When I first decided to go overseas and live out of a backpack, people thought I was crazy. Not just because living out of a backpack just isn’t ideal for most people, and not just because the world is viewed as a dangerous place. But because I never had to fully rely on only myself for a period of time longer than a couple days. And that, apparently made people anxious.
Adulting, is a new term being used quite often that is, the practice of behaving in a way of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks. Before I left home, I had never had to do the adult thing, because I always had someone around to do those things for me. Things such as cooking, doing laundry, scheduling appointments or reservations, or taking public transportation. The last time I tried to cook I burnt ramen noodles and blew up a microwave.
“Coffee; because adulting is hard.”
Step 1
I knew that when I would be traveling, obviously I would have to eat, and eating out 3 times a day would eventually start to add up and be very expensive. I tried to book as many hostels as I could the had free breakfast, so theres one meal covered. Still had lunch and dinner to worry about though. I did eat out a lot I’m not gonna lie, I could easily find some street food most places; you can never go wrong with a doner kebab. I also made a lot of friends that were willing to let me share their food. But I did try some cooking as well.
I always watch people in hostels, see what they are cooking, usually it’s something easy, but it’s also usually for more than one person. I managed to whip up some soup and some scrambled eggs one day, big accomplishment. But I also managed to torch a pizza and set of the fire alarm for a whole apartment building.
When I was in Germany, I stayed with my Uncle for about a week. Now, I don’t speak German, and I couldn’t get him to understand the fact that I had never cooked before. But here I am left in charge of dinner which is steak, sausage and french fries. I was freaking out, I couldn’t even turn the stove of for starters, or the grill. I called my Nan, who is the best cook in the world, and had her walk me through every step. I made my first steak dinner in Germany, and it tasted pretty good, if I do say so myself. I also can make super good guacamole now thanks to some Romanians, its my specialty.
Step 1 of adulting; making progress.
Step 2
The average American household has a laundry room, with a washing machine, and a dryer. That is what I’ve always been use to. I’ve also always been use to having to just put away my laundry after it was washed and dried. At this point I don’t even know how to sort clothes into different piles; honestly I still don’t know how to do that, everything goes in one pile.
Obviously, only having a backpack, I had to do laundry quite often on my trip. I hand washed a lot of stuff, smaller things like socks and under wear. But the first time I had to use an actual machine was totally unfair. The machine was a 2 in 1, washer and dryer, so already I’m confused, how does this work? The best part? It’s all in HUNGARIAN. In case you aren’t aware, I do not speak one bit of Hungarian.
This ended with about 25% of my clothes shrunken, and I had the whole apartment covered with dripping wet clothes because, surprise, I never figured out the dryer, and there is no clothes line. 2 years later, I still shrink my clothes & avoid laundry as much as possible.
Step 2 of adulting; ehhh.
Step 3
Being an adult means having to make all kinds of aggravating phone calls. This could be anything from making doctor and dentist appointments, to having to call some one from India to fix your computer, over the phone. Adulting also comes with having to be the one who is in charge of reservations and bookings. This is where my organizational skills and computer skills came in handy.
I had had some experience in this before, always being in charge of making bookings for vacations with my friends. But that was only for a couple times, a couple weekends. I did screw up a couple reservations by reserving the wrong dates, but 9 times out of 10 things went smoothly. However I ended up cancelling or changing a lot of the reservations, because of changed travel plans.But, Im now also really really good at redesigning plans in a hurry, finding cheap deals now on plane tickets, hostels and air bnbs.
Step 3 of adulting; Successful.
Step 4
Now, Im from a small town in Ohio, like a village. There are no taxis, no buses, no trains, and the closest airport is 2 hours away. There are no metros, no trams, no nothing. If you don’t have a car, you don’t go anywhere. Even when I’ve been in a big city in the USA that has public transportation, I’ve still always had a car. So arriving in Germany and having to take public transportation by myself, just sounds like a complete mess waiting to happen.
I got off the plane, went downstairs to the train station, and jumped on the first train that came. Luckily it was the correct one, theres only 1 direct train to downtown from the Berlin Scofield airport.
German is a hard language, but, this makes all the words very distinguishable, for the most part. The maps of the metros were super easily laid out and every thing is color coordinated. So as long as I knew what train I needed, I just followed that color line to my destination. And it worked! I never worry about having to take a train or metro now, I actually prefer it. Public buses are a little more confusing, as there are thousands of bus routes, so i usually only take the bus if I’m able to pull up directions on my phone, that way i know which bus to get on.
Step 4 of adulting; success, for the most part.
Adulting is hard, and there’s so much more to it than what I’ve listed above. Theres paying bills, keeping paperwork in order, and don’t even get me started on insurance. I’ve learned so much the past 3 years of traveling. Ive gained a lot of new skills, its pretty cool. I like being independent and only having myself to rely on. I also really like being able to say I’ve proved my point.
Now, I still need help sometimes, Im not quite a professional yet when it comes to adulting. I screw up a lot of stuff, trust me, like all the time. I can see why a lot of people thought it was a bad idea for someone like me to go out wandering in foreign countries all by herself. But I’ve learned more about so many things while traveling, things I never even knew I didn’t know.