Jiggedy Jig

[benlehman]

Having finally made it home (though being hung up by an unpleasant cold), I can finally start thinking about what to do next. Trip summary update will come after this one, methinks.

Here is the rough outline:
Now: Be at home. Recover from 10 weeks of couch-surfing.
Summer: Get a job and an apartment. Finish Polaris, and possibly Bliss Stage
Fall: Travel the China, securing a job. Stay for at least a year.



Summer possibilities include staying in the Humboldt County area around family and old friends, living in the Bay Area amongst newer friends, the Raleigh/Durham area with zigguratbuilder and his lovely wife, or the Pioneer Valley area near to keirgreeneyes, lumpley, and others.

Humboldt:

Pros: Can stay rent-free w/ folks and build up money. Near to old friends. Redwood trees and fog will mean actual health.

Cons: Middle of nowhere makes travel hard. Jobs are few and far between. Possibility of being stuck for longer than expected is very high, given the "Humboldt Trap" effect. Living w/ parents not the easiest thing in the world.

Chance of long-term Polaris playtest: middling.

Berkeley:

Pros: Close to home, but not too close for comfort. Very good gaming, generally high quality people. Berkeley is an awesome place to live. Close enough to home to get appropriate fog quantities. Lots of art and culture.

Cons: Jobs hard to come by, even though I have a Gogglite aggressively recruiting me. Chance of getting stick mid-to-high. Expensive, all jobs low-paying.

Chance of long-term Polaris playtest: middling-to-high.

Raleigh:

Pros: Cheap rent in an excellent house. Cohabitation with awesome people in an awesome house. Job opportunities are apparently multitudinous. Infinite access to zigguratbuilder's Japanese RPG library. Apparently a somewhat happening place, despite appearances. Near to the cool greywords, and my awesome DC cousins.

Cons: Hot and dry climate totally unsuitable for my amphibious nature. Subdivisions and shopping malls not condusive to my usual "walk everywhere" lifestyle.

Chance of long-term Polaris playtesting: High.

Pioneer Valley:

Pros: Awesome hippy culture reminiscent of home. Full of indie-rock and indie-comic icons. Near to two or more genius-level game designers, who would be happy to teach me about their craft. Also, one of them cooks well. Exposure to kids a big plus.

Cons: Job may not be ideal. All the cool people in the area have their own lives, and thus may not be able to socially support me. Climate may be too hot.

Chance of Long Term Polaris playtesting: Certain.

Then, for China travel, I have two options:

Fly Direct

Just go there.

Pros: Cheap. Easy.
Cons: None.

Trans-Mongolian Line

Fly to Europe, visit friends and family there, then take the train.

Pros: Travel the longest uninterrupted rail line in the world. Get to see people in Europe, including hopefully noradannan and Eero Tuovinen, as well as family members. Excuse to travel more. Opportunity to game with Scandanavians.

Cons: Expensive and time-consuming. Two week train voyage through rural Siberia may cause head-exploding.

Then, in China, I could live in a city (probably Nanjing, to hang out with foreign_devilry or Kunming, because it is awesome), or I could try to find a job in the countryside.

City Pros: Possible gaming connection. Access to decadent western luxuries like cheese and the internet. Could go out dancing on weekends. More cultural sites. Much easier on those who want to come visit me (keirgreeneyes and psychotropek, I'm looking at you two.) Higher paying work. Possibility of much higher paying work.

City Cons: May fall into the expat trap of hanging out with foreigners, thus reducing my Chinese skills. Have already experienced Chinese city life. Possibility of debauched dissipation much higher.

Country Pros: Get to see a new way of life. Total immersion in language. Chance to learn fangyan, also see what Chinese rural life is like.

Country Cons: No pay. Totally isolated. If job sucks, cannot leave. Possibility of being a caged monkey for a year not remote.



So I've been thinking about that.

Comments

[judd-sonofbert.livejournal.com]

Chinese city seems like the way to go.

Good luck with your choices.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Does it? It isn't obvious to me at all.

[judd-sonofbert.livejournal.com]

I lived in Tokyo for a year and I know how much that time meant to me.

Living with your parents again is pretty damned rough, no fucking doubt.

Just looking over your choices, that is the answer that sang to me but it ain't my choice to make. Good luck. You have some exciting options there and that's good.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely going to China in the Fall (or Winter if I hit Europe first). The only question is where. The city has a lot of temptation for me, but I would like, someday, to be able to see the Chinese countryside.

You lived in Tokyo? I had no idea! What work did you do? Do you speak Japanese? (I'd like to go to Japan someday, but I think China needs to come first.)

yrs--
--Ben

[judd-sonofbert.livejournal.com]

My Japanese was bad at best and now its all but non-existent.

Yeah, I taught English at Nova, the McD's of conversation schools.

But I got to spend a year in a very different place and really learn what I love about my home.

And I wrote. I wrote like a mofo. I decided that I would send out a written piece about my journey every week. So my trip had a kind of purpose and when it was all done, I had 52 stories, all lined up. That was really the best part, that discipline.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Sounds great. I wrote a lot in China, too, but nowhere near that level of discipline. I'm impressed.

yrs--
--Ben

[zigguratbuilder.livejournal.com]

Let me add more to the Raleigh option, especially Con:
-----------------------
Raleigh:

Pros: Beautiful in the summertime. Lots of open-air concerts, culture events. Pool nearby. Jobs pretty much everywhere.

Cons: Hot and dry humid climate totally unsuitable for being out and about in the midday for more than a few minutes. Definitely a little inconvenient without a vehicle of some kind (bike provided, though). New kitty is very active and will demand attention that could be better spent typing. Coming late will dry up jobs as some are taken by high school and college kids out for the summer.

Chance of long-term Polaris playtesting: Certain.
Chance of other-type gaming: At least once a week.

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

Um, word to the Zig-man. Whatever made you think that Raleigh is dry? Maybe you're talking about some other city named for a beheaded Elizabethan knight, because I spent my summers at home working in 100+ degree heat and 80% humidity, toiling in the way-too-large-to-maintain lawns of Raleigh's disgustingly wealthy and petty bourgousie. Never associate central NC with a dry heat like Arizona. We're a hour and from the Great Dismal Swamp and, in the summertime, you certainly can tell.

Another Raleigh Pro: I might be home for a bit in the late summer, and we could make the road trip to GenCon together, carting along boxes of Push and Polaris.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Okay, hot and humid. Which is one out of two for my preferred climate.

Hmm... Are you still going to be around China next year?

yrs--
--Ben

P.S. It's spelled deviltry, god-damn-it!

[foreign-devilry.livejournal.com]

Maybe. Depends on what happens in the next few months.

Trans-Mongolian

[bigbluebackpack.livejournal.com]

...or, you could wait a year till you're done with your China trip and I graduate, and do it the other direction with me :¬) Less likelihood of head-exploding solitude.

[russiandude.livejournal.com]

After seeing both rural and city life, I say go for the city. I think there is very little to actually do in the remote country - and one is definately limited in their choice of jobs (that is why so many leave for the cities).

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

It's true. I'm definitely not thinking of settling in the countryside -- just maybe living for 6 months - 1 year. Have you been to the Chinese countryside? What was your experience? Or are you just talking about country life in general?

I am a small-town boy.

yrs--
--Ben

[russiandude.livejournal.com]

I was in China for a month a few years ago with a group. Besides travelling around, we did two homestays (one week in a medium city and one week in the countryside). I think I would be a bit lonely there - not all that many people and not all that many activities. I could find things to do I suppose (draw, write, etc), but I would really miss the social interactions, as there would not be as many people there (esp, people my age). Granted your experience may vary. In general, country life in various countries is not all that different (or at least as far as I can tell).