Unplugged

Since age eight, I have been plugged in.  Mix tapes on my Sony Walkman for family road trips.  Compact Discs skipping on bumpy bus rides to high school. iPod play lists for my subway commutes to work in Manhattan.  Think about the lessons lost on road trips or the friendships and conversations that could have been on all of my commutes.  What a shame.  Talking to a stranger has truly become a lost art.  Most of us avoid eye contact with our neighbors and don’t even know their names.  I enjoy talking to people, so I changed my approach to world interaction.  I backpacked for three months, and left my iPod at home.

For three months I was by myself, but never alone.  I made friends with strangers, eavesdropped, broke the language barrier, and plugged myself into reality, instead of a magical 30 gigabyte rectangle (Which I still do love dearly).  When I wasn’t making nice with the locals, I was creating the soundtrack to my journey.

The music selection in foreign countries is far too comedic to regret leaving your tunes behind.  Open your ears.  How could I forget hearing “My Heart Will Go On” on two separate boat rides.  Or repeatedly hearing “My Humps” and “Milkshake” in both Thailand and Indonesia.  Why those two songs?  Also, why do so many live musicians in Thailand finish the night with “Zombie” by the Cranberries?  Could it be a tribute to the Zombie lady boys I come across in Bangkok lurking in the night, thirsty for tourist flesh?

Speaking of zombies, remember in Charlie Brown’s Christmas Pageant when no one wanted to rehearse the play, so Schroeder hit the keys and every kid danced like a freak on acid.  My friends, this is what it looks like when 50 intoxicated tourists from different countries share one dance floor.

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