In early September, Audrey and I co-presented at a conference in Monterey, California. Monterey just also happens to be the place where we’d first met almost exactly 15 years before, where our joint approach to life on the road got its start.

The driveway where it all began, 15 years later.

In the driveway, the exact spot where our lives together began, we got to thinking how best to answer another oft-asked question: “So how did you guys meet?”

This is the story, roughly and in brief, like we might tell it at a bar. His and hers, back and forth, crumpled unlined notepad paper, speckled with red wine. History, revision, and an occasional differing point of view.

—–

Dan: As I walked down the street vaguely wine-addled, I witnessed two young women emptying a small car of a large pile of worldly collegiate possessions. One of the women looked up. She took a long gaze at me, then dropped her bags, her breath apparently taken away. Her name was Audrey.

For her, this was love at first sight.

—–

Audrey: Imagine that scratching sound where the record-player needle gets pulled across the record. Let’s reintroduce ourselves to the truth.

—–

Dan: You want the whole truth? OK. So much for keeping this short.

It was August 1997. I had been living in San Francisco in a jaggy one bedroom, 495 square foot apartment. To its miniature defense, the building had a hot tub on the roof and featured a full view of the Golden Gate Bridge and a sliver view of the Bay Bridge.

I shared this abundant abode with my friend Tony. I drove a VW Cabriolet. I was told nickel-for-a-rich-man-so-many-times that my hair made me look like Flock of Seagulls. So basically, I rolled with a circa mid-1980s look. But I could cook, sort of. I drank wine, and not just white zinfandel. I wore double-breasted suits with suspenders to meetings with clients and somehow thought that was appropriate.

I was dating. Women. A few of them. I was a management consultant and spent a lot of time on the road. (This makes me sound like I think I was a player. I was not. I was simply confused.) Anyhow, by mid-August of that year I had sworn off dating for an indefinite spell, if only to clear my head. No more dating, at least not for a while.

Then something happened.

I got a phone call from a friend. (Or was it an email?)

“You want to come down and meet me in Monterey? I’m headed back for a couple of weeks.” An elementary school friend then stationed in the U.S. Army in Korea had planned a visit back to Monterey, California to see his girlfriend.

Monterey. Friends. Weekend. A free place to crash. Tony and I could take a drive down the coast, tool around the area, and hit the Monterey Wine Festival.

Sure. Why not?

It was an unusual Monterey weekend. While a bit of fog graced the peninsula that morning, it burned off early. And with the Monterey Wine Festival underway — something that Tony and I would take advantage of from about the time doors opened around noon — a perfect day was served.

After a few oysters, tapas and a dose of mid-afternoon wine tasting-qua-guzzling, we opted to head back to the apartment for a recovery nap.

I cut my way down the street, probably feeling cool, but looking much less, haphazardish. There were two young women, a little sun beat, emptying crates and bags from a scrappy, well-worn gray Volkswagen Golf GTI.

As Tony and I approached, he suggested that we might help the young women unpack their car. Their destination: the same house where we’d slept the night before. Points to Tony for chivalry in time.

Hmmm. This could get interesting. Who needs to swear off women for a while, anyway?

—–

Audrey: I had just driven across the United States, a 3,000 mile road trip from Virginia with a close friend, in my 10-year old VW GTI. “California, here I come!” I felt. Living in California, graduate school, Peace Corps. Three life goals coming together within a year.

Dan’s memory of my being struck by love? Perhaps a misread of my amusement: How eager these two guys were to help. A little too eager I’d say.

—–

Dan: Ouch.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was a bit of a haze. There was interest, some jockeying. We went to a local pub en group, returned home, and continued to chat. Audrey put away, rather impressively, a few Boddington Ales.

As everyone else peeled off to sleep, Audrey and I stayed up. I don’t recall all that we talked about, but it was apparently a lot because we were up almost the whole night. Travel was certainly part of it. I was mesmerized by Audrey’s international background — from a family of diplomats and missionaries, of a life overseas. I felt like the local boy trying to figure out the world, even as I prepared for my first trip abroad to India and Indonesia that winter.

We talked economic theory, too, recovering Econ majors bound in shared nerd-dom. We even discussed the Coase theorem.

Who on earth opens a relationship by talking about the Coase theorem?!

In no way did the scene sing romance. This was not a bar out of the Frank Sinatra song, It Happened in Monterey.

—–

Audrey: I’m good with this version of events. It was fun. Goofy, really. I didn’t think much about it. I was leaving in nine months and there was no point in meeting anyone, Economics majors or otherwise. Easy come, easy go.

Or perhaps because I was leaving in nine months I was more open to taking chances.

—–

Dan: On my way out the door back to San Francisco, I gave Audrey my details: “Here’s our address, my cell phone.” Audrey’s friend, Sarah, was scheduled to fly out of San Francisco late the following afternoon. Their plan: to visit San Francisco and stay with Audrey’s brother. (Maybe I pulled off being cool, but I’m sure I double-checked the number at least ten times before I handed it over.)

“Just in case things don’t work out with your brother and you need a place to stay.”

Come late Monday afternoon, I got the call. Rather conveniently, things hadn’t worked out with Audrey’s brother, and there were Audrey and Sarah, planless and no place to stay but chez Dan and Tony.

It was also Audrey’s birthday. With Tony’s counsel, we collected provisions from an Italian deli or two in North Beach and headed out to a cliffside spot in the Presidio with a sunset view of the Golden Gate.

Birthday picnic at the Presidio.

No impromptu birthday picnic could beat this. I’d stolen Audrey’s heart, though in reality it was pretty much Tony’s idea, so maybe he was the one doing the stealing for me. Thank goodness someone in the story used good judgment. We get by with a little help from our friends. Sing it with me.

Everything was left open-ended. No commitment to continue that either of us can remember.

But alas. The following day when Audrey took off back to Monterey, she also conveniently left behind a pair of shoes. “Easy come, easy go, eh?”

Eventually, she got the shoes.

And I got the girl.

—-

Epilogue
During the weekends that followed, we jumped out of an airplane at over 15,000 feet, hiked together in Yosemite, and earned our scuba diving certifications in the uncomfortably cold waters of Monterey Bay.

A couple months later, I left for my first trip outside of North America to India and Australia (hence, the scuba diving classes). Audrey left several months later for the Peace Corps, which would take her away to Estonia for 27 months.

Time was short. When we think back, we feel like we squeezed every ounce of experience out of those first few months together.

This was how we — and our approach to life — came together in those early days.

Nowadays, we spend 24×7 with each other. For the behind the scenes on that story, you’ll just have to wait for another post.

How about another 15 years?

—–
Disclosure: A special thanks goes to our transportation sponsor airberlin for carrying us from Berlin to San Francisco so we could attend the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference (ESTC) in Monterey and coincidentally, revisit the site of where we first met.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 40 comments

Our recent view of Mt. Rainier on a rare, clear day in Seattle.

Have you ever followed a story – maybe on the web, on the radio, on television, wherever – and all of a sudden the story line seems to trail off, maybe even go silent? The protagonist is there one minute, gone the next. And you’re thinking to yourself, “Sh*t, that was just getting good.”

Sound familiar? We pressed the pause button on some things here on the blog and unwittingly left you behind.

So what have we been up to? Speaking, mainly – speaking at conferences and events, drawing meaning from our travels, sharing them with audiences in various contexts, and tying together multiple themes.

In the midst of all this, we’ve enjoyed heckling each other on stage. We’ve left crowds laughing, sometimes crying, often inspired. And while we’ve shared some lessons, we’ve learned a few of our own along the way.

Whirlwind: A Recap of Last Few Weeks

Vancouver: The Future of Tourism (FoT)

Enjoying the view at Deep Cove near Vancouver before Future of Tourism.

This event sponsored by our partner G Adventures gathered more than 500 people in one of Vancouver’s biggest theaters to discuss sustainable tourism.

The audience was one of the larger ones we’ve spoken to. Jitters? Sure. I drank a gallon of water before going on stage, didn’t time my final bathroom break well, then felt a burning desire to dance while I spoke.

Despite my inner squirm, the evening went very well.

When you care about the message and that message aligns with your story, nothing can stop you. Not even your bladder.

According to the U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), more than one billion people are expected to cross borders for the purpose of tourism in 2012. A force for good? A force for harm? It all depends on the decisions we make.

To this end, we spoke about the confluence of travel, technology and human connections. We shared stories from Bangladesh to Iran to Tanzania to Nicaragua demonstrating how technology can enable travelers to make informed decisions in line with their values so that tourism dollars can find their way to benefit local communities and people.

Our final message: Not only can travel change your life, but it can also change the lives of the people you meet.

What do you think?

Miami: EyeforTravel

Taking the train to Miami…plus never pass up an opportunity for an iPhone photo.

The following week, we switched gears, donned our business hats, dressed like grown-ups (getting out of the adventure clothes and spiffing it up was oddly refreshing) for EyeforTravel in Miami, a travel industry conference focused on online marketing strategies.

Even though we spoke on separate panels, I still found a way to heckle Audrey by urging my crowd to roar with applause so as to disrupt her talk taking place next door.

In this life, in this business, marital rivalry dies hard.

I spoke about how story can be used as a differentiator for brands and how to employ storytelling techniques in online content and social media. Audrey spoke on the use of social media sharing pre-, during, and post- trip for both exposure and conversion.

Sounding like double-speak? Let me tell it straight: tell good stories and generate quality content, and regardless of the context, you’ll set yourself apart.

The topic that seemed to draw the most interest, however, was our nomadism. “What do you mean you don’t have a home?”

A common theme, a common question we continue to work on. Read to the end for the latest developments.

Colorado: TBEX Keystone
Last weekend, we spoke at TBEX, a travel blogging conference now in it’s fourth year. The knockout venue from 7,000 to over 11,000 feet: Keystone, Colorado. At almost 800 people including bloggers and travel industry folks, this conference demonstrates that travel blogging continues its march to maturation.

We spoke on a panel – in our oxygen deprived state – on how to leverage one’s skills, blog and brand into new, off-blog business opportunities. While there is no cookie-cutter approach to building a business and making a living from blogging in this vein, we underscored three tricks here: use a planning process, leverage all your skills, including the ones you had before your blog, and most importantly, look to what’s NOT being done.

Easier said than done, we understand.

Like any conference, the best part is putting faces to names, going beyond the avatar, to meeting the actual human beings we continue to interact with every day online.

Bainbridge Island, Seattle: Recharge

Mexico, Egypt, Japan and multiple speaking engagements – all on different topics — in rapid fire. Terrific exercises and terrific experiences. But at some point, the constant movement catches up.

Needed: time and space to recharge.

So we did what all people do when they feel the need to recharge. We retreated to a defunct hippie commune on an island in Seattle’s Puget Sound. We holed up in a yurt on Bainbridge Island, took stock of where we’ve been over the last couple of weeks, and ruminated on where we’re headed.

Yurts. No longer just for Mongolia or Kyrgyzstan.

Then we were invited to speak again.

What’s coming up?

We’re in Seattle for a few days before heading south to Portland for the World Domination Summit (WDS) in early July. For those of you unfamiliar with the event, don’t let the boldness of the name put you off. The conference brings together digital entrepreneurship with a more general theme of carving out a remarkable life in a conventional world.

To a crowd of 1,000, we’ll speak about how and why we embarked on our journey. We’ll address the challenges and opportunities of staying married while traveling and running a business together, and the motivations, aspirations and machinations that seem to hold it all together.

Of course, we’ll serve up a few stories to make those points while reflecting on what we’ve learned about ourselves, each other, and our world as we’ve made our way.

All this in thirty minutes. Clearly, we’ve got our work cut out for us.

From there we will return to Berlin, Germany. A familiar ring, you say? It remains one of our favorite cities, a place to return to that feels like home. We’ll finally finish the redesign of the site, catch up with stories and photo essays from Japan, Egypt, and Mexico, and work on some new trips and projects for the fall and winter.

The Importance of Stillness, The Importance of Story

The opportunities before us over the last few weeks have been edifying, affirmative and quite possibly transformative. But the constant activity and movement has left little time for reflection, little time to continue threading the stories that underpin our blog and our connection with you.

So we pick up the pen again.

Thanks always for your patience. Good things are happening. We look forward to continuing to share our journey with you.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 14 comments

Hitler sent spies to sabotage it, Croatian nationalists attempted to bomb it and visions of the future once conspired to demolish it. (I ache just thinking about that last bit. In a rush to the future, be careful what you replace and how you replace it. I’m thinking Penn Station here.)

But Grand Central Terminal (Grand Central Station or Grand Central, if you like) still stands in all its breathtaking grandeur and beautiful energy. If you look at the faces and listen to the voices long enough, you’re likely to feel as if you’ve just seen the whole of the world go by.

Open the panorama to a look for yourself. Be sure to look up, find the fashion model, and feel the space.

Panorama: Grand Central Station – New York, New York

For best panorama viewing results, press fullscreen (four arrows) and navigate around with your mouse.

Travel articles from the United States

Saying Goodbye to America, Again: What We’ll Miss

Saying Goodbye to America, Again: What We Won’t Miss

Gross Eats, Fearless Leaps and Lemonade Stands: Kids Being Kids

Scranton – Small Town, Big Shadow

Travel Photo Slideshows from the United States

Farmer’s Markets, American Style

Ain’t That America

Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day (2009)

America’s Western States

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 14 comments

The last two months have been chock full: traveling from Central Europe to Crete to Istanbul to Iran, back to Istanbul, Germany and finally to a series of family visits up and down the east coast of the United States.

But I’ve been feeling a little spent. It’s not only the movement, but also my head, to the brim with fresh experiences and quite frankly deprived of the time and space to properly process them all. Amidst the fatigue, I began to wonder if perhaps I had reached some limit in what I could do, what I could take on.

Then I began to listen to my 95-year-old grandfather and his pals telling stories at their retirement home. They offered me a lift and a few lessons about life and determination.

These days, the world tends to look to youth for inspiration. But don’t count out the gray hairs, for there are many things we can learn from them, too.

Here are just a few:

You are never too old to learn.

Andrew, one of my grandfather’s colleagues from when they both worked in India in the 1960s, now lives in my grandfather’s retirement complex.

He had to give up his violin lessons when he escaped Hungary in 1937 as his family began facing persecution for being Jewish.

“It had been 75 years since my last violin lesson. I wanted to play violin again, but I sounded awful. I decided I needed lessons.”

Andrew taking violin lessons anew after a 75-year break.

Earlier this year, he began taking violin lessons again. We asked how things are going.

“I’m progressing pretty well. It’s fun to play again,” Andrew chuckled.

He’s scheduled to play a Christmas concert this week. I imagine there are many more in his future, too.

Enjoy the moment.

We didn’t meet Liz Talmage, the woman playing piano in the video below, but heard her story on our first night in Asheville. Liz was 101 years old when this video was taken one evening of her and her nephew playing a duet of She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain.

Later that evening, she played an encore of My Only Sunshine.

The next day, she took a nap and never woke up.

Enjoy the moment. You never know when you – or those around you – are going to go.

Keep on playing.

“I now play what I played in high school. The pieces from college are too difficult for my hands to reach the octaves,” my grandfather explained as he sat down at the piano.

He went on to play a challenging classical piece he’d memorized 80 years ago. He sounded great for any age, really. More importantly, he was having fun.

Even if you can’t do things quite the way you did in the past, it doesn’t mean you should stop. Continue to do what gives you joy. Daily.

Ask questions. Be curious.

One thing continually strikes me about my grandfather and my Oma (my mother’s mother): they never stop asking questions and they are always curious. They wanted to understand what we were up to, our plans for the coming year.

We tried to keep up with their questions.

“Now why are you going to Egypt again? What sort of conference is this?” they both asked about a travel and tourism conference in Cairo we are headed to this weekend.

Try to explain the life of a nomadic travel blogger to your 95-year old grandfather who has never even known email, much less the internet.

It gives you perspective.

Keep on moving. Be determined. Always.

”I can’t run up steps as fast as I used to,” my grandfather now explains, as if he must.

He may not be able to scale the stairs as fast as he once did, but that doesn’t prevent him from charging them anyhow. Sure, he might be a bit wobbly, a little slow. But he doesn’t complain. He’s still rather upright, too.

May we all charge our own sets of stairs with as much determination and grace.

One step at a time.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 14 comments

Over the course of five days last weekend, we made our way from Iran to Turkey to Germany to the United States by two trains, a boat, two planes and a car — arriving home in time to spend Thanksgiving with family.

And for this, we are thankful.

Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holiday. Also our personal favorite. Whereas Christmas for many is about presents, Thanksgiving for us is about presence. The focus: food and family.

As you see from the panorama below, today’s Thanksgiving meal was an exceptional feast of roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie — just to name a few. A culinary combination that ranks as one of our all-time favorite meals.

So with full stomachs and happy hearts, we wish all our American friends a Happy Thanksgiving!

Panorama: Thanksgiving Meal with Family – Scranton, Pennsylvania

For best panorama viewing results, press fullscreen (four arrows) and navigate around with your mouse.

Travel articles from the United States

Saying Goodbye to America, Again: What We’ll Miss

Saying Goodbye to America, Again: What We Won’t Miss

Gross Eats, Fearless Leaps and Lemonade Stands: Kids Being Kids

Scranton – Small Town, Big Shadow

Travel Photo Slideshows from the United States

Farmer’s Markets, American Style

Ain’t That America

Barack Obama’s Inauguration Day (2009)

America’s Western States

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 11 comments

With cultural evolution at high speed, it’s comforting to know that while many things have changed, a few remain the same.

Note: If you are looking for eye candy, check out the time lapse audio slideshow of the kids jumping off the ledge at the waterfall here.

Little Kids and Lemonade Stands
After a visit to the Saturday farmer’s market, we strolled the residential streets of Black Mountain, North Carolina and encountered Gracie and her friend, Elizabeth. Their sidewalk stand featured a container of ruby-colored juice and a stack of plastic cups.

Even at a distance, there were no signs needed. The scene was immediately recognizable, iconic, and reminiscent of something timeless and American.

“Do you want a glass of cranberry juice?” Gracie asked as we approached from the corner.

“Sure. How much?” I asked

“Ten,” Gracie responded.

“Ten cents?” I asked. We hadn’t lived in the U.S. for nine years. I wasn’t sure if inflation had taken such hold that a glass of juice now fetched $10.

“Yes. And you get a free daisy, too,” Gracie sweetened the deal.

Sold. We asked them to combine our two juice orders in one glass so they could cut down on costs (and garbage) and hung out with them as we drank our juice.

“We’re raising money to go to the toy store later. We want to buy more bracelets,” Elizabeth explained as she pointed to the colorful bracelets decorating her arm. They looked a lot like gummy bracelets from my childhood.

We wished them luck as we said goodbye. I put one daisy in my hair and saved the other for my grandmother.

8th Graders and Gross Stuff
Before speaking to groups of 8th graders in suburban rural Northern Virginia, we wondered: “Which stories from our travels would 8th graders be most interested in hearing?” We felt a bit out of touch.

So we polled our friends on Twitter and Facebook, and many of the responses boiled down to two things: the grossest things we’ve eaten and the weirdest animals we’ve encountered. My friend Stephanie captured the sentiment well: “I think that big water rat thing will be a hit.”

Sure enough, the photo of the capybara above drew gasps, shrieks and hoots (one student actually knew what it was called!). The story of Dan eating bugs in Cambodia elicited lots of “eeews!” but the kids wanted more — in particular, to know about the bugs’ texture, taste and crunchiness.

Under the theme of the similarity of kids around the world, this Cambodia video we produced made the same impression regarding the relationship between poverty and happiness on the Virginian kids as it did on the groups of Estonian students we spoke to two years before.

Eighth graders suddenly didn’t seem so different from what I remembered after all.

Audio Slideshow: Kids Still Jumping Off “Killer”
Until the police showed up to shoo them away, kids leaped off a 60-foot ledge into a gorge at Nay Aug Park in Scranton Pennsylvania – just as they did decades before, when Dan and his siblings were kids.

The following audio slideshow says it all. Please note that some loud music comes on after about 1:07 seconds. So, if you’re at work you may want to use headphones.

For best viewing results, click full screen (four arrows) on the right side. Make sure your volume is turned on/up.

Note: We do not advocate jumping off “Killer” or any 60+ foot ledge like it. We would not jump ourselves and we advise others to refrain from doing so. Some of the kids that jumped showed brush burns on their arms, legs, and backs — simply from entry into the water.

But, kids will be kids and not listen to the rest of us. And we will observe and tell the story like it is.

———-

Over the past several years, we’ve spent more time with kids in foreign countries than we have with American kids. Perhaps as a result, we can’t turn off our “traveler’s eye” during our visits to the U.S. — and we find ourselves collecting memories and vignettes to weave into a broader thread.

As we do, it’s refreshing to know that even amidst life’s growing complexity, evidence of a refreshing simplicity still remains.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 14 comments

Today we arrived in New York. (We are writing this on a bus from New York City to Washington, DC.)

As we catch our collective breath from a rapid change in context (it took almost 15 months to go the opposite direction), we thought it might make sense to bring you up to speed as to what’s going on. After all, some of you might be wondering: “Is this the end?”

For better or for worse (depends on your point of view), our journey continues. The reason for our six-week interlude spread across Washington DC, Asheville, Scranton, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco: to visit family, re-connect with friends, attend a conference and re-up our gear. We are certain a few other tasks and venues will reveal themselves along the way.

We are also taking the opportunity to share our journey with friends, readers and community in our hometowns, in the flesh. We’ll be delivering a few slideshow presentations that feature some select images, tales of inspiring people, and lessons we’ve learned about ourselves and the world through our shared experience. More importantly, we are looking forward to meeting some of our readers and members of our online community in person.

If you live near one of the locations below, we hope you can come out. We’d love to see you.

Washington, DC
When: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 — 6:30PM
Where: Recessions bar (1823 L Street NW, Washington DC)
The Scoop: Happy hour begins at 5:30PM . We will begin speaking at 6:30PM. A big thanks to the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Washington, DC (and especially Kristina) for their help in organizing this event.

Asheville, North Carolina
When: Thursday, May 27, 2010 — 7:00PM
Where: Black Mountain Presbyterian Church, 117 Montreat Road, Black Mountain (just outside Asheville)
The Scoop: This is the church Audrey’s father and grandparents attend; they have kindly offered use of their facilities for the event. Our presentation will take place in the community hall.

Scranton, Pennsylvania
When: Thursday, June 10, 2010 — 7:00PM
Where: Anthology Books, 515 Center St., 2nd Floor
The Scoop: We bring our story to Dan’s hometown. A big thanks to Andrea Talarico for organizing this event.

New York City
Dates: Saturday and Sunday, June 26-27
Location: Travel Blog Exchange, TBEX ’10
The Scoop: We look forward to meeting in person some of the travel blogging personalities we’ve come to know online. If you are headed to TBEX, please let us know!

If other events arise, we’ll post them here and announce them on Twitter and our Facebook page.

————-

Writing and Travel to Come — Argentina, Uruguay, Chile
Although we are in the United States at the moment, we will continue to write and share images, particularly those from our most recent travels in Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. The last two months have been rewarding and chock-full of memorable experiences. We look forward to sharing these with you in the coming weeks in an effort to do it all justice.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 26 comments

Now comes the part where we offer some critical observations from our recent visit home, the longest in seven years.

Drive, Baby! Drive!
Throughout our life and travels in Asia and Europe, we generally made our way by public transport. We sincerely tried to do the same in the U.S.

We’re here to report that we failed.

We realize this is due in part to where we stayed (i.e., suburbs and small towns). Public transportation systems in America – particularly those in its suburbs – often feature limited schedules and routes. We discovered firsthand where the sidewalk ends: at a busy multi-lane road.

Our failure illustrates the dominance of the auto and the demise of the pedestrian in America. Need convincing? Try walking between two destinations – particularly between two shopping malls – in a suburban area like Northern Virginia.

Our own attempt ended in a call for help.

Talking Heads on TV
Is it just us, or do moderators and guests on American “news” programs spend much of their airtime shouting? Republican or Democrat. Left, right, or center. The heads are yelling at fever pitch, all the time. It’s not so much what is said – it’s how it is said.

The current two-step approach: devalue the substance of what is said, then increase the volume and abrasiveness with which it is delivered.

And if political talk show shouting matches aren’t enough to raise your blood pressure, tune into one of the myriad financial market clownfests.

The financial talking heads – pawning themselves off as experts – change songs each week. First it was stocks, then bonds, then cash. And now gold? What next? Cans of beans?

Perhaps the following compilation of clips dished up by Jon Stewart and the Daily Show says it best:

Now that our own rant is over, we point out a few exceptions. Shows like Lehrer News Hour and 60 Minutes feature civil exchanges and guests who speak to each other respectfully and deliver arguments in complete and coherent sentences. Some may not find the results especially titillating. Genuine understanding rarely is.

Fear of the Health Care System
Our concern was not so much with the doctors, but with health insurance and the U.S. health care system as a whole.

For this visit, we purchased a short-term health insurance plan with an enormous deductible specifically for the United States in case anything major were to happen during our visit. But even with basic insurance, there was still a real fear that the fine print wouldn’t cover everything.

During our visit, we were often party to conversations about health insurance that went something like this: “I can’t leave/lose this job because of my pre-existing condition; a new health insurance provider might not cover it. I can’t take the risk.”

The U.S. health care system distorts decision-making processes – at the micro and macro levels and for employers and employees. When it comes to losing a job, of course money is always an issue. But in America, the concern over lost health insurance these days might actually trump it.

Shortage of World News Coverage
We understand that American broadcast media needs to focus on U.S. and local news, but international news coverage seems a bit scant. Geopolitical events show that no country – especially America – is an island. And as it spreads, the global financial crisis further reveals the interconnectedness of economies around the world.

Of course, we consume current international news on the internet because we seek it out. But we have to wonder: for those people existing entirely on television news, what of the rest of the world?

Large Meals in Restaurants
Sushi bars excepted, American restaurants generally serve staggeringly large portions. For example, leftovers from a recent dinner for two fed three people for lunch the next day.

We often found ourselves in the following predicament: although one main dish was certain to feed the two of us, we felt awkward, followed protocol, and ordered two main dishes instead. Faced with a mountain of food, we then had a choice: a) eat too much and feel gross, or b) watch a pile of perfectly good food get thrown in the trash.

Certainly there are ways to get around this. But a scan of our environment told us we were not alone.

For better or for worse, extended travel builds awareness of how different cultures handle similar challenges. As we set off for new destinations, we look forward to returning to America and drawing further contrasts.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 22 comments

Diversity of America’s Cities: America’s big cities are exceptionally diverse. They serve as an impressive reminder of America’s history as a country built from people of all nations. As various accents punctuate the symphony of sounds on its streets, we have to resist the impulse to ask people with accents where they are from originally.

But it’s not just the big cities. Diversity is so ingrained in America. As time passes, this diversity finds its way on the streets of ever-smaller cities and towns.

With the exception of the big world capitals, it’s a challenge to find this level of pervasive cultural variety spread so widely throughout other countries.

We will particularly miss one side effect of this diversity – the ease with which one can take a culinary tour of the world in most American cities. You can find yourself enjoying a different cuisine (and if you wish, taking in the owner’s personal story) each night of the week: Mexican, Italian, Japanese, Greek, Thai, Indian, or Chinese.

Trader Joe’s: The first time we stepped foot inside Trader Joe’s during this visit (Brooklyn, NY), the automatic doors parted and angels began to sing. We considered setting up a cardboard shanty inside. Reasonably-priced wines, five kinds of hummus, vegetarian Thai dumplings and organic vegetables would keep us plenty busy.

Our love affair with Trader Joe’s only seems to grow with time.

And we know we’re not alone.

Deli Sandwiches: Call it what you like – sub, grinder, hoagie, hero or sandwich – but there is no place for one like the United States.
The conversation begins with a choice of breads (French, Dutch crunch, hard rolls, foccaccia, etc.). The selection of thinly-sliced meats (we’ve counted as many as seven types of turkey) is nothing short of dazzling. The array of mustards (deli, spicy, Dijon – among others) and peppers (sliced green, pepperoncinis, banana peppers, pepper relish) is often only outdone by the selection of cheeses (four types of Monterey Jack alone). Top all this with your veggies of choice – lettuce, tomato, peppers, olives – and you are on your way.

The deli is a product of American ingenuity and a place where overwhelming choice and simplicity find their intersection.

Though New York delis arguably sit atop the sandwich-making hierarchy, we’ll miss sandwiches from across our American travels, including the ones we cobbled together at home.

Listening to NPR (National Public Radio): Despite our frustration with America’s broadcast news media (we’ll address this further in the piece that follows), NPR remains a bright spot. We will have access to NPR on the road through internet radio, but it just won’t be the same as tuning into programs like Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, or All Things Considered throughout the day.

NPR is the one thing that makes driving the Washington beltway bearable…well, almost.

Drinkable Tap Water: Before you dismiss this entry and grab a bottle of mountain spring water from your fridge, take a moment to consider this: it’s likely that if you live in America, you could drink the water straight from the tap and not become ill.

Not so for much of the developing world.

As big water drinkers, we found having access to clean water right out of the tap akin to winning a little lottery every day. It’s difficult to realize what a luxury potable tap water is until you’ve woken up covered in sweat and dry-mouthed in a steamy non A/C room in Kalkota (Calcutta) in the middle of a sweltering night. You then realize that you forgot to pick up a bottle of mineral water; your chlorine or iodine tablets will take 20 minutes to go into effect with tap water. Not to mention, the potential repercussions of drinking straight from the faucet in India are simply too explosive to consider.

We won’t leave you misty with a post about our family and friends. We most certainly will miss them. Their support throughout our journey has made an enormous difference.

Next up: what we won’t miss about America.

Related Photo Sets:

• Inauguration of Barack Obama
• Ain’t That America
• Farmer’s Markets in America

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 15 comments

Bite-sized $50 billion ponzi schemes, $700 billion bailouts, $350 billion disappearing acts called TARP (wet blanket might have been a better name). Not to mention all the economists, opinionators, prognosticators, pundits and professional guessers yelling at one another on the television.

Except for a precious few (among them Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Paul Krugman, Harry Markopolos, and some obscenely wealthy short-sellers), no one saw it coming. But that hasn’t prevented the punditocracy and bloggerati from giving us the heads-up, ex post facto.

And with all the marketing and branding muscle flexing itself in the blogosphere, there isn’t a snappier, snazzier name for the ongoing financial crisis, other than Ongoing Financial Crisis or possibly The Meltdown?

Sure, the thing hasn’t fully played out and it seems to confuse and confound more each day. And CNN doesn’t even have a financial crisis theme song yet, do they?

So here goes – democracy to work. Help rebrand the financial crisis by voting in the poll below. If the choices we provide don’t work for you, choose “Other” and let us know in the comments section what you would name the financial crisis if you were in charge.

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For all polls, go to the polls archive.

Note: And if you think we are following The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof (he coined the term Bust Bowl for the banking crisis), our poll began its life back on January 28.

On Topic?
At first glance, the financial crisis may seem off topic for this blog. However, the effects of the crisis – shuttered businesses, foreclosure signs, endless kitchen table discussions, and permeation of the airwaves with it – have made it the backdrop of our visit to the United States.

Originally posted on the Uncornered Market travel blog. Find beautiful travel photos from around the world. | 6 comments