Posts tagged: travel
After reading Phaidon’s Wallpaper* travel guide for Copenhagen, I am increasingly keen on visiting Denmark. Its design and architecture are inspiring. The language is equally enticing:
Hele livet har jeg ventet her
mig og dig for altid.
Perhaps it will be the first present to myself in this new era.
It has been a while since I last travelled, so the post here is a vicarious post by Smashing Magazine. Berlin is in some respects like Detroit, as they were both dying cities and have been infiltrated by artists.
Am feeling a bit distraught that I have not visited a single one of Musgrave’s top ten…
Another post from Summer 2010.
It has been quite a while since my last true post, and although the updates I can provide are limited to work on my dissertation, there have been some noteworthy musings.
First, I should note that I have returned to Chicago to work on my dissertation and spend some much needed time with family. There are no revelations in my return, and I spend quite a bit of time daydreaming of my return to London.
It is not that London is an easy place to live and I had the most enjoyable time of my life there. Quite the contrary, in fact, I dealt with theft, illness (x5), heartbreak, loneliness, frustration and desperation. Oh, and embarrassment. But that is nothing new in my book, and have found all of them tend to follow you around. There were some enjoyable times as well, with friendships that are stronger than the bond that alcohol creates. The city itself breeds the creativity inside, and for me, pushed me to go further and work harder than I had ever done. The results were a bit like waiting for Simon Cowell’s opinion - quite bittersweet. Which is probably the way I would describe the city.
I am now in a place that no one really enjoys: uncertainty. If I had my way, I would fly back, possibly stopping off in Nepal and my current obsessions Romania and Turkey, and live happily ever after. Reality puts obstacles in my way. I lived quite comfortably in Seoul with few challenges, aside from attempting to maintain a perfect physique. Tsu provided a small barrier of isolation, but realistically I had few difficulties. Chicago’s major challenge is the weather, but combined with a lagging job market, I hesitate in my return.
The constant of my (mostly) daily jog down the Fox Valley River has been my one saving grace. The trees and the wind against my face calm the worries swimming through my mind, but I continue to think of the people and places I have yet to visit. This city is also quite bittersweet.
I found this while digging through an archive on my computer and realised I had neglected to post it:
It feels like I’ve been here for ages. What that says about Laos is either I’ve known it in a previous karmic lifetime or I’m bored. ‘Laid back’ seems like an understatement for the lack of activity here. If I were to compare it to any US city, New Orleans comes to mind. When I visited the southern city, I had the same frustrating thoughts when I was traveling. When is this coming? Why can’t this be more delicious? And what kind of come on line is that? I’m thoroughly disappointed in what it had promised. However, I’m not disappointed in what Vientanne turned out to be. If someone would have said, it’s a small town that had been infiltrated by ridiculous tourists like myself, I would have understood the mentality of the people and come prepared. It was especially shocking after the ‘quick’ pace of Bangkok. I say ‘quick’ because Bangkok was both speedy, as a big city should be, but yet slightly laid-back in comparison to the craze of Seoul.
On the way to Vang Vieng, I had one of two options. My ipod died, so I can either sleep or I can look out of the window. Out of the window of the bus I can see into the eyes and the homes of people in the area. Some houses look like they’ve been abandoned, or as if they should be. But the clothes hanging out on the porch indicate that they’re occupied. There are people with eyes of sorrow and eyes of happiness.
Tonglien from the hostel in Vientiane said he pays about $150 for 3 months rent. He asked me how much I paid, and how much I got paid. I probably shouldn’t have told him, because immediately after I said it I was awkward and he was awkward. I think despite that moment, he still had a radiance that I really admired. It was strange when he said how hard he works to get by—he is studying to be a professor of English, but he works at the hostel from 5PM to 8PM and goes to school from 8AM to 4AM. He can’t really sleep, so he thinks he looks old… although actually his aura was that of someone who worked hard, was wise yet enjoyed his life—maybe more so that the rest of us that have fewer work hours. We are all searching for something.
The theory of supply and demand is one of Adam Smith’s most significant and most widely studied theories of economics. In short, it states that the supply of available goods and services is reliant on the public demand for it. My economics professor often described it as a pie that was offered to too many people. In the grand scheme of things, regardless of size it is better to have a slice as opposed to none at all. While Adam Smith’s theory specified commodities such as tangible goods and services, others have noted the value of humans as commodities (think Marx). But it is possible to take the notion in order to deal with certain social situations as well as gauging your work environment.
The theory extends into your dating life. After a first date, some are often anxious to call, text, and chat on a daily basis, but this can only work if the other party is just as keen on frequent communication as their partners. Increased supply in this situation may not necessarily lead to increased demand, and such determinant factors are highly sporadic as they are based on emotion rather than logic. Alternatively, a lengthy relationship shows the depth of interest of both parties, and thus factors of the supply and demand are high. Let’s take a look at my relationship with South Korean merchant, Byung Kyu. His supply of emotional commodity was quite high. He was brimming with so much love that he needed to phone me at least two times a day (and sometimes from the bathroom at work) to say ‘I love you’. But my demand for these calls was quite low because his supply was saturating my market for him. In an attempt to salvage his pride he called me in tears as I had ignored his calls for two days. Unfortunately by this point, my demand had fallen so sharply that there was no hope for recourse.
When a relationship goes well, there is a synergy of supply and demand. Let’s look at my friend, Mayu. Mayu journeyed to London searching for love. She quickly met William, a man who filled her physical ideal, was well traveled and intelligent Englishman who was running his own business. In the first two months of dating, Will was not busy at work and free to court Mayu. His attempts at intimacy were met with diffidence, a trait that was enamouring to him. Suddenly, Will’s business became busy as Christmas approached and his workload increased as such that Mika could not see him regularly. While she had been lukewarm to him before, his supply of regular courting disappeared and subsequently, Mayu’s demand for him skyrocketed. After the Christmas season, Mayu was in-sync with Will and the two had such compatible supply and demand that they married two years later.
As we learned before, sometimes relationships look less like a straight line, as there are natural ups and downs. Some relationships are bound to fail and others go through a series of changes that reflect the Bell Curve. The Bell Curve is a theory that shows the majority of people fall in the middle of the distribution chart – that is, they are normal. A few privileged or under privileged will fall outside of this norm. Although the intention of a couple is not necessarily to follow a Bell Curve, some, such as one-night stands, inherently do. One that was meant to stand the test of time is the story of Brian and Yuna. The couple met in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year. She was inebriated and chatting to her friend, telling her friend they would have another drink before heading to Dusk Till Dawn. Brian had noticed her from a block away and thought she was examining and addressing him. Despite their random meeting, they had a mutually high demand for each other. Their relationship continued when Yuna traveled back to Japan, and they emailed each other weekly. At their peak, he wrote songs for her and she replied in poetry. They trailed off as neither made attempt to see each other and they both began projects that elicited their full attention. While it was not their intention initially to fizzle out as they had, the distance and inability to maintain attentiveness in a relationship that had removed the physical presence was hard for the two.
The supply and demand theory as applied to relationships gives you a way of examining your past relationships, but what it doesn’t do is help you focus your attention on the present. A number of TV shows directed at women, for example, ignore this point. While it may not be in your nature to ignore the future completely, being able to enjoy the moment is one of the best ways to ensure the success of your relationship and life, and if you aren’t doing that it may be wise to reconsider your supply.
