Nomad in North America: What I Learned From My First Real Vagabonding Experience
I have just arrived in Manila from a 6-week trip around North America, and it was truly an incredible adventure. I have learned a lot about my thresholds for both pain and pleasure, and would now like to immortalize these lessons before the euphoria goes stale.
The trip was an auspicious combination of work and play. My 5-year graduate school reunion in Boston was slated for May 17–19 and I was the designated representative of one of my client non-profits for an international conference in Minnesota on June 17–20. The flight to Boston from Manila is 17 hrs, idle waiting time at airports not included. It does not make sense to come home only to come back again in a few weeks, so I decided to spend the month separating these two events in vagabond mode. That decision took me to New England and New York in the United States, Atlantic Canada and Nova Scotia (Moncton, Fundy, Halifax and PEI), Quebec (Old Quebec City and Montreal), Alberta (Calgary, Canmore and Banff), British Columbia (Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler), America again via the Twin Cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis), Providence, then back in Boston where I started, for a total of 18 towns and cities.
This was not my longest hiatus away from home (I spent 2 years in the States for school then work), but I was away long enough…
