Areas of Unrest

29 August 2000 - I'm Baaack!

QOTD: "By trying we can learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean." - Mark Twain

Reading: my travel journal, trying to figure out how to summarize things

Listening to: my tape of the Tuvan National Concert for Naadim 2000

I got home about 6 last night, so I am still in post-vacation zombie mode. The trip was wonderfully well organized and, overall, I had a great time. I am working on my trip report and expect it to be done in a few days, at least as far as an initial draft goes. So what goes here is the stuff that I wouldn't say that publicly.

One of the issues with small group travel is group dynamics and ours were interesting. Martin, the tour manager, was great and I never had any reason to get irritated with him. Of the two other participants, we got along reasonably well, but each of them annoyed me at times. Jeff drank more than I was comfortable with and sometimes talked when I'd have preferred silence. But it was Ty who managed to push all my buttons. My first hint was our second evening in Moscow, when we had dinner at a private home and he completely dominated the conversation by trying to persuade the daughter of the family that she should apply to school in the U.S., and Princeton, in particular. As time went on, I became more and more convinced that he believed that only his particular interests are valuable and I was increasingly angry with his insistence on appointing himself spokesperson for the group. Not that I did much about it, but seethe silently. Which is, of course, what the real issue is. I'm capable of being perfectly assertive and I'm hardly inarticulate, but I was hung up on being nice and likeable and cooperative. And all I accomplished was getting annoyed at my own wimpiness.

I later concluded that he is simply a sexist - and entirely unaware that he is. I can't count how many times both Jeff and I were standing there and he said something like, "Jeff, look at this." I finally called him on this when he told a guide in China that the U.S. is a male culture and Japan is a female culture because makeup is more widely used in Japan! He rambled on about how Japanese women dominate the home and I said something along the lines of how that's meaningless when they have no economic power. Grrr.

As for travel news that general readers won't care about (which is why it's here and not in my travelogue), there is no bitter lemon in Russia, Mongolia or China. Or at least not at any store I looked at. And there isn't even mediocre ginger ale, never mind good ginger ale. There is decent beer and reasonably edible chocolate, though Belgium has nothing to fear on either front.

On another subject, why does Bank of America have sixty days to respond when I question a charge, but I have only ten days to send in their dispute form? Which is a bit tough when you're out of the country for 26 days. I called and they said it would be fine to fax it to them tomorrow.

Finally, adulthood demands far too much paperwork.