Nomading / Albuquerque / Train Life / Kansas City

Nomading

I’m sitting here staring out the window of the train and I’m suddenly struck by the thought that I’m doing exactly what I want/should be doing.

Here are the circumstances:

The biggest pandemic of my lifetime (so far) appears to be wrapping up
Global travel is mostly locked down
I received my full vaccine a few months ago
My company just went 50% remote (aka work wherever you want half the time, show up at the office the other half)
I am on a cross country train going from Los Angeles --> Albuquerque —> Kansas City —> St Louis —> Chicago —> Cincinnati —> New York

What better thing could I be doing with my life right in this moment? Can’t think of much.

Maybe dating? Would be nice F O R S U R E. But!

This is the first time in my lifetime that I have both the funds and the freedom to work wherever I want. It won’t be easy but it’ll be possible to bounce from location to location. May not be the best timing to get into a relationship right now (although who knows how the timing works out with these kinds of things).

I’ve been thinking of what my life will look like post-September (the arbitrary month that most tech companies chose to recall their workers to the office).

A plan is starting to form:

Home base will be New York. I like the city. My office is here. The rent is terrible but it can’t be helped
I’ll live out of Airbnbs and keep most of my stuff in storage (maybe 1-3 months at a time)
When I start feeling restless and want a change of scenery I’ll do 2-4 week stints at different locations
- Japan
- Portugal
- England
- Korea
- Los Angeles

I feel like I’m part of this Great Shuffling occurring right now. Everyone is so shaken up right now. For a number of reasons:

The pandemic “shocked” their system. No one can fathom going back to the life they had pre pandemic and will use this time to do something new
They’re sick of the location they had to quarantine in and want a change of scenery
They now view life as so fragile/fleeting that they now force themselves out of their comfort zones… to live! To truly live!

So I guess people will try to change up their lives in one of three ways:

New location
New job
New relationship

The truly adventurous will change all three.

Anyways, with this new plan of mine I think it’s pretty good. Don’t know how long I’ll sustain it but a half-year/year sounds good. How sustainable is this nomadic mode? Will I thrive in these constant environment changes or crumble to the desires of stability? Who knows.

Week in review

To recap, here’s the route I’m currently taking:

As I move from place to place I wonder what I’m looking for. I’ve been wanting to do a cross country trip for a while now. And I’ve thought for a while that doing it on the train would be particularly fun.

I think these are the main reasons I’ve been wanting to do this trip:

Be able to say I’ve crossed the country coast too coast
- Seems like a rite of passage as an American. To know this country and all its offerings
See how people live in other parts of the country
- I’ve been coastal most my life in America. There’s a huge disconnect between how the coastals and middlers live. What is it like on the other side?

Another point—as an Asian American these days I find myself fearing certain places because I may be subject to racism. I wonder how necessary that is.

Albuquerque

First stop was Albuquerque. Breaking Bad was filmed here. True to the story we did see a few very aggressive drug addicts.

As Harry and I navigated the streets, we kept encountering aggressive druggie after another. Felt like a perverse pac man. From the left you have aggressive druggie #1 screaming her head off. From the right you have aggressive druggie #2 coming towards you at a semi-concerning speed with a shopping cart. Only so many paths available…

After walking a bit we decided to hide out and grab a bite at Monroe’s.

Something I absolutely enjoyed about this city: the obsession with green chile. They seemed to stick green chile all over the place. Eggs, burritos, and my favorite—the green chile burger.

Monroe’s was nice. Their chips and salsa were a highlight as well.

After the meal and a harrowing walk to the hotel we decided to check out the town. Made our way to Old town. From what I understood this was one of the epicenters of the city. Everywhere else we walked was pretty much deserted but this spot was poppin.

A good number of tourists, a classic car show, a jazz band playing at the square. Not bad, Albuquerque.

It was hot as balls though.

This is how I felt when I first came into Albuquerque

After Old town we walked over to Sawmill Market—a pretty nice, developed food court/hall/bar area.

Got me a second green chile burger at Dr Field Goods. Man oh man. The heat, the spice, the meat, so nice. The juiciest thing for miles around.

Train Life

There were several days on this trip where we slept overnight on the train. These next photos were all from our overnight from Albuquerque —> Kansas City.

I love taking trains. Zoning out, watching the scenery. Peeking into random ass towns in the middle of nowhere with people/lives that you will never meet/interact with. Something so enjoyable about that. Maybe the realization that this country is a lot bigger and diverse than I normally give it credit. Also the realization that this country is absolutely beautiful.

Spent most of these overnights watching pre-downloaded TV (shoutout to Hospital Playlist, Loki), listening to music, taking edibles and staring out the window.

There was a really cool night when we rode through a MASSIVE thunderstorm. At the tail end of the storm we drove through a city where people were shooting off fireworks for fourth of July. Alternating blasts from the fireworks and the thunder. Never saw that before, probably may not see it again.

Kansas City

Kansas City is litty. My previous conception of it was a podunk town in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do. Oh how I was mistaken.

The land of barbecue and jazz. What a combo.

Right after checking in at La Quinta Inn we grabbed Birds and traversed the city. SO MUCH FUN. God what an enjoyable time. Idk what was up but there was barely anyone on the streets when we first started. Rode from our hotel (near the university) through downtown and eventually down to the Missouri river.

After the ride we hung out at city market (a plaza + farmers market) and bought some board games for the trip.

Made our way to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art—an amazing free museum.

Had lunch at Char Bar. Harry claims this is the best barbecue he’s ever had. Kansas City is known for their burnt ends (the fatty, somewhat burnt parts of the brisket). These particular burnt ends were amazing. Fatty, meaty, tender. Was not a huge fan of the ribs. The brisket was not as good as Texas brisket (see Austin Part I, Part II).

Later that night we wandered into the city looking for food. The streets were deserted. We walked around until a bouncer (host?) beckoned us into the Green Lady Lounge. We found comfort in the AC, great drinks and live jazz.

Ended the night with a papadilla from Papa John’s. Haven’t seen food innovation like this in a while. They fold the pizza into a flat bread and crisp the outer edge with cheese.

I’d been waiting to try this for a while. Was underwhelmed but would try it again.

That’s the trip update for now. Will follow up with the rest later.

Some parting thoughts:

Take it with a grain of salt given how short my time was in each place:
- If I could do this trip again I’d slow down a bit. This constant nightly location switch is a pain when it comes to working
Pre trip I thought there might be moments where I was treated alien because of my race. Didn’t reaaaaallly feel that.
- There was a slight incident* where the conductor leaned up real close and spoke loudly/slowly in the way Americans like to speak to foreigners…. But guess what that was in LA.

Another thought here: I wonder if my experience moving as an Asian in these cities would have been different with an accent. Language is the weapon by which Asian Americans defend our right to be here. I feel this moment of triumph (relief? Approval?) when I encounter a non-Asian American who I suspect may suspect I’m not from round these parts and I respond back in perfect English. Language is a shield. With the security of my language I feel assured knowing that if a potential racist talks shit I can talk shit back.

So yeah, I bet having an accent would be a huge deal. Now that I write it all out it seems very obvious. But hey that was a cool metaphor right? The whole sword and shield thing?

*Another annoying incident where this half naked man was washing himself in the Amtrak station sink. I took the sink two away from him to give homie some space. I tap the soap. Damn nothin coming out. Tap it again 2-3 times. Nothin. The dude turns to me and says in the most bratty, passive aggressive voice “you 👏 gotta 👏 use 👏 the 👏 sink 👏 next 👏 to 👏 me 👏 for 👏 soap.”

Me: “Ahh gotcha thanks”

I stop tapping the soap but truthfully am not rushing to get close to him

Half naked dude showering in sink-: “young man stop tapping that soap. You are going to beat up that soap”

I’m getting annoyed. Who the fuck does he think he is. Well can’t confront him cuz he’s biiiiiigger than me and who knows what weapons he might have on him // shootings are out of control this year

Me: “Ahh thank you so much. I really appreciate you showing me how to use the soap”

He says some other bullshit and I move quick to get the soap next to him making sure I don’t accidentally brush up against his soapy nude skin.

Probably not race related at all but man annoying af.

Music

Had my second vocal lesson with Michelle. I wonder how useful these thirty minute lessons are. Are they enough to dig into ways I can improve?

For this session we:

Did our vocal exercises together
Sang through my current assigned song (Best Part by Daniel Caesar, HER) ~4 times with notes in between each try

And that was about it. She gave me some additions to my practice routine but besides that it’s mostly the same…

I’ve been decently diligent with the vocal exercises (4/7 days). The traveling makes it somewhat hard to squeeze in sessions.

Anyways I plan on sticking with it for a month and seeing how I improved. This was my first out of four contractually agreed upon lessons.

Thanks for reading. Here’s a cool website I stumbled on: https://sidequestjobs.com/

I’ve never seen a part time tech job before and am impressed with the concept.