Not All Who Wander Are Lost: 2013

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Welcome to My Blog: Bilbo Travels!

This summer I plan to volunteer by teaching English to Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon. Like with many refugee situations, Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon have extremely limited access to education, healthcare, and other basic human rights. They are also barred from working many different types of jobs, therefore making it very hard for them to earn a living and support their families. In order to enter high school, they must first pass a test with a big section of English in it. By teaching them English, I am hoping to better their chances at entering high school and perhaps going on to further education. Somehow, I will have to pay for my trip there. If you can help at all, there is a button on the side for donations. Thanks so much for taking the time to read this :)

~Edit: I am now in Lebanon, but I could still use money for things like food and a plane ticket back. Just saying.

~Edit: I've been out of Lebanon for nearly 8 months now, but I'm continuing to couchsurf and do workaway abroad. I love it, but now I could really do with the money to go home if anyone wants to be generous *awkward laugh*

~Edit: It's been over a year and I'm now down to less than a $100.

If you're looking for silly pictures of Bilbo's adventures that likely make you think I'm fucking crazy, click here.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Bizaare Adventures of Bilbo in Krakow

Monday, July 15, 2013

Ok now I'm a bit scared

Ok I copy & pasted a bunch of entries from my tumblr if you're wondering where all the posts from the past month came from.

I got fired from my hostel and was told, literally, that it was nothing I had done, but that the owner of the hostel just didn't like me.

So now I am in Budapest with around a $100 to my name of mixed currencies and no job, and no place to stay longer than a few days.

...This should be interesting

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Every shift I look up what’s new with snowden and what’s going on in Zimmerman’s trial and I get increasingly depressed with the world

AND THEN TODAY I FOUND OUT A TULANE GRAD FROM THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK GOT SHOT ON ESPLANADE.

so much sadness

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Life at a Hostel

I no longer know what to do with unexpected free time so I'm just going to stare off into space for a while and freak out the cleaning staff.

I went on the hostel pub crawl the other day for the free drinks and ended up making out with a guest.

Him: lets go back to my place
Me: You’re staying at the hostel
Him: …lets go back to your place
Me: I live at the hostel!

*facepalm*

Then last night my friend had a dinner party and I used my food money to bring 2 bottles of wine and then we went to a bar and everything dissolved into chaos.

The hostel continues to be fucking ridiculous. We work 39-52 hours a week officially, but that’s not including the extra cleaning and reception duties they manage to pressure us into unofficially. Also the electricity went out this morning (!) and we still don’t have internet.

On the plus side the tv in the common room got connected with a computer so hypoethetically I can stream something soon! Which seems like a lame thing to look forward to, but I feel like the idea of watchinng tv during my shift (especially aggressive stress-relieving tv) is the only thing keeping me sane right now.

Oh! And I’m going caving under Budapest Sunday! So that too. I’m looking forward to that too.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Gay Pride in Budapest

So I went to a lot of events for pride week, most of which were good. The first event I tried to go to was one of the few English language workshops, but it was cancelled (it was about the challenges including people who are trans and genderqueer in the movement and how it could improve, but the event was taken off the website so I cant give more details than that). On the plus side a Canadian girl was also bummed about missing it was there and so we decided to walk around finding all the art exhibits for pride that were up instead. I became really good friends with her so later when there was an art exhibition opening I went with her, a friend of hers and two couchsurfers and it worked out really well! The art wasn’t what I was looking for, but it was still a really cool atmosphere and later we went to a pub and sat around and talked until nearly 4 am.

I also went to an event called “rape culture in gay culture" against my better judgement. It was fucking crazy. The woman who led it was a psychoanalyst with crazy viewpoints. She basically was of the opinion that our parents traumatize us and this causes us to be gay or straight (not that either one is better than the other in her opinion, but still) and that gay people have tons of sex because we’re all rape victims. I HAVE NO IDEA HOW SHE WAS ALLOWED IN. WTF?!

Then I went to a free movie screening of the movie “Milk" yesterday with Harvey Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk heading a discussion on the events of the film and its inaccuracies. I really enjoyed it.

After that I went to “women’s pride" at Club New Orleans (!!!!) with my new friends. There was a very strange, but cool burlesque show and then we danced for a bunch of hours for the equivalent of less than $5.

Then today was the march! I went with two of my new coworkers. I had heard that essentially we would be caged in and wouldn’t be able to leave so I was a bit afraid of missing my work shift at 7 but it worked out. Despite being a huge parade, it was a bit sad that anyone watching the parade from the street would be unable to see it due to the fact we were blocked off to stop fucking NAZIS from attacking us (it felt a bit like time travelling). Apparently they publically announced that they have a list of people to target called a “faggot’s list" which is essentially everyone who said they were attending the parade on facebook. To which I say good luck finding a girl named “Maggle Magpie" completely covered in blue and purple paint…I’m sure that will work out well for them. But anyway the parade! It was great. Everyone had balloons with little cards attatched that we could wtite messages of hope on and then we released them into the air. I was overwhelmed by how beautiful it all was, but also how much fun the music and people were. I was really sad I had to cut it short for my shift, but oh well. Overall, I had an amazing pride I wont soon forget. I hope you all did too!!!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

An Update from Poland

Ok! Here's what happened: I found WorkAway. I was in Trefor, Wales for a bit supposedly being a gardener, but actually being a maid. Then I found a Hare Krishna farm in Belgium that needed help with their cows and I stayed there for a while. THEN I realized I had JUST enough money to return to the US if I chose to. I debated about this long and hard, because the lease on my apartment in New Orleans was running out but I wouldn't have enough money to go to nola and back to NY, and I had a place to stay in NY but no where definite in nola and where would I place my stuff anyway? And how would I feed myself?

I contacted my parents for the first time in nearly a year and the gulf between us was too big to cross.

I ran to my people in Cardiff. A mistake. I knew they had their own crises, but I was blinded by the concern evident in their actions. It didn't work out so well; two people in major distress shouldn't stay in the same house. Before we parted I had decided to buy my plane ticket back. I clicked "confirm" on bravofly's website feeling safe in my assumption I'd be in NYC two days later.

...bravofly fucked up and the ticket was not purchased. I got into a ridiculous fight with my partner-in-distress.

I ran off to Bath with a girl I randomly met, and from there we went to Stonehenge. I went on to London by myself and crashed at a new friend's place for a week.

I got a ride to Krakow, Poland from carpooling.co.uk. It took over 24 hours. I stayed in Krakow for one day while it stormed and I wandered aimlessly.

I travelled to Zakopane to begin my work in a hostel here. I've been using mturk to make small amounts of money during my shifts at reception: so far I have made $85 USD.

...I have about $300 USD to my name.

Next month I'll be working in a hostel in Budapest.

And then what? I don't know.