Archaeology Fieldwork Interview

Archaeology Fieldwork Interview

The following interview was completed to fulfill a request from an old friend for one of his university projects.

I have completed 7 seasons (2-4 months a year) of professional archaeology fieldwork in North America as well as stints on Copan in Honduras and on a Monteno site on the Manabi coast of Ecuador.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Bangor, Maine, USA- November 30, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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What skills and attributes make you good at your job?

Being able to wake up in the morning and not coming to work too drunk. These are probably the biggest skills you need to keep yourself employed in archaeology. This sounds simple, but there are a lot of people who are not able to do these two things. Also, being able to work together with a group of people and not complaining are needed skills. It has become apparent that most employers know that anybody can learn the trade of the archaeologist, what sets you apart are the more basic skills of being a good, reliable person. These skills are the hardest to learn. If you are able to get to work on time, do your job without complaining, and get along with the crew you will probably find employment in archaeology pretty easily regardless of how much knowledge or schooling you have.

Shovelbums.org- the main database for finding Archaeology fieldwork.

What kind of schooling did you need to get where you are today?

I completed an archaeology field school with Florida Atlantic University in Ecuador and just about have a B.A. Degree in Ethnographic Journalism from the Friends World Program of Long Island University. A degree and a fieldschool are two credentials are pretty much requirements for finding employment in archaeology. Though you can do professional work on the strength of a field school, some university education, and experience alone. For the first eight seasons that I worked in archaeology I did not have a B.A. degree.

For more information on obtaining an education in archaeology go to these pages-
Archaeology Field School
Archaeology Education and Work

What type of people do you work with daily?

Nut cases. Seriously, perhaps due to the nature of the work archaeologists tend to be interesting characters. Putting them together in a crew and sending them out to the woods is a recipe for disaster. Many disasters happen on archaeology projects. I could not ask for a better cast of characters to work with.

What kind of places do you get to travel to?

I have traveled and worked in around 20 states of the USA doing archaeology as well as a season at Copan in Honduras, and my field school was on the coast of Ecuador. Doing archaeology fieldwork is a good way to travel.

What is your favorite and least favorite part of the job at the end of the day?

My favorite part is being outside all day long and traveling. I like being paid to travel and and being given a hotel room and food money. What I do not like is the fact that I have done this work for so long. I have recently move on to other professions, though always keep the thought of doing fieldwork in my sack of possibilities for making up the bean money to travel.

Photo of archaeology project in USA.

Related Pages:
Archaeology Field School- Question about how to enroll in an archaeology field school and fieldwork as a way to travel while making money to travel.
Archaeology Education and Work- How to get into doing archaeology fieldwork while traveling to make money for travel.
How to Become an Archaeologist?- Advice on how to get into professional archaeology fieldwork.
Guatemala- How to get to Tikal Guatemala
Guatemala- Travel Work Skills
Honduras- Mayan Archaeology at Copan
Costa Rica- Archaeology Fieldwork in Nicaragua and Copan
USA- The Archaeology
USA- Owego, NY
How to Find Work while Traveling

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• Rites of Travel Website Construction
• Jet Blue Good Airline
• Can Cultures be Wrong Debate

Archaeology Fieldwork Interview

Rites of Travel Website Construction

Rites of Travel Website Construction

I looked over Vagabond Journey.com this morning and realized that I am almost happy with it. It looks alright, I think that it could be informative and useful, and I still enjoy doing it. I am satisfied, though I cringe to think of how many man hours it took to get here, how many blunders I have made, and how much more work I need to do to repair my blunders. But the site is taking shape and it is growing and changing as I do. It, in many ways, is beginning to represent some odd sort of rite of passage:

I started in on something that I knew nothing about, played around and frustrated myself for a couple of years, and now I am beginning to see some progress. I know that the wall has not fallen, but I am beginning to see a few pieces of lime and mortar crumbling off the surface.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Bangor, Maine, USA- November 30, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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Now I am going to dive into the other sections of the site outside of the travelogue, the travel photos, the articles, and the tips, and try to bring everything up to standard before I leave the USA again in January. Today I put the Vagabond Field Notes Travel Guide on to Vagabond Journey, and tomorrow I may add a little finish to it. In December, I expect that I will work on the Travel Information Directory and the Travel and Country Information sections. Once this is wrapped up, I think that I will have finally put this site together- I think that I would have constructed a decent base to work from.

Every year I try to visit my family in Upstate New York, relax, and refurbish Vagabond Journey.com. I hang out with my family, and just tinker away at the structure of the site whenever I get a chance, making it a little better. This is becoming almost a ritual, and it is one that I am looking forward to.

But this is a project that I know that I will never finish. As soon as I update everything I know that I am going to want to change it all again. Perhaps this is one of the joys of constructing a website: every bit of work that I do is impermanent.

I like the thought of this.

Half-way up a mountain, chipping away at the wall.

Rites of passage . . .

Knowing that I still know little, but more than what I did yesterday.

Related Pages:
Guatemala- Under the Wing of the Hobo Traveler
Costa Rica- Vagabond Journey.com Update 2-06-08
USA- Vagabond Journey.com On Hold
Portugal- The Trauma of Building a Website

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• Jet Blue Good Airline
• Can Cultures be Wrong Debate
• Thanksgiving in Maine

Rites of Travel Website Construction

Jet Blue Good Airline

Jet Blue: Good Airline

Jet Blue, a budget airline with flights around the USA and Caribbean, is by far my favorite company to fly with. They treat me like a human, their flights get me where I want to go, and, as I have just found out, they take the initiative to compensate passengers for their screw ups.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Bangor, Maine, USA- November 30, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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I was to board a Jet Blue flight from JFK to Portland, Maine last Tuesday night at 10:20 PM. Boarding was delayed - this is very normal for a US airline and I thought nothing of it. I sat around the airport for an hour and then got on the plane. There was then a mechanical problem and I sat in my seat inside of the airplane for another 40 minutes - again, this is normal and I did not think much of it.

Eventually, the plane departed and the pilot boasted that he was going to try to cut an hour and a half flight down to 50 minutes. He flew fast - "I am going to fly this thing like I stole it" - and successfully cut the flight time by a half hour.

I got off the plane and went on my way.

The next day there was an email from Jet Blue apologizing for the delay and a $25 voucher for my next flight. I did not expect this. Good business.

I realized then that I could probably call the airline and complain further and have that $25 boosted up to a free flight, but I did not feel like it. I like Jet Blue.

In the end, I suppose giving out $25 vouchers is going to make Jet Blue more money in the end. Half the people who received this compensation probably will not ever cash it, and the other half will probably purchase flights that cost way over the benefit of the voucher. Giving out a measly $25 keeps people flying Jet Blue. I know this, the airline knows this.

I appreciate it when companies show enough intelligence to continue perpetuating their own business.

Going to purchase another Jet Blue Flight right now.

Photo of Jet Blue airplane.

Flying Jet Blue is also an enjoyable experience. The airline's clientele seem to be mostly working and middle class Americans, and the service is adapted to fit this demographic. The staff is less formal, oftentimes joking with passengers, smiles real smiles, and gives out as many snacks as you can eat.

I eat a lot of snacks.
Related Pages:
Jet Blue Airlines
How to Find Cheap Flights
USA- Jet Blue Flight from Rochester to JFK
Cheap Airfare

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• Can Cultures be Wrong Debate
• Thanksgiving in Maine
• Travel With Me

Jet Blue: Good Airline
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

Can Cultures be Wrong Debate

Can Cultures be Wrong? Traveler Debate #1

This is a new experiment on Vagabond Journey.com: debates! There seems to be a lot of really articulate and interesting people who comment to this travelogue, and this is an attempt to explore our differing points of view through discussion . . . or debating.

The following debate topic stems from a rather vibrant discussion that surrounded these two posts: Cockfight Culture and Tradition and Cockfight Video Censured by YouTube.

Please read through the following debate question and post your ideas and opinions in the comments below.

Debate Question #1: Can culture be wrong?

Do you feel as if certain traditional and cultural practices can be called wrong? Do you feel that one culture should interfere with the actions of another because they feel their traditions are immoral? Do you feel that one culture has the right to extinguish the long-honed practices of another because they think it is wrong?

Do you believe in an objective, universal right and wrong?
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brookly, New York City- November 25, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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Or do you believe that all cultures and their traditional practices are relative? Do you think that certain practices only seem wrong or abusive because outsiders misunderstand them? Should all cultures be allowed to practice their traditions even if they hurt or kill themselves, animals, or the environment?

Is right and wrong relative to culture, society, or person?

What do you think? Can a culture be wrong?

Cultural Relativism- Wikipedia page on cultural relativism.

Opinions from previous comments to get this sebate started:

From CYM:
"Well, how about the cultural traditions of forced female genital mutilation, Chinese foot binding, the death penalty for adultery, the old Hindu practice of Sati (where if the husband dies first, the wife is burned alive with the remains of his body), or lynching of black people in the deep south for no other reason then being black, or human slavery, women/children sex slavery rings in Thailand, human ritual sacrifice . . .

Should those traditions be preserved too?"

"Do you honestly believe that cultural tradition is always inherently good, just because why? because a bad habit has become deeply ingrained over a long period of time where it has become accepted by people as just being the way things are?"

"The important question, that I believe is at the root of our conflict, is the question of whether or not you believe in an absolute truth, in a universal concept of right and wrong, and good and evil, versus a belief that all truth, and all concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, are relative?"

From some guy:
"It's not okay to just say 'yeah, that's what some folks do' and leave it at that. If everyone was an anthropologist with that kind of attitude, where would we be? We'd have a whole lot of factual drivel about traditions and cultures, but the world would be at a stalemate in terms of enlightenment."

"People participate in their own oppression all the time. Chinese footbinding would be a good example. So would the women who shunned the women's movement in favour of remaining 'lesser than'. "

From Diane:
"I finally decided after much thought that even though something has a long history and is part of the culture, it doesn't necessarily make it right.

Examples like female genital mutilation, stoning for adultery, slavary, etc., just proves the point."

From Bob:
"People tend to beleive their own morality superior to everyone elses. This may be a necessary evolutionary trait to strengthen their beliefs so as to help maintain their morals. And they will twist it to fit current necessities."

"Just because the majority of people are against something, does not make it OK to ban it. Just as.. just because the majority of people are for something does not mean it is OK to do it. Pick a subject: Gays, boxing, eating meat, listening to ganster rap, football, horse racing, the study of science. There are/were people who felt all of these should be banned. At times, some were."

"There are few absolutes in morality. Morality is a moving target, changing with time, location, culture, situations etc.

Just because something was moral, does not necessarily mean it is moral. Just because something is immoral does not mean that it might not be considered moral in the future."

From Wade:
"It never ceases to amaze me how people in western countries think that they own a standard of morality that should be imposed upon the entire planet. This is ethnocentric."

". . . deeming the cultural practices of some cultures as being morally superior to others is incredulously 19th century. I must remember here how many cultures have been wiped off of the planet through the moral spring-cleaning of dominant societies."

"My point was that one cultures view of wrong cannot be applied to the world. The Spanish missionaries in the new world thought that the religious practices of the indigenous people were immoral so they forced conversion. The Europeans truly felt as if it was their moral duty - their "white man's burden" - to civilize the people of Africa and to prevent acts that they deemed barbaric."

"My point was not that tradition should be preserved for tradition's sake, but rather that the views of a dominant society should not be applied to the world as a whole." \

What do you think? Comment below!

Related Posts:
the souls of animals
re: cockfighting part 3
re: cockfighting part 2
re: cockfighting
Cultural Relativism
Cockfight video censured
Of Men and Cocks
At the Cockfight

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Thanksgiving in Maine
Travel With Me
Donate Money to Africa

Can Cultures be Wrong? Traveler Debate #1

Thanksgiving in Maine

Thanksgiving in Maine

I am hopping on a Jet Blue flight from JFK to Portland, Maine in a few hours. I am going up to the great northern wilderness state for a Thanksgiving feast by the sea. I am excited to get out of New York City and on to somewhere that has trees, blue skies, and air that I can enjoy breathing. Time to smoke my pipe and walk down rocky coasts for a few days.

I am longing to get back to life, back to the sea, back to the forests, back to feeling good.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 25, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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Map of Maine.

Lighthouse in Maine

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Travel With Me
Donate Money to Africa
Traveler Re-Entry and Reverse Culture Shock

Thanksgiving in Maine

Travel With Me

Travel with Me

It is my impression that it must be severely annoying to travel with me. I work a full day, I read a lot, and I take a lot of notes. I take photos of everything so that I can publish them and I put myself in situations that will potentially give me something to write about.

In all, the way I travel is very unnatural, not for much pleasure, and is full of solitary work. I do not know how anyone can stand traveling with me.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 23, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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My dream is to someday have a partner to keep me in line, keep me balanced, and also take an active part in the silly little projects that I am trying to make a living off of. I have an idealic notion of a travel companion who will get equally excited about writing articles, making websites, and, hopefully someday, making documentaries; someone that I can share notes with and work on common projects; someone to create something with that will make me proud.

I like doing projects, but they are difficult to do alone while in the constant presence of someone who looks upon them with an odd sort of hairy eyeball. My friends tend to think that writing on the internet is pompous and borderline corny, that striving to write and publish articles is a waste of time, and that I should just sit on the beach with them and enjoy the sunset.

In many ways they are right.

I think it is annoying for people to travel with me.

I try to include my travel companions in what I do, I try to work in a partnership, but this has never really worked out. This is alright, I do not want to force anybody into doing something that they do not want to do, but I know that it is going to be very difficult for a person to sit idle, watching me working happily and mentally absorbed in my projects. This would annoy anyone. I am annoyed with just thinking of myself sitting smug at my computer and smiling at the lines that I write across the screen.

“Ahh,” I say to myself, “What a nice line” [smile, smile]. If I could take my fingers off of the keyboard and punch myself, I would. But I don’t, I really like what I am doing, regardless of how much time I put into it, regardless of how many other things I could be doing. I CHOOSE to do this work. I like interviewing people, writing, and doing backgroud research for stories. This is fun for me, and I am trying hard to make a living at it - $15 a day.

But it is difficult for me to to do this when I know that someone wants my attention. It makes me feel really bad. I hate going back to a hotel at night and jumping on the comnputer when my partner wants me to jump into bed. So the result is that I usually find myself stuck in between two poles: I am pushed by on by my passion for my projects and pulled by my passion for another person. I am left in a very divided circumstance. Traveling with someone means seeing them for most of the day, everyday; it is difficult to feel divided like this all day long. I very often feel as if I have to choose between my projects or being with another person, as it is too hard to half-ass both.

A palm reader in Chile once told me that I am like a bulldozer. This is true. If I want to bash into a brick wall, I will wake up at 6AM everyday and bash myself into it until nightfall. I have the gift of being able to focus on a task and have the determination to complete it. But this “gift” is severly double sided, as it makes me very difficult to be around. I know that it is annoying to travel with me.

I know that I have no sense of balance. I have a love for extremes and delight in the fact that I tend to fall way on one side of the line or the other. I either work hard all day long or I don't work at all.

90% of all the people that I have ever met just want to sit on the beach. I admire this approach towards life more than what I can say. How I love the idea of just sitting on the coast, smoking my pipe, and doing nothing. I think this is how most people go through life, but I find this very difficult to do. At the end of the day I know that I have an ingrained abhorrance for being idle - I just cannot do it.

I write "Walk Slow" as more of a reminder to myself than to anyone else.

If I bash my head up against a wall all day long and achieve what I want, I go to bed happy. I feel good. This is stupid. I cannot believe that I feel this way and I cannot believe that I want to spend my life in this fashion. Who wants to sit in front of a computer screen? Who wants to work? How can I look back on a day of chugging out words, inactive, inside, and alone and call it a good day? What a stupid way to live.

I am annoyed to travel with me.

But I know how to make myself happy.

I do not want to be great; I do not want fame; I do not want money. I just want to be happy at what I do and have what I do make me happy.

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Donate Money to Africa
Traveler Re-Entry and Reverse Culture Shock
Educational Autobiography

Travel with Me
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

Donate Money to Africa

Donate Money to Africa

It seems to be a well known fact in Africa that many Westerners feel so guilty for having money that they will go to great lengths to give it away.

I have friend here in New York City who sponsors an African. She sends a Liberian man $100 a month so that he can prepare to go to “medical school.” The Liberian man has the usual wrap:

He had to leave medical school when the para-militaries overthrew the hospital he was working at and he is trying to save up enough money to go back. He really needs $200 a month but $100 is alright.

Maybe this story is true, but, regardless of fact, this is a common tale that is used to scam money - or otherwise entice donations - that I have heard all over the world:

"I want to study to be a doctor, but I have no money. Give me money."
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 24, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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My friend is young, did a pay-to-volunteer stint in a Liberian refugee camp in Ghana, studies micro-financing, and, apparently, comes from money. Taken all together, it is my impression that she has been fertile ground for many “poor me, you are rich and I am poor, so give me money” attempts that has fallen her way. My jaw drops when she tells me how much money she has given to people in Africa who apparently need her help.

Maybe they do, I don't know, but she seems to be getting railroaded for thousands of dollars. On one occasion, the $800 that she sent to a West African aid organization went missing. The organization blamed it on the postal service, and it is my impression that the girl believed them. She means well and is obviously a sincerely good hearted person. The odd thing to me is that she seems to have both of her feet firmly planted on the ground, so I am taken aback at these stories. It is so ingrained in the perception of Westerners that they should send money to people in Africa that it is easy for them to be scammed.

But I can not criticize her, she is getting something for her money: the feeling of helping people in need. She is not a stupid person and probably knows that she is oftentimes being taking as a fool, but it seems to be worth it to her. She obviously likes the feeling of self-satisfaction that she is purchasing. The Africans are essentially providing her with a service by taking her money: they make her feel good about herself, assuage her feelings of guilt, and give her a purpose.

These feelings are worth thousands.

This woman's hope is to learn all she can about accounting, economics, and micro-financing in the USA and then return to aid work in Africa. I can only feel a sense of stone-faced admiration for the strength of her character. She is doing what her culture deems as right to do, she is trying hard to help people in need. She is a good person.

The Africans seem to know that we are fools with big hearts and, apparently, heavy pockets.

The journalist Tom Wolfe seemed to have some good advice when he wrote about the liberal Western perspective on the Vietnam war, “All the anti-war manifestos about Vietnam . . . I've read a lot of them and I admire the passion, but I never in any of them see anyone say: 'Go to Vietnam, write about it, discover, bring back some information about what's going on.' It's easy to get there.”

Going to Africa.

Related Pages:
Liberia History
Tourist Guilt and Helping the Poor
USA- Letter from Burkina Faso
Honduras-Tourist Charity and Street Children
Africa Enslaved by Love
Morocco- On Moroccan Touts
Morocco- Travel Tip #5- Not Your Friend
Morocco- The Routine Hassles of Travelling in a Tourist's W...
NGO Watchdog by HoboTraveler.com

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Traveler Re-Entry and Reverse Culture Shock
Educational Autobiography
No Dollar Days in Brooklyn

Donate Money to Africa
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

Traveler Re-Entry and Reverse Culture Shock

Traveler Re-Entry to Home Country

“Why would anyone return to where they came?”
-from the film, Such a Long Journey

Coming home means being a nobody again.

I have gotten use to being a foreigner, being someone – something – different, being the focal-point at which people gaze and stare. I like people looking at me and wanting to talk to me, and I have molded my character around this attention, around being the foreigner.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 23, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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But in New York City I am not a foreigner, I am nothing special. I am just another pin-head in the circus. This city is a foreign environment to me, I have never been anywhere remotely similar, and I feel like a foreigner here . . . but I am not. I am another face in a crowd and nothing special or worthy of attention.

I think travel has spoiled me. In New York City I feel like a brat child that is not loved my its parents.

I believe that many travelers encounter this feeling upon arrival back at where they started from, upon realizing that they are just a nobody again.

“After seven years in Germany I returned to New York City,” wrote Joann Halpern in a Peace Corps publication, “where the mayor didn't even call me . . . Local newspapers weren't jamming my phone lines asking “the New Yorker” for interviews, and Manhattan restaurant owners didn't greet me with a welcoming hug when I walked into their restaurants.”

A person outside of their own country and culture for an extended period of time sometimes develops an odd sort of persona - a way of acting and seeing themselves – that moves beyond the way they were before they departed. Situations, environments, and experiences shapes and molds a person throughout their lives, and traveling speeds up this metamorphosis exponentially. Travel puts you in a constantly swirling landscape: people, places, thoughts, and experiences whirl by in rapid fire succession. In this dynamic it is easy to learn about yourself and your place in the world. Travel changes, makes, and forms the mind: to travel is to change. I know that I am changed.

I am also aware of the fact that I am showered with much more attention when in other countries than in the one I grew up in, and this attention becomes addictive - it becomes expected. I have cultivated my character as “the foreigner,” and I feel lost without this mask. Coming back to the USA is to demask myself and show a figure that is not what it appears to be.

I have to come up with different mechanisms for communication while abroad than when I am in the USA, and these mechanisms harshly mesh in with my native country. I feel far more like I am putting on a show in my home country than when I am a visitor in another. I find that I either act out in the USA – sometimes even getting arrested – or I abscond. I have absconded here in New York City.

I am missing a good show, though it is one that I found difficult to watch anyway.

I have no mask in the USA, I have no where to hide, and I feel lost in the crowd. I am just another American, and I could not put on my foreigner face, even if I tried. The world is accessible to those who know no cultural boundaries. When abroad, I often pretend that I am far more oblivious to cultural restrictions than I really am, and I have found that foreigners are often times not held to the same restrictions than locals.

A foreigner is a wild card. Being from outside of a culture means that you can oftentimes act how you wish, that you can be yourself. I am not a wild card in my own country, for I know the rules and I know the restrictions, I know the symbols, and I know the meanings. I am not an ignorant traveler trying to learn and understand, rather, I am a part of the scenery.

I do not like the way this feels.

I am not really a part of the ebb and flow of the USA. In no other culture in the world do I feel more removed, more isolated, and more withdrawn. I simply cannot seem to be able to function here. Perhaps, this is because I understand too much - I am not bewildered by the surface static, I can see deep into the culture and know all too well that I have no place in it. I feel like a misfit because I understand what is going on – there are few riddles, no puzzles.

Perhaps I just do not find the USA very interesting. Perhaps a culture unveiled is one removed from its mystic.

I do not want a car, I do not watch TV, I care nothing for politics, and my knowledge base is situated around the ways of culture, geography, and travel. To be embedded in the landscape of a community is not for me. I would much rather stick up, stand out, and be awkward.

It is difficult for a traveler to talk about their journeys to people who do not travel. I have found that there is usually a barrier of experience that is difficult to cross, and that there is simply not the basic building blocks of knowledge to have a conversation that goes beyond a monologue. On my first journeys back to my own country after traveling abroad I tried to tell my friends about all of the exciting time that I have had, I tried to tell them stories of the Open Road, and I tried to inform them about other ways of life in other lands.

I just looked like a dick.

Yes, I thought that telling traveler tales was something that a traveler had to do once returning home, but I just looked like I was bragging. It seemed as if I was rubbing my experience into the faces of my friends: I was out traveling the world while they were home working. I found it difficult to find fertile ground to tell my stories, and it became apparent that traveler tales were for travelers alone. So I stopped talking about travel to people who do not engage in the practice themselves. But this leaves a large portion of what I would like to say unsaid.

"One thing you can count on upon your return: no one will be as interested in hearing about your adventures and triumphs as you will be in sharing those experiences. This is not a rejection of you or your achievements, but simply the fact that once they have heard the highlights, any further interest on your audiences’ part is probably unlikely." - Re-Entry Shock

In many ways I have become trapped in the circle of my lifestyle, but I suppose this is normal, as it is my impression that people can only relate to that which they have experienced. Traveling is no better than having a home, family, or car: it is just different. A lawyer would probably speak differently to me than with their lawyer friends.

"Like culture shock, which you experienced while abroad, re-entry shock, too, has distinct stages. Stage one: Disengagement may happen before you leave your host country and often times occurs because of the pace of finals, goodbye dinners. As a result, you begin to distance yourself from friends and host country nationals. Stage two: Initial Euphoria may also occur as a result of leaving your host country and returning to the US. This is where you may have formed idealistic views of home, and what will happen upon your return. You are happy to be home! This feeling of euphoria may last a few weeks, but may inevitably give way to feelings of loneliness. This is Stage three: Irritability and Hostility, which is the realization that life at home went on without you, and as you were learning new things and making subtle changes, they were too. You may feel that friends and family don’t understand or want to hear what you experienced abroad." - Re-entry and Reverse Culture Shock

I no longer have any illusions of the first two stages, rather I just jump right to the third: Irritability and Hostility.

My experiences are typical. These are the normal processes of traveling. Once you set out on the Road, there is no returning home. Travel is not only addictive, but it is

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But one soothing point does come out of being in the USA: anonymity. I am really enjoying the fact that I have not been asked where I am from, where I am going, and where I had been in two months.

Breathing fresh sighs of relief and just waiting out this last month until I get my face back. The farther you travel on any Path, the farther it is to return. This Path is not leading back to where it began.

Related Pages:
Re-entry and Reverse Culture Shock
Re-entry Shock
Reverse Culture Shock
USA- Back in the USA
USA- Things are hard in the USA
USA- Travel- Happiness- and Aging
USA- Visit to USA- Back to Family

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• Educational Autobiography
• No Dollar Days in Brooklyn
• How to Publish a Magazine

Traveler Re-Entry to Home Country
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

Educational Autobiography

Educational Autobiography

I am unsure if this could be of interest to anyone, but the following link goes to a haphazard run through of my educational autobiography. It was just one of those ransom type assignments that I had to complete to receive my university degree from Global College, Long Island University.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 23, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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So I hand over silly assignments and the school gives me a degree. This is the deal.

Educational Autobiography

Related Pages:
Global College Long Island University- Is Global College worth the cost?
Global College Study Abroad Cost- How can international students pay for Global College?
How to Finance Travels and Study Abroad- How to study abroad.
International Study Travel- How I fund my travels through studying abroad.

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• No Dollar Days in Brooklyn
• How to Publish a Magazine
• How Not to Monetize Blog

Educational Autobiography
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

No Dollar Days in Brooklyn

No Dollar Days in Brooklyn

I have not spent a dollar in nearly four days. I do not even have a dollar in my wallet. I really love these no dollar days. In fact, when I go to bed at night after a day of not spending ANY money I feel absolutely victorious, I feel like I won. I have found that I remember these no dollar days for much longer than I probably should, but they are little victories for me, they mean that I am living cheap and I'm not suckered into the the temptation of spending money for the simple enjoyment of doing so.

The more no dollar days I have, the longer I can travel and experience more of the world.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 21, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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I found a good graff here in Brooklyn: university scholarships and financial aid has just about covered my costs of living. I have a room without knowing who paid for it and I eat food without knowing whose bill it is going on. I find this all rather mysterious, though I am not complaining.

When I spend money here in New York City it is usually because I want to. Sometimes I like spending $5 to go to a Bollywood movie at the Indian theater and sometimes I enjoy drinking a $1 cup of coffee in a cafe. But I usually do not want to spend money more than I want to have a no dollar day. This is a game to me.

Another benefit of carrying no money is that I become absolutely impervious to beggars, grafters, and hustlers. Relatively speaking, there are very few beggars in New York City for a place of its size and population density. I looked into the homeless resources that the city has to offer when I first moved here, as I was unsure if I would have a place to live, and I have the impression that the dire poor are more or less provided for. Evidence for this impression is that many of the people begging seem to be in working condition: they have all their limbs, their bodies seem to work properly, and most even appear to be mentally “there.” It is my impression that the beggars here are not spare changing out of need, but out of want. For there are things which the city does not provide for its needy.

Therefore, there are far more grafters and hustlers in New York City than beggars. Wit, guilt provoking maneuvers, humor, and long tales of woe are used to suck out a dollar or two out of a John who otherwise just wants to get away. Once you are caught in a grafter's net it is far easier to pay a dollar to escape rather than feel rude by abruptly walking away from someone who is talking your ear off.

I am a friendly fellow, if someone seems to be asking me directions in the street, I stop to listen. 95% of the times I know that I am going to be suckered, for the simple direction asking routine is a great lock-in prop. Once you stop to answer a question, you feel stuck to listen to whatever else someone has to say.

It is usually some long tale to get money.

I never give money (well, except for the joke man who got a dollar out of me . . .but he deserved it). I usually interrupt the monologue with a blunt question - “Do you want money?” - and then walk away. I found that asking a question shifts the conversational paradigm and thus frees me from the lock-in prop.

But carrying no money myself, I have actually began listening to the stories that I am told all the way through, for some of them are incredible.

Today I was told a tale about how a guy's mother just had a stoke while driving and ran over three kids a block away and how Officer Pelligrino called him a nigger. He needed $7 to get his car towed or something like that.

“You are not going to believe this,” he said before launching into his tale.

He was right.

“Sorry, man, but I honestly don't have a dollar.”

No dollar days in Brooklyn.

“This is what travel writers do: reach conclusions on the basis of slender evidence.”
-Paul Theroux

Related Pages:
Begging for a Laugh in New York City
NYC- Vagabond Finds Home in Brooklyn
NYC- Couchsurfing in New York City
NYC- Living in Brooklyn
NYC- No Accommodation in Brooklyn

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• How to Publish a Magazine
• How Not to Monetize Blog
• Obama Hope or Delusion

No Dollar Days in Brooklyn
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

How to Publish a Magazine

How to Publish a Magazine

I have often wondered about what goes into self publishing a magazine and how I could start my own little Vagabond press. Perhaps this is a far off, long term goal of mine, but, as the opportunity arose, I conducted the following interview with the managing editor, owner, and co-founder of Cafe Abroad Magazine to find out how he began his publication nearly two years ago.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November20, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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1. How did you begin Cafe Abroad InPrint? What gave you the idea? How did you take the initial idea and put it into action?

I had dozens of interns writing tons of stories for www.cafeabroad.com, so InPRINT was conceived as a piece to give more visibility and credibility to the website.

To execute the idea, I took the best stories and made a 16-page prototype in Feb, 2007. I then did a bulk mailing to 500 schools and 300 potential advertisers and called and emailed ‘til I figured out who wanted in,

2. How do you publish Cafe Abroad InPrint? Approximately how much does it cost to put out each issue? How large of a circulation does the magazine have?

I publish it using evergreen – a printing company in New Jersey. Each issue costs about $7,000. I print 11.000 copies – 30 issues to each of 325 schools and then some extras for bulk orders.

3. How did you approach the advertisers that place ads in the magazine? In what ways did you market the magazine to them as a potential source of advertising? Is Cafe Abroad run totally on the money made from selling ad space? Approximately how much does Cafe Abroad charge for ads in the print magazine? How much for the website?

I started attending international education conferences like NAFSA and The Forum on Education Abroad. All of the pricing information is available in the media kit in the “Advertise” section of CafÈ Abroad.

4. Do you contract out the graphic design work? Or do you do it yourself or have an employee or intern doing it?

I contract it out to a graphic designer. He’s a friend so he gives me a bit of a deal.

5. How many paid employees does Cafe Abroad have (not including travel journalists)?

Zero (including me).

6. How did you make the initial contact with students and set up the web-based study abroad community? How many students intern with Cafe Abroad each semester?

I created a database of study abroad offices and started making calls. A month later I had 225 applications.

100 interns per semester, though this semester I’ve scaled back operations to just 10 interns.

Related Pages:
Cafe Abroad InPrint
How to Self Publish a Magazine
Writing for Magazines and Newspapers
Article about Portugal Graffiti for Cafe Abroad
Travel Writing

Links to previous travelogue entries:

• How Not to Monetize Blog
• Obama Hope or Delusion
• Studying to be an English Teacher

How to Publish a Magazine
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

How Not to Monetize Blog

How Not to Monetize Blog: Project Wonderful Makes No Money

I tried another internet advertising program to compliment Google Adsense. It is called Project Wonderful and it does not make webmasters a fair amount of money.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 20, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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For the past month and a half there has been those silly graphic ads in the side bars of my sites. Maybe you noticed the cartoon of the hairy guy in bed with the girl? These are Project Wonderful ads, and they have failed to make me more than 4 cents a day. In the time that I have had these ads on this travelogue, Song of the Open Road, and Traveler Photographs.com I have only made a measely $3.50.

This is not enough money for thousands and thousands of page views.

So I removed the ads and have moved on.

It was worth a try.

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Obama Hope or Delusion
Studying to be an English Teacher
Tourist Guilt and Helping the Poor

How Not to Monetize Blog: Project Wonderful Makes No Money
* Travel Blog Directory * Traveler Photographs.com * Travel Questions and Answers

Obama Hope or Delusion

Obama Hope or Delusion in Brooklyn

“Hope is a longing for a future condition over which you have no agency.”
-Derrick Jensen

Hope is still in the air, in the minds, and on the lips of Brooklyn as a seemingly competent, articulate, and worldly man was elected as president of the USA. In my era these attributes in a president are certainly an oddity.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 20, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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But I must wonder what Obama has done to be riding on such high seas of hope and expectation. . . .

As I was walking today I saw a poster for sale in a shop window that had Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jessie Jackson, and other big heroes of human rights movements displayed in all out glory. But what was interesting about this poster was that an incredibly huge face of Barak Obama was superimposed above all of these other humanitarian leaders. What has Obama done to be depicted as four times larger than Gandhi? How could he even be compared?

This strikes me as being a little odd, but this is the symbol that Barak Obama radiates.

How could anyone put Obama in such company, let alone show him as rising above the greatest leaders of social movements that the modern world has ever known? I would not be surprised if the street vendors begin selling portraits of Obama superimposed next to Jesus.

Obama the savior.

“Obama speaks for me,” I read on a sign in a shop window this morning as I walked the gauntlet of Obama posters, t-shirts, books, and other paraphernalia on my way through Brooklyn. I saw another poster of a big Barak Obama head dominating over two little tiny Martin Luther King and JFK portraits. Barak Obama is a hero, though one that I have no idea what he has done. Yes, he has been elected president of the USA, which is of course no small feat, but he is still just a president. He has not fought in the streets, he has not lead a million oppressed people in the struggle for liberty, and he has not risked life and limb on the front lines of any real social movement (and I am not of the impression that he is inclined to do so). But regardless, Obama has been paraded as a hero.

As of now, it is my impression that the Obama persona has rocketed far beyond life and into the realm of symbolism, and symbols have no intrinsic value in and of themselves. Heroes often serve as symbols, but I am not sure if a symbol alone can be called a hero.

Many African Americans seem to think that Obama will save them because his skin is dark, and many Africans in Africa think that he is going to save them because his dad was from Kenya. “Obama cares about Africa because he is black.” Maybe this is true, but George Bush is white and I never had the impression he cared about me.

People are celebrating the coming of the "Great Black Hope," as the slogan goes. On the evidence that I am shown this makes little sense to me and, bluntly speaking, I become a little frightened when populations embrace their political leaders so excessively. Far too often have men been paraded into power on the backs of high expectations only to let down the people who put them there.

Hope is valuable only if it serves to fertilize action, and by action I mean provoking people to take responsibility for their lives and help themselves.

I believe strongly that politicians do not help anyone.

Presidents do not save anyone.

People help themselves.

Though I am pleased that the USA has a president that can construct a complete sentence, knows geography, has lived all over the world, studied other cultures and religions, and seems to have a good sense of the geo-political order of the planet we live on.

Or so I hope.

Related Pages:
Obama Celebration in Brooklyn
Photo of Obama
Obama the End of the Whinge
Derrick Jensen

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Studying to be an English Teacher
Tourist Guilt and Helping the Poor
Travel to Central Asia Western China or Middle Eas...

Obama Hope or Delusion in Brooklyn
* Travel Blog Directory * Vagabond Journey.com * Travel Photos * Travel Questions and Answers

Studying to be an English Teacher

Studying to be an English Teacher

I began an online 100 hour Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL, TEFL) course with International TESOL Teachers Training (ITTT). Nailing this certification will better provide me with another trade that I can ply while traveling. I have taught English before and, although I cannot say that I love doing it, I do not despise the profession. You stand up in front of a group of people that you are interested in talking to and your job is to talk. On top of this you get paid. Not bad.

I have the impression that can ride out the website work for the next six to eight months of travel. After this, unless www.vagabondjourney.com miraculously begins to bring in more money, I think I may need to find an organized job. So I am preparing now by taking an English teaching certification course, which will transform me into an internationally employable teacher of the English language, and not just some scrub who has oft been know to teach under the table lessons.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 19, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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Teaching English is a great ace in the hole for American, English, and Australian travelers. There is currently a huge demand for native English speaking teachers in nearly every corner of the non-Anglo world, and I know that I can walk into nearly any Asian city and find myself employed within a day. Not bad, I say, especially since these teaching jobs are usually for relatively short contracted periods, provide housing, and pay more than a vagabond’s fare. Three months of teaching English should get me six to eight months of travel.

It addition to the practical – the money – aspects of teaching, it is also a good way to do some spokes of the wheel traveling. The spokes of the wheel travel strategy – which Andy calls the Spider method - is simply when you make a temporary base in a country and then repeatedly travel away from it in two or three day spurts before returning. So your path eventually comes to resemble a wheel in which you have a hub in the center and various spokes jetting out in every direction. It is my impression that this is among the better ways to gain a thorough impression of a country.

From looking over maps, it seems as if I am going to take my return flight to Budapest, leave as soon as possible to Romania, run down through Bulgaria, and then travel around Turkey for a while. Perhaps I will find myself going east to Azerbaijan and Armenia to dip a foot into the Caspian sea before setting out south to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, and then trying to settle in Tanzania for a season. I like the looks of Tanzania, almost fully surrounded by the Indian Ocean, Lake Victoria, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Nyasa. I would like to set up a base of a wheel in Dar es Salaam, find a teaching (or another) job, and then travel spokes out to the lakes before carrying on south towards the bottom of the continent.

Now I am preparing for these travels in New York City. By December I will have completed the requirements for my degree, have an internationally recognized English teaching certificate, eight field seasons of archaeology work under my belt, and a good deal of experience as a magazine copy editor and travel journalist.

Though there is one confession that studying to be an English teacher has brought to light: I have realized that I never learned anything about English grammar. I previously closed my ears to these lessons as a youth in grade school, stating ignorantly, "Why do I need to study English, I SPEAK English." I failed nearly ever grammar class I ever took. I do not believe that a strict knowledge of grammar is necessary for writing, editing, or for learning language, but, I fear, it is necessary for teaching. Writing comes out of speaking, editing comes out of reading, and language learning comes out of listening. Language is music, and it has always been my impression that music is better felt through dancing rather than thinking. But when a student asks "why?" about a point of English grammar, I know that I would much rather be able to answer their question, rather than blithely stating that "it is just the way it is."

I also know that putting my childhood stubbornness aside and finaly learning the nuances of English grammar will help in all other pursuits.

For the teacher is ever and always also a student.

Related Pages:
English Teaching Urumqi Xinjiang ...
How to Find Work while Traveling
Travel to Central Asia Western ...
International Study Travel
Travel Work Skills
International TESOL Teachers Training (ITTT
Spider method from Hobotraveler.com
Pros and cons of teaching a language to earn money
Jobs on Trip
Loren Everly.org

Links to previous travelogue entries:
Tourist Guilt and Helping the Poor
Travel to Central Asia Western China or Middle Eas...
Lonliness, Traveling, and the Open Road

Studying to be an English Teacher
* Travel Blog Directory * Vagabond Journey.com * Travel Photos * Travel Questions and Answers

Tourist Guilt and Helping the Poor

They Need it More Than Me: Tourist Guilt and "Helping" the Poor

“I'm delighted to be called a romanticist. It tells me that I am on the right track. They mean I'm reporting only the good and trying to make everything seem perfect; in other words, I'm inventing it. I can respect anthropology only if it is a form of pilgrimage, where we are on a sacred quest to bring back from other societies the good things that can enhance our lives. To hell with people who say, 'Oh, here goes the romantic again!'”
-Colin Turnbull

“They need it more than me,” spoke a student to her teacher, justifying why she allows herself to be occasionally cheated and scammed out of money while traveling abroad.

The teacher agreed with her and said that she sometimes does the same thing.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Brooklyn, New York City- November 15, 2008
Travelogue -- Travel Photos
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In many countries, the presence of a white hide and a rucksack seems to be enough to make many merchants, street-touts, hoteliers, and restaurants think that can make a few extra bucks off of someone who is acculturated into believing that they are rich and the world is poor.

The con men are oftentimes correct, as many Westerners seem to try to purchase away their deeply ingrained feelings of guilt by giving away money to people they think are in need. I do not know how many times I have shivered while listening to tourists talk about “how poor” people are in various places of the world simply because they live in mud huts, are agriculturists, and do not have much money. I do not know how many times I have cringed while watching well meaning tourists distributing money openly to dirty children in a village because it is thought that just because they do not have shoes that they are starving. I do not know how many times I have wanted to scream while listening to Westerners talking about how they want to save the world by volunteering their nonexistent skills to people who are perceived as being unable to provide for themselves.

This seems rude to me. This all seems offensive. Handouts make beggars. To treat people as if they are useless is to construct an a useless way of living. These are my opinions, my impressions - I do not know if I am correct.

There seems to be a prevailing consensus that people in the West have more money than other people in the world, so they should therefore allow themselves to be robbed for charity - that they should have a moral obligation to help the less fortunate by being duped. I have witnessed far too many Westerners proscribing to this dogma and paying exorbitant prices under the guise of acquiescing the guilt that they feel by perceiving themselves and their culture as "rich," from thinking that they are better off than the people whose country they are traveling in, and by trying to help the poor. The alms that they shed are oftentimes misplaced:

They are feeding the sharks in the ocean.

There is a relative scale of wealth in the world, and money is perceived and used differently according to culture. It seems to me that the absence of money is not always a sign of poverty. I do not feel that it is always appropriate to pity people who work hard for little income. Cultures are relative, and I feel that placing the values of one culture upon another - by thinking people poor because they do not possess the signs of wealth that another culture acknowledges - is degrading. It is my impression that the moral obligation for one culture to try to help or save another is oftentimes an outrage.

It is Kipling's White Man's Burden all over again:

Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.

As I listened to the student and the teacher talking I was reminded of the undercurrent ideology behind colonization - that Europe felt it was their guilt ridden mission to bring civilization, commerce, infrastructure, and religion to the heathen natives of the world. It seems to me that, in a very real sense, behind the bases of exploitation and imperial control that many of these missionaries and colonists really believed that they were helping the people that they took into their charge. I cannot help but to liken this ideology to Westerners who think that "they need it more than me."

It is striking to me that Westerners just expect to see starving, hungry and poor people in other countries. Their blinders seem to be up and they will not absorb any other impression. I expected this when I first began traveling. I, too, once thought that the world was on the brink of abject poverty and that the people in whose countries I was traveling "needed it more than me." I felt guilty for being for being raised in the USA and I wanted to help the "poor." I think this is normal. In the USA we have been conditioned to think that our way of life produces better results, that we are privilege, and they we are, when it comes down to it, superior. We are taught that the world is poor and we are rich, and that to be a good person you have to try to help the poor.

But I cannot buy this now. I do not believe this at all.

It now seems to met that if someone thinks that it is their job - their mission - to help other people then they are putting themselves in an upper hand position, they are flaunting their sense of cultural superiority.

It is beyond the pale of my ability to explain to a Westerner who has not traveled – or even many who have – that the world is not full of starvation and disparity, and that just because someone lives in a mud hut does not mean that they are poor and need to be helped.

“Eat your peas because there are starving children in China.”

“Appreciate what you have because you could have been born in Africa.”

“In Communist countries the government take children away from their families.”

"In Islamic countries women are treated like dogs."

These are the stories that I was told