Home in Transit

As it were, my time in the gay hotel is coming to an end after seven months of intrigue and boundary-pushing, and I find myself moving into a new apartment with different conditions at the beginning of April. It got me thinking about the reality of a living situation versus our expectations of how it should or will go, since this will now be the fifth place in which I've lived in Lisbon, not including staying with friends when I didn't have a room of my own.

Often when we think about moving, changing our lives, or just going somewhere temporarily, we form a mental image of what it will be, should be, must be like in order to accept the unknown and dive into it. We base our expectations on an already-familiar reality that may not have much to do with the way things work elsewhere. The details of new places, different social environments, different expectations, and different lifestyles get lost in mental translation, so the image of the new becomes an idealized picture of what we'd like for the present surroundings. The new apartment will solve all of the problems that exist in the current one. The new city will be just the change of pace I need to get on the right track. The vacation will be the getaway that will finally clear my head of all the thoughts that run through it at a million miles per hour.

Reality, of course, happens differently.

Video: Hungarian Chocolates

I got to taste Hungarian chocolates and Japanese ramune candy thanks to friends who went to visit their hometowns. Go watch the video:

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Ten Unglamorous Things About Traveling

1. Arriving to your terminal/gate too early only to wait for a flight that is delayed.
2. Missing your train to the airport by ten seconds only to wait for a flight that is early.
3. Schlepping through terminals only to find that your flight's gate changed for one on the other side of the airport.
4. Schlepping your bags that feel like they have bricks in them only to find that you didn't pack enough upon arrival.
5. Not having enough battery power in your electronics only to find that the only outlet within a ten kilometer radius of the gate is being occupied by a schlumpy man playing Candy Crush on his phone.
6. The dry excuse for a sandwich that passes for an in-flight meal.
7. Sitting between business travelers with an inflated sense of self-importance who insist on purchasing discount tickets but expect business-class service and don't shut off their phones at any point during the flight.
8. The person who insists on testing out exactly how far back the seat in front of you will recline, forcing it unnaturally further.
9. The person who insists on testing out exactly how far forward your seat will contract, forcing it unnaturally further.
10. Getting your passport stamped after standing in line for an hour, despite the image you project at home to your less well-travelled cohort.