Last week my friend Tom came to visit. Tom has been backpacking around the world for the past year, basically doing exactly what I've been preparing to do, but instead of Jiu-Jitsu he's been hiking and skiing all over some great places. Tom and I kind of grew up together, we weren't the closest of friends but our social circles intersected and we had mutual friends. After school we connected online and we've kept tabs on each other. As it happened, at the same time I was telling close friends about my plans to start preparing for a year long world backpacking trip he was just about to start his. For this last year we've been shooting each other advice we've found on forums or experienced ourselves, creating our own network to help each other out. When Tom said he would like to come out to Victoria BC to visit I was more than happy to lend him my couch. We haven't actually seen each other since our mutual best friend's wedding 6 or 7 years ago and a lot has changed for both of us since then. To be honest I didn't know who to expect since it had been so long and we've both changed so much. Tom had been backpacking around the world for a year and experienced so much, that changes you. And myself, I had join the military, quit smoking, quit drinking, found a new passion in life. I am not the same man he last saw, neither of us are. As it happens, with our experiences and changes in life we now had more in common than before, with lots to talk about.
Here's a link to Tom's blog, there's lot's of good stuff in there, so if you're planning a trip somewhere and want some good ideas of what to do or where to go, or even what to watch out for, he just might have something here to help you out, so check it out!
 |
| Getting ready to show Tom a small piece of my life and introduce him to the gentle art of jiu-jitsu. (sorry for the blurry photo) |
It was Thursday night, I had my friend Rob give me a ride to pick up Tom from the airport and after he dropped his things off at my place I showed him the important things around our neighborhood (grocery store and strip mall, bus stop and schedule, etc.). We picked up groceries and got back my place for Tom to get settled in. Friday Tom was left to himself to explore around the town while I went to work and in the evening I brought him out to Jiu-Jitsu. During our chats online he had expressed an interest in checking out some Jiu-Jitsu classes and I was more than happy to introduce him to the fine art that I am admittedly obsessed with. Lucky for Tom our club has classes in both Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and traditional Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, and Friday had both classes running. He did well for his first classes, I was proud of him to take the leap and try new things out. The next morning Tom expectedly pulled up a little sore, not that I wasn't but you get used to that sort of thing when you train as much as I do. After breakfast we took off to hit up a Yoga class, it was my first in a long time and proved to be more exhausting than I had planned. Tom too. As he said, you never knew exactly where it hurt until after a good class of yoga.
 |
| Tom (black gi, center) being welcomed by my jiu-jitsu family after a fun Friday night class. |
Afterwards we walked around town and I showed him some good sights of the city, the island is such a beautiful place and I always like showing it off to visiting friends, not only is it showing off the beauty to someone new but it also gets me out to appreciate it all over again. Sunday was a quiet day of resting before all you can eat ribs and meeting with good friend Matt to watch the wrestling pay per view, the Royal Rumble was on. Finally Monday came and it was time for Tom and I to part ways again. I was great hosting his stay here and my couch is always open for him but now it was time for him to go see Tokyo for his self and ski the slopes there. I envy the life he has now, and can't wait for my journey to start.
A Meeting Of Minds
The entire time Tom was here we never wasted a moment to chat about experiences and advice to one another. I would say I probably learned the most out of all my research this last year from this weekend of us hanging out. Not that I hadn't learned a lot from researching but having someone who had been out there recount his tales either confirmed or corrected most of my findings. As we both said as some point during the weekend, it's one thing to read it online or have someone who's never been out there tell you some sort of advice or information, but hearing it from someone who's actually been there and done that adds a whole level of credibility. Since Tom was going to Japan next I told him everything I could about how to get around, places to see and how to eat cheap. Apparently my blog posts on Tokyo really helped him figure some site to see as well, I was glad to help. In exchange Tom told me all about his living and traveling around South East Asia and how to do it cheap. Also, all the scams he had either saw himself or heard about while traveling. That's one thing I will have to be weary of, scams, I know they're out there and the more sites I want to see the more I'll have to be careful of the scams since they usually always target the tourists areas.
 |
| Enjoying all you can eat ribs on his final night in Canada. Apparently he follow this up with a Japanese Kobe Beef steak in Tokyo 2 days later! |
To be honest Tom's talks really helped me out, with the Canadian dollar not doing so well as this point I was really starting to feel discouraged about planning the Odyssey. I was starting to think I might have to put it off another year to save up enough. After talking to Tom and getting actual numbers that someone had been living off of really put my projections into prospective. After he left I sat down and did some research, expenses estimates from what information I had gotten from Tom, and I was back on track, re-energized with all new ambition to set the journey up! With this new found energy I now have newly focused goals, and soon I'll be starting the second phase: Planning!
But that is for another post...
No comments:
Post a Comment