Planes, Trains, and Wagons East

Posting from Union Station, Chicago, IL on a 6 hour layover between trains.

I'd like to dedicate the second post of my blog to the great John Candy. You might remember him from such films as "Spaceballs" and "Canadian Bacon", and such popular television series as Saturday Night Live (back in the day when it was actually good). You might also remember him from the two movies which inspired the title of my blog: "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles", and "Wagons East." Just as Candy affected my young life by helping to shape my sense of humor and appreciation of good comedy through these films, his work continues to influence my life now and my life to come.

James Harlow, played by Candy in Wagons East, led a team of 1860's prairie schooners across the vast plains of the American West at a time when homesteading and land grabbing was the way of life for the westward-expanding nation. While the rest of the country was moving west, he headed a train of pioneer-quitters back East after they had become tired of the hard life.

I, too, am heading East, and in the spirit of Harlow and his gang, am taking an unconventional road. To reach the East, I'll be heading west.

Here’s where the other movie comes in. In Plains, Trains, and Automobiles, Candy plays Del Griffith, sidekick to the illustrious Steve Martin, as the duo struggles to get home for Thanksgiving. In so doing, they take almost every form of transportation imaginable with various literal and figurative bumps in the road, such as being "stranded in a parking lot in the middle of fucking nowhere with keys to a fucking car that isn't fucking there." I will also be mixing it up on the transportation front, though I'm hoping my travels go slightly smoother. The automobile is first up, taking me from Charlottesville to Washington DC, where I will catch a 3-day train to Seattle. A ferry or bus will then take me to and from Vancouver, BC before I leave for South Korea by plane.

And finally the connection has been made between the title of my blog and my reason for creating it. I have just embarked on my most amazing adventure yet. The destinations are certain; everything else will come as it may. I hope you can keep up, but for now, planes, trains and wagons... EAST!!!

P.S. Please create an account, post a picture of yourself, and leave comments so that I can take with me not only your words but your beautiful faces as well.

Preface to the Preface: I wrote this before creating this blog, but I thought it would be fitting for my first post.

7/29/09

Twenty one years, eight semesters of college, four jobs, three majors, two homes, one overcome addiction, no real girlfriends, and countless reasons to see a shrink have culminated in one undeniable truth: I am a traveler. A “Wandering Jew,” so to speak. Born in Princeton, New Jersey and raised in Charlottesville, Virginia, I have decided to spend the next year or two of my life abroad. Don’t ask me how I came to this decision. It just sort of… happened. It’s not that I have an overwhelming desire to leave the US, nor have I experienced enough of my own country – let alone my hometown – to warrant such thought. To be honest most of my life has been fairly sheltered, not by parents, but by my own inaction. I’ve pretty much just gone through the motions. During my young life I went to school never working for excellence, I went on family vacations (always and only to the grandparent’s), I made a few good friends here and there, I watched TV, played video games, got jobs that paid the bills, and thought about how boring my life was. The most productive thing I did was learn the guitar, something I’m good at and proud of.

College life did little to expand my horizons. Social networking was difficult because I don’t drink, I don’t party, and I transferred in the middle of my second year because of the partying and the drinking. I don’t have ideological reasons for this and I’m not a “straight-edge.” I tried it and just never enjoyed it. I was also too lethargic and unmotivated to join any student organizations. So my old habits continued to plague my new years. Amidst the monotony two important things happened. I found a love for history and I left the country for the first time on my own.

Curiosity more than anything pulled me across the water to Israel. Yes, I am Jewish and no, I did not find God or myself or anything ridiculously cliché. What I found was a different world. A different culture. A different language (several actually). A different perspective. It was something I enjoyed more than anything I had ever experienced. I saw history and culture, I saw war and peace, I saw slander and praise, I saw immense poverty and incredible splendor. What I did not see was myself, or any part of me. Everything I experienced was new, unbiased, and waiting to be understood. I was a blank slate again.

It was amazing how quickly I reverted back to my old life once I returned home. I tried to carry my new found energy and enthusiasm on the plane but that bag got lost in the shuffle. I know, I’m working on my metaphors. With the beginning of the new semester I was sucked back into monotony with only my history books for comfort. So I set about planning another trip. This one to Central America with a good friend I met in Israel. Everything I enjoyed about Israel I found halfway ‘round the world on that tiny strip of mountainous paradise. But again, my old ways surfaced when I came back. This time however, the travel fire was lit… permanently.

It’s been a year since that trip and three things have changed. First, I graduated. HOORAY!!! That’s sarcasm because it feels no different and I’m still a cog in the academic machine as I work for the university from which I graduated. I don’t give myself enough credit though. I worked really hard at a really prestigious school (University of Virginia) and maintained a solid GPA while completing a History major and the Pre-Medical requirements in two and a half years. Okay, credit given, moving on. Second, I lost 40 lbs of pure fat. Its unbelievable really, I look like a totally different person to my own eyes. More important, though, is the third big change. I got a job. I mean a real job, not a summer job, a real job. In a little less than two months I’m going to be teaching English to elementary students in South Korea. Everything I’m doing now, and everything I will be doing for the next months is in preparation for this amazing adventure. It has consumed me. Even this writing I am doing for the trip. See, I plan to keep a blog and/or journal and since I haven’t free-written for years upon years, I figured I could use some practice. And it’s working. I already feel my inhibitions draining away. Anyway, I digress. (Props to Mr. Lindsay my 9th grade History prof. for teaching me that expression)

So here I am, on the cusp of my everything. My new job, my new apartment, my new culture, my new kids, my new language (and theirs too), my new successes and my new failures, my new currency and my new spending spree, my new future and my new past, my new happiness and my new sorrow, my new companions and my new loneliness, my new mountains to climb, my new holes to dig (and eventually crawl out of), my new East and my old West, my new oceans to fear and my old fears to conquer. My new life. Am I ready for it? No. But isn’t that the most beautiful part?