Question number 7…

Has traveling given you more of a feeling of being part of the world? How?

Of course.

Credit: MCT

You can’t feel part of the world, if you don’t know what the world is and how it works. If you never travel, and you tell me you “know” the world and are “part” of it — I’ll tell you you are full of sh*t. Knowing your hometown, or even multiple cities in one country is not truly knowing the world. There are 194 countries in the world, each of them very different. You may be part of your own country, but not the world.

I think being “part” of the world, involves understanding it.

As a result, I don’t believe anyone who doesn’t travel can truly be “part” of the world. The world is a moving target. It changes constantly, so requires traveling constantly to understand it. That said, very few people are truly “part” of the world because very few people have spent time in every country.

Obviously, the more cultures and countries you’ve experienced, the more a part of the world you’ll feel.

[Photo via http://www.jpost.com/]

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Question number 6…

In what ways has travel taken you out of your comfort zone?

I was always an introvert growing up. My public role at Zillow forced me to the middle in that introvert / extrovert spectrum. Still, to this day, talking to total strangers, and getting help from them is outside my comfort zone.

Guess what actually traveling entails?

Talking to total strangers. Asking them questions. Getting advice from them. Paying them for taxi services. Over and over.

Guess what actually having fun while traveling entails?

Hanging out with total strangers. Learning about them. Seeking out groups of people to hang out with. Over and over and over.

You get the point. Traveling requires constant interaction with others — most of whom you’ve never met before. That’s uncomfortable for many people, me included.

Some of the things I’ve done outside my “comfort” zone…

• Going to a VERY Christian service in Ghana
• Hiking Mount Kilimanjaro
• Hanging off the back of a jeep in Ghana with 6 others (15+ inside the Jeep)
• Being on the beach of Tangiers (in Morocco) – and getting the “What the hell are you doing here?” look by everyone
• Almost getting robbed by a taxi driver in Hanoi
• A spanish man in Barcelona attempting to steal my wallet WHILE shaking my hand

Travel forces you out of your comfort zone on a daily basis — because you’re not surrounded by your longtime friends on a daily basis who can help you. While you are traveling, if you want to make something happen? Guess what? You have to figure it out yourself.

Source: http://www.onefabulouslife.com

[Photo via http://www.prepbeijing.com/]

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Question number 5…

Have you ever traveled to a place that had personal significance to you? Like where your culture and heritage originated from? If not, would you like to? If so, how did the knowledge of your culture and heritage alter you as a person? What do you think people can learn about their own culture by visiting where it originated?

My mom’s side of the family is very heavily Scottish. My uncle has spent time in Scotland about 10 years ago retracing where the Macnab clan (now spelled McNabb) originated, and my sister and mom visited several years ago. I haven’t made the trip yet, though I traveled to Ireland in 2010, and spent a week in Dublin and a 4 day roadtrip to the Dingle Peninsula and Connemara. There is a bit of a story worth sharing from my trip. I was hanging out in Dublin with a friend whom I met in Santorini earlier in the summer, and some of her friends. We were trading the typical questions that begin all conversations among travelers — what’s your name, where have you been, how long you been traveling, where are you from, etc. I mentioned that “my family was from Scotland” — and they started berating me. Why? They hated the constant stream of tourists showing up in Ireland with the purpose of “reconnecting with their homeland”. Their take on it? People are from wherever they were born — NOT where their great great great grandparents were born. Remember, everyone has a different bias. That said, I definitely plan on going to Scotland and seeing where the McNabb clan lived. [you can read more about the Macnab clan here if you wish]

To wrap this question up, I think it’s different for everyone. Ultimately, I don’t know whether it’s a worthwhile experience or not since I haven’t been back to my family’s original stomping grounds.

[Photo via http://www.haven.com/]

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Question number 4…

How has traveling impacted your compassion and acceptance for others?

Yes. When you see the way the vast majority of the world lives, it’s hard if not impossible to NOT feel more compassionate for them. It’s one thing to see a family on TV that’s struggling to make ends meet abroad, or hear about them in a magazine – and jump to the conclusion that they just aren’t working hard enough. It’s quite another thing to say hi to that same family, see their home with your own eyes, sit & have them serve you tea, and hear of their struggles with your own ears.

You’ll quickly realize they work as hard, if not harder, than you do.

They just weren’t born in America. Or the UK. Or Germany.

Instead, they were born in Sudan. Ghana. Or Bangladesh.

Where someone is born shouldn’t dictate whether they are given an opportunity to succeed in life. Yet that’s the way the world works right now, and it sucks major ass. They didn’t choose the life they were born into, but they are dealing with the cards they were dealt in life – day in, day out.

If you have experiences like this first hand while traveling, and you don’t end up more compassionate for others – I frankly don’t know what’s wrong with you.

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

Question number 3…

Has traveling expanded your education? Does it affect your thirst for knowledge? In what ways?

Absolutely. I’m a more intelligent human being as a result of traveling. I’m curious about how everything works by nature, and traveling has only enhanced that. It’s a big, big world — and there is no shortage of things I don’t understand. Without traveling, I wouldn’t even be aware of many of those things that I now wonder about.

It’s worth noting — education systems have a built in filter / bias; it’s from the perspective of the US (or wherever you were educated). The US has a very different view on World War II, the revolutionary war, Afghanistan than other countries in the world. Yet the US view is what you learn in the US education system. China has a different view on Tiananmen Square than much of the world. To have a really informed view on anything, you need to understand those issues from all angles.

In many ways, I think the answer to this question goes back to the prior question of being more open and tolerant of other cultures. You’re living under a rock if the only perspective you take in is that of those in your own country.

[Photo via http://www.nwlink.com/]

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:

The 2nd question from the high school research project questions…

What kinds of food have you experienced?

All kinds. Truthfully, I’m not a huge foodie. I can tell the difference between crappy food and great food of course, but all the layers in between and precisely why one dish is better than another is largely unnoticed by me. I’m not a details person, and, for better or worse, that stretches into food as well. On the other hand, Jodi Ettenberg is a foodie someone who loves food / food expert (see JodiEats). That’s a big reason I just ate whatever she told me to eat in Chiang Mai (& NYC) last year — and I was never disappointed. Annie Cheng is a foodie food expert. But I am not…

What I will say — by far and away, my favorite food in the world is from Southeast Asia, with Thai food at the top of the list and Vietnamese just below it. Cashew chicken nut, and chicken pad thai specifically. Pad see ew is also amazing. I discovered pho on my trip to Vietnam in 2008, and haven’t looked back since. Outside of Asia, I love Spanish paella.

I’d say the worst food I’ve had was a dish in Ghana, which I can’t remember the exact name. It was some sort of dough that was pounded with a mallet for hours, and you dip it in hot sauce to give it some flavor. I felt terrible not eating all of it it since someone had spent hours and hours preparing it. But it was seriously gross.

What about you? What are your favorite foods you’ve experienced traveling?

Drew Meyers

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me: