I act differently overseas and when I travel than I do at home in Washington, DC. I always tell myself I will try to act at home more like I do when on the road, but it NEVER works. Which should maybe be an indicator that I should spend more time traveling than at home… When I lived in The Hague for a month of law school, these five things stood out to me.
1. I’m Domestic
I make my bed. I eat breakfast. I make lunch and dinner. I clean my dishes right away, not using a dishwasher, even though we have one. I even fixed the washer/dryer and was the first person to successfully end up with dry clothes after two hours.
2. I’m On Time Overseas
I’m on time. Not only am I on time, but I become the drill sergeant who makes other people on time also.
3. I’m Motivated to Get Out of Bed in the Morning
I only hit my snooze once, instead of the normal three or four times. And it is only five minutes, not nine, so I end up with all this extra time in the mornings!
4. I Get Out and About
I go to a museum, meet folks at a bar, visit a neighbor’s apartment. I plan day/afternoon trips to neighboring towns. When I was in law school, I would go from home, to work, to school, to home. Now that school is done, I go to work, I go home. Occasionally I go to a happy hour. On the weekends I catch up on sleep, and chill out on my couch. Totally lame, right?
5. No TV!
Leisure time at home = catching up on favorite tv shows. Leisure time abroad = sitting on the balcony/at a cafe reading for pleasure. And the pièce de résistance— I rarely if ever even touch the TV! In some places, I can chalk that up to not understanding the local language, but not in The Hague, where there were plenty of English-speaking channels available. The only TV-watching I did in The Hague was the Dutch football (soccer) European Championship games. For those who know me, it’s a pretty impressive feat. In the month I spent in The Hague I read seven books for pleasure, which was more than I had read for fun in over a year; most of my reading was dedicated to law school textbooks! It was fantastic!
That month in The Hague was the longest I’ve spent in one place overseas since college, but even on shorter trips these five things hold up, except maybe being domestic. Though I think washing my clothes in the sink and hanging them to dry counts, right? I can’t wait to discover what additional things I do differently overseas when I’m gone for longer than a month!