Final Project

“Be not the slave of your own past. Plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Motivation

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are three significant and personal reasons why one of my missions in life is to see the world. I went to a small high school, and for the most part (if not all of the time) I was there I couldn’t wait to get away. After four years (and given that it is such a small school) people come to solidify their expectations of you. In a sense I came to feel as if I was locked in to their expectations. Needless to say, I was pretty dependent on other people, and while I’ve hopefully become more independent since then, there’s always room for improvement…

“But I always want to know the things one shouldn’t do.”
“So as to do them?” asked her aunt. “So as to choose,” said Isabel. – Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady

Needless to say I want to strike out on my own! And what better means than by travel? For the first time in my life, I want to know what its really like to wake up in a foreign place where I know absolutely no one and where everything I’ve come to know is thousands of miles away. Now this isn’t travel for everyone, but travel means something different to different people.

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

While I know that I can’t go anywhere as a blank canvas, I can nevertheless try. What makes travel such a life changing experience, if the traveler allows, is that it permits those who take the journey to see the world in a new light. Many times people become so focused on the daily events of their lives that they forget the world is a lot bigger than their problems and their corner of the globe. By no means am I immune! Life is busy so it’s understandable to become preoccupied with our lives that we forget about the wider world. I think this becomes (generally speaking) more pronounced as people enter the middle stages of their lives, when careers, children, and spouses, etc… firmly root people in the here and now.

“Go see the world. You will never regret it.” – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

I therefore see it as my duty, as a young adult, without anything holding me back to see the world. Here are some additional reasons why I want to see the world while I can:
I can’t imagine I’d regret taking time off for myself to see the world. In fact people often regret not traveling more.

• I want to see how other people live.
• I want my beliefs to be challenged.
• I want to meet new and diverse people.
• I want to gain insight into the world.
• I want to be more adventurous!

Where do I want to go?
As of now if I could go anywhere, I’d want to go to Singapore and Indonesia. Why? I guess a better question would be, why not? Although I know very little about this part of the world, I’d like to know more. The less I know the greater the opportunity I have to learn something new! These countries are also diametrically different from anywhere else I’ve ever been before. There is no doubt that it’ll challenge my perceptions of the world and at times make me uncomfortable, but these are all necessary discomforts in traveling – and ultimately in growing.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

Solo Travel
Seeing as how I want to become more self reliant, I plan on traveling to Singapore and Indonesia solo. Traveling with other people is fine, but at this point in my life, I’d like to experience being on my own in a foreign country, without having to rely on anyone else.

Singapore Overview
The country of Singapore, consisting of Singapore island and some 50 smaller islands, is located in Southeast Asia at the tip of the Malay Peninsula. More than 3,000 multinational companies have offices on this tropical island at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca—the shortest sea route between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. As a trade center of the British Empire, Singapore attracted thousands of Chinese settlers—now 77 percent of the population. Independent since 1965, Singapore is Southeast Asia's financial hub and the world's busiest container port.

“Singapore Information and History.” National Geographic. n.d. 24 Feb. 2009. [http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_singapore_cntry.html].

Indonesia Overview
Indonesia is a vast equatorial archipelago of 17,000 islands extending 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles) east to west, between the Indian and Pacific Oceans in Southeast Asia. The largest islands are Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Sulawesi, and the Indonesian part of New Guinea (known as Papua or Irian Jaya). Islands are mountainous with dense rain forests, and some have active volcanoes. Most of the smaller islands belong to larger groups, like the Moluccas (Spice Islands).

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is 86 percent Muslim—and the largest Islamic country, though it is a secular state. Indonesians are separated by seas and clustered on islands. The largest cluster is on Java, with some 130 million inhabitants (60 percent of the country's population) on an island the size of New York State. Sumatra, much larger than Java, has less than a third of its people. Ethnically the country is highly diverse, with over 580 languages and dialects—but only 13 have more than one million speakers.

“Indonesia Information and History.” National Geographic. n.d. 24 Feb. 2009. [
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/countries/country_indonesia.html].

Journey


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Mode of Travel and Budget
So here’s budget:

• Airfare: $9, 458.00
• Transportation (taxis, public transportation, walking), Food, Room & Board:
• $5,000 USD = $7,609.48 Singapore Dollars (SGD)
• $1,000 USD=$11,820,233.27 Indonesia Rupiahs
• Total Expenditure: $15,458.00

So for four months this is my projected expenditure. It seems way too high, so I’m pretty confident that I won’t end up spending all of this money.

Return to Sylvan Theater and Columns

Well, I’ve put off this assignment for as long as possible. I’m not really sure why I’ve put off coming here…I think maybe I’m afraid I don’t really have anything insightful to say about the place I visited six weeks ago. Has it really been six weeks, wow how quickly time has gone by!

On my way to the columns I couldn’t help but to think that I couldn’t have chosen a worse place to visit. Last time I was here there was absolutely no one to observe. But then again six weeks ago I was craving a sense of privacy that the dorms just couldn’t provide. This was just my thought as I passed Drumheller Fountain, where people not only pass by stay a while longer to linger. Now that would have been a good place to visit had I enough foresight. But I chose the columns.

I wasn’t expecting much, but to my surprise there was actually another person sitting beneath the columns! At first I felt, and I suppose I still do as I sit here typing, like a perpetrator, stealing someone else’s private space. Maybe the solace I was seeking last time is what this girl is looking for. But I guess I can’t feel too badly about being here because several people cut through the arches on their way someone else during my time here.

Another aspect about the arches that was either absent, or I failed to notice, is how cold it is, but then again that could just be Washington. While last time it was also on the verge or raining, I don’t remember it being so cold. Maybe I should start wearing gloves.

A common feature about the columns, which I think I mentioned last time, is the constant presence of people moving. Although this is an intensely private place, it’s worth mentioning that’s its an enclave surrounded by a constant swarm of people moving about.

After my time here I’m thrilled to report that I’ve seen six people in total, aside from the person already here. It’s interesting two people, I presume father and daughter stand at the Drumheller Fountain entrance of the arches for what seems to be at least several minutes. Maybe it’s the first time they’ve come to the arches?

A couple dressed in what I presume are warm layers sitting next to the girl busy typing away on her laptop. This couple, while not overtly affection sit next to the person I interrupted, so I guess I’m not so intrusive after all. I really like this couple. I like that out of all the people I’ve seen since first coming here, they were the first ones to walk across the grass and not the paved path that encircles the arches. The preteen with her father didn’t even seem tempted to walk across the grass.

Well I really would love to type more but it’s getting really cold and I’m not sure that my fingers will be able to type anymore if I stay out here any longer!

I’m out, but not before I decide to cut across the grass.

Sylvan Theater and Columns

Although I’ve been to Sylvan Theater and Columns once during EFS, I couldn’t help but return. Just south of Drumheller Fountain, Sylvan Theater and Columns is what I’d like to call my personal getaway on campus. Although it might be somewhat of a stretch, Sylvan Theater and Columns is to UW as Central Park is to New York.

The entrance to the columns consists of tree branches that overlap to create a rather inconspicuous entrance. If it wasn’t for my first visit here, I’d be oblivious to its existence. However this is part of the appeal, that within such a large campus I have a place all my own, where I can get away from the constant onrush of people. For this reason the Columns are my Central Park. They provide an opportunity to relax before heading off to class. Although I didn’t encounter anyone during my visit to the Columns, I suspect that other students either come her to relax or have a place of their own similar to the Columns.

Four stark white columns greet visitors upon entering Sylvan Theater and Columns. Although the columns add a nice touch to the scenery, they by no means make the space. In fact I have absolutely no idea as to why the Columns are here in the first place. Maybe someone thought that they would in fact add to the ambience? Who knows? But I suspect it’s not important. The Columns by no means alone make the Sylvan Theater and Columns appealing.

What makes this space is that it’s (or at least seems) so intensely private. Trees surrounding the Columns separate the space from the two walking paths that diverge around the Columns. Instead of walking directly through the Columns (thereby disrupting my privacy), people have to walk around the Columns, without much notice as to what lies on the other side of the trees. However this by no means distracts from the ambience of the Sylvan Theater and the Columns. But rather it shows the possibility of finding privacy on a campus where privacy is hard to come by. It’s refreshing to have some time to escape from the stresses of daily life.

Visiting the Columns makes me wonder whether or not there are more places like this on campus that I have yet to discover. Well I guess there is only one way to find out, to go out and explore!