Happy Halloween! I’ve gotten a few comments recently on my Halloween 2005 which reminded me of the reader requests for costume updates. This year I decided to once again utilize some of my travel souvenirs for my Halloween costume. One of the things that I most enjoy when traveling is observing the local costume, so I never thought twice of honoring the Akha Tribe of Easter Myanmar with my Halloween costume.

I can understand how it might come across as strange, maybe even insulting to dress up like a different culture. In America Halloween no longer requires a scary costume, in fact few people dress up scary anymore. When I lived in England in the 90’s most locals who celebrated Halloween (and there were few back then) thought a costume was supposed to be scary. What do you think about dressing up in another culture’s traditional costume? It might be strange, maybe even insulting, to dress up as a Japanese person, but I wouldn’t think twice about dressing in a Kimono as a geisha. There’s a new poll to the right to chime in with your opinion.

The two photos I have of my costume are not amazing this year. Last Saturday night I was running out the door and quickly trying to find a good place to use my self timer which is why neither photo has my entire costume. On the way to the party I stopped at a liquor store to buy beer and was carded while wearing my costume, including my headdress. The owner asked if I was wearing my grandma’s clothes, which I found especially odd.

If you’re interested in other Halloween posts you can read about Halloween 2007, Halloween 2006 at Everest base camp (my costume was someone who likes hiking), Halloween 2005 in Chicago, or Halloween 2004 in the Xishuangbanna region of Western China (where I dressed up as a Canadian).

Sunday night I got a little travel fix, or at least an international culture fix. The girlfriend of one of my old high school friends is planning a trip to Southern India and she was interested in ashrams. When she discovered that I spent eight days at Sivinanda Ashram in Nyer Dam on my last trip she was excited. She frequently attends satsang at the Chicago chapter of the organization, Sivinanda Yoga Vedanta Center, on the North side. When she invited me to satsang on Sunday I jumped at the chance to do something that related to travel and to see how the service compared to the ones I was forcibly waken up at 5am for in India.

The service consists of thirty minutes of meditation followed by chanting and singing. Some of the same chants that you hear in my videos from Nyer Dam were used on Sunday night. Sitting indoors on carpet with ten people was a little different than sitting outside at dawn with seventy people but it was similar enough to leave me with a smile, remembering the good parts of my yoga vacation in India. Sivinanda has centers all over the world and satsang is usually free so if any of you are interested in seeing what it’s like I suggest you go for it. I am not a religious person but I do find the cultural aspects of satsang interesting. Just because we’re not on the road doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the effort to find some culture when we can.

It’s time to update when strangers are leaving posts asking if you’re still alive. I am still alive but a lot has changed since I got home over a year ago. I was waiting to write a long, insightful post but it never happened. You might laugh when I say that I’m a very private and cautious person, but I am and when I got home and was deciding if I should freelance or look for a full time graphic design job I felt it best to keep my feelings private from the internet.

I have some great clients and decided to stick with freelance, working for myself in my home, rather than looking for an eight to seven job (it’s rarely 9–5 in the design world!). That could change at some point but I’m enjoying the freedom working for myself brings. Most of you know that I lived at home to save money to travel after university and then spent 2004–2007 traveling or preparing to travel. Because of that I never got my own apartment or made any long-term commitments (like a lease or a phone contract) because I always intended to leave on another trip. I just moved into a new place with two bedrooms and a porch all to myself in Chicago so I’m definitely settled in for a little while. For the first time I’ve had the space to unpack my souvenirs and put them out on display.

For the first year I was home I didn’t miss travel as much as you would think. I missed the excitement of seeing new things and I missed drawing in my sketchbook but I didn’t miss bucket showers on the roof of a hotel in Moyale Kenya or a 30-hour bus ride through rural China. Now I do. Traveling has changed my life in an amazing way but it also sometimes makes it harder to relate to ‘normal’ people back home. For the first six months after I got back literally every response that came to mind when making small talk was a story from one of my trips. I’ve finally gotten the impulse to talk about my experiences under control, and meeting other travelers in Chicago has helped give me an outlet to talk when I need to.

I’ve kept in touch with a number of people I traveled with but I’ve also spent time with some of my readers who passed through town. David, who I couchsurfed with in China, came into town a few months ago and returned my travel towel which I had left at his place in October 2006. I met another traveler who’s story was eerily similar to mine on Boots N’ All and we’ve traded war stories over beers this year. I’ve also decided to pay back the couchsurfing community by opening my couch to other travelers. I’m a little cautious of who I let stay and plan to take it slow. My first CSers will be two Canadians who apparently don’t mind sleeping on wood floors in third story walk ups. I’ve received a number of requests, but no one has traveled to more than a handful of countries. I’ve always envisioned meeting other travelers like myself on Couchsurfing but I’ve come to realize that not that many Couchsurfers have traveled to 50 countries and those that have aren’t stopping in Chicago.

I do intend to keep updating this site (I’ve redesigned it and just need to find the time to program) and have a lot of content, advice in particular, that I want to post. Many travelers continue to email me for help with their upcoming trips and I’d like to provide a better resource for them with all of the common questions I see. I realize that my suddenly mundane existence might disappoint some of you, but it’s not possible to travel non stop without settling down either on the road or back home to recharge. I’m certainly not done traveling, you know me, but it’s time to restock my bank accounts and reconnect with my friends and family.