Travel

Waiting and Waiting

One of the joys and frustrations of overseas life is waiting for mail to arrive.  Receiving mail, especially packages, is usually a pleasant experience.  It symbolizes a physical link to one’s home country and often contains items you’ve been waiting to receive.  It can seem like Christmas at any given moment receiving that box or envelope you’ve waited for with great expectation.  At the same time, the anticipation can be difficult.  If you’re waiting for something you ordered awhile ago, you may experience frustration waiting a month or more for it to arrive.  The moment it’s in your hands you might feel a rush of excitement, but the waiting is a grind. 

Living overseas, experiencing the haphazard nature of the mail service, makes one appreciate the convenience and reliability of the U.S. Postal Service (or domestic postal service in many other countries, for that matter).  While not perfect, it’s easy to forget how good it really is.  When you’re overseas, unless you’re lucky to have access to a U.S. military post office (APO), you’re usually subjected to the following inconveniences:

  • Mail that never arrives or arrives months after mailing via the local postal service;
  • Mail that is pilfered and plundered;
  • Mail that arrives broken, battered, or damp; and
  • Mail that costs a fortune to send.

It’s a constant reminder that although living overseas may seem exciting and exotic, it also has its fair share of challenges that are particularly noticeable in little ways such as the mail.

Playing Games

Many expats living in places without extensive entertainment options love playing games for fun.  Poker and other card games are especially popular, as well as trivia nights at public places, board game nights hosted at expats’ homes, golf outings, and video game marathons.  They’re fun diversions from the norm, particularly when “fun” activities such as the theater, sporting events, or (jazz/disco) clubs are few and far between.

Game nights are a great way to get together with your friends and colleagues and socialize in a competitive atmosphere.  Still, I’m a contrarian when it comes to competitive game playing.  I would rather channel my competitive energy and enthusiasm into something more financially lucrative.  While I enjoy socializing and joining acquaintances at an occasional get together, I’ve never really had much of an interest in playing games on a recurring basis.  I often prefer to take the money and time I would have spent on the activity and invest or donate it.  I once suggested starting an investment club with someone who enjoyed playing poker.  They liked the idea but opted to put down $40 a night on a chance to rake in $200 or lose it all.  Personally, I would rather spend the four hours and $40 I would have spent gambling and invest it in the stock market.  The odds of success are better, and the returns tend to outperform those of game nights.

Although I do enjoy socializing and occasionally participating in a game night, I usually weigh the cost and benefit and then decide whether I want to spend an evening’s worth of precious time playing games.  Other activities often take priority and have a much higher return.

Happy New Year 2010

I wish you a happy and prosperous 2010.  I hope 2009 treated you well and that the new year will be even better.  What do you have planned for the new year?

I’m one of those people who believe in making and achieving goals, and I consider New Year’s resolutions worthwhile.  Resolutions help one think about what needs to change and how to change it.  Unfortunately, it’s very easy to break resolutions because they usually focus on aspects of our lives that we continually struggle to improve.  Hence, “resolve” is a key aspect of resolutions, and one must have the resolve to achieve the resolutions they make.

I’m as guilty as anyone in making and breaking my resolutions for the new year, so I have made three personal commitments this year that I hope will help me achieve my resolutions for 2010.  One, I chose goals that I am already pursuing and have already made some progress in achieving.  Two, I chose incremental targets for my goals rather than “pie-in-the-sky” aims that I know I will never achieve.  Third, I pledged to prioritize these goals, focus more on achieving them, and balance them with other responsibilities so they’re not superseded by life’s daily demands.  With these three commitments I hope to accomplish these resolutions by year’s end.

Here are my personal goals for 2010:

  1. Make a major life change
  2. Lose weight (10 percent)
  3. Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro
  4. Run (not walk) a 10-kilometer race
  5. Read half the Bible
  6. Stop one bad habit
  7. Write or update 25 short stories
  8. Go golfing three times
  9. Read ten books
  10. Increase our net worth by ten percent

If you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions, I encourage you to try making some and make the commitment to follow through with them.  If you achieve even one, you increase your chances that you’ll end this year happier than you started it.