforts force you to be alert, which leads you to not just stroll by something you’ve seen millions of times before in pictures, but to actually take in a sight and the feelings that come with it.
Reflection
And then, we come to the last, but perhaps most important aspect. I would classify myself as a more extroverted introvert. I do love people, but I always need time to recharge just by myself. While traveling in groups thus far has been a lot of fun, spending a good amount of time on my own on this trip was just what I needed. I started my mornings with a bit of meditation and reading (currently I’m on Julian Barnes’ The Sense of an Ending). I spent the days with some pretty cool people, then ended them with a bit more reading. Mixing in some of my favorite routine activities with new experiences helped me internalize what I was experiencing and figure out how these new learnings could translate into what I do on a regular basis.
And the biggest thing about reflection - it reminds me to slow down my pace of life. I had a great sophomore year on campus, but there were times (talked about extensively in some past posts), where I mistook burnt out, spent, and constant stress for happiness. Slowing down reminds me to not glorify the idea of being busy, but to fill my days with things that are meaningful to me and my own standards.
Random Updates
- Had my second cooking class - on the menu was three meet ravioli and tomato bruschetta
- Tried out Mosaico, an English speaking Evangelical church here in Florence and really enjoyed it
- Took a day (Monday, which we had off since it was a holiday dedicated to Italy’s freedom from Nazification) to hit up popular Florentine sites like the Pitti Palace and the Bardini Gardens
- Saw a silent comedy film with a live orchestra on that same Monday with my host family
- Went to Ritter Sport in Berlin, quite possibly the best chocolate shop I’ve ever been to. You can pick your ingredients to make your own bars. How cool is that? (pretty dang cool)
- Saw Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at the Florence Opera. Courtesy of the Bing center.
Next Up
Went to the luxury outlets today and will be staying in this weekend to explore Florence more, and then London the next weekend. Thanks for reading! xoxo