Okay, I’ll admit it.
I am feeling superior, with my bag of nuts and seeds, surrounded on this flight (to Dallas) by passengers eating Auntie Anne’s soft pretzels and the Dunkin’ Donuts #1 special: coffee and two donuts (though I did think, as I stood in line a bottle of water, that if I bought a donut, it would be one of those hot pink ones with sprinkles. Might as well go all out if you’re doing donuts).
Beyond the issue of healthy vs. unhealthy food, bringing my own snacks also has something to do with controlling my own micro-environment, even traveling, when the environment, by definition, is changing all around me.
Why do we travel?
To experience different environments. To let go of our known world and dive into something new.
But I wonder if part of travel is about the triumph of maintaining our own comfort zones (however shrunken they become) in the midst of a world of unfamiliar newness. Of encountering a never-considered-before food, but having the Pepto to counter its affects. It reminds me of a guy I met in the Hiking and Outing Club at Appalachian State University – Dick—who was a gear geek. He went winter camping in the snowy Blue Ridge mountains and had so much gear insulating him from the cold weather, I thought of him out there in his own personal bubble of comfort, warmth, food, soft sleeping surface. At the time I thought this distancing from the actual environment really defeated the purpose of the hike.
Despite my bag of nuts and seeds, I will remember Dick, and strive to leave the bubble behind. The flight to Dallas connects to another to Frankfurt, then I’ll be traveling in Germany and Switzerland, immersing myself in the countries and cultures I am visiting.
By the time I get there, I will give it up for weiner schnitzel and cheese. Skipping the Dunkin’ Donuts at the airport is a forgivable omission.
I am feeling superior, with my bag of nuts and seeds, surrounded on this flight (to Dallas) by passengers eating Auntie Anne’s soft pretzels and the Dunkin’ Donuts #1 special: coffee and two donuts (though I did think, as I stood in line a bottle of water, that if I bought a donut, it would be one of those hot pink ones with sprinkles. Might as well go all out if you’re doing donuts).
Beyond the issue of healthy vs. unhealthy food, bringing my own snacks also has something to do with controlling my own micro-environment, even traveling, when the environment, by definition, is changing all around me.
Why do we travel?
To experience different environments. To let go of our known world and dive into something new.
But I wonder if part of travel is about the triumph of maintaining our own comfort zones (however shrunken they become) in the midst of a world of unfamiliar newness. Of encountering a never-considered-before food, but having the Pepto to counter its affects. It reminds me of a guy I met in the Hiking and Outing Club at Appalachian State University – Dick—who was a gear geek. He went winter camping in the snowy Blue Ridge mountains and had so much gear insulating him from the cold weather, I thought of him out there in his own personal bubble of comfort, warmth, food, soft sleeping surface. At the time I thought this distancing from the actual environment really defeated the purpose of the hike.
Despite my bag of nuts and seeds, I will remember Dick, and strive to leave the bubble behind. The flight to Dallas connects to another to Frankfurt, then I’ll be traveling in Germany and Switzerland, immersing myself in the countries and cultures I am visiting.
By the time I get there, I will give it up for weiner schnitzel and cheese. Skipping the Dunkin’ Donuts at the airport is a forgivable omission.
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