This weekend has been a bit hectic, with all the earthquake and tsunami-related stuff going on not too far away. To be clear, I wasn’t directly affected here in Shizuoka (aside from feeling the earthquake), but it was enough to seriously change my weekend plans. On that note, my thoughts are with all the people affected by the tsunamis.

I decided to take a break from writing this week and introduce a monthly series, Unconventional Interviews: conversations with people who are living interesting, outside-the-box lives.

This month’s interview is with Tanissa. In the last ten years, she’s taught English in Korea and China, worked as a divemaster in Thailand, for an NGO in Azerbaijan, as a bike guide in eastern Canada, and even as a volunteer coordinator for the Olympics in Vancouver. She’s traveled all over the world, and she’s just an all-round awesome person. Here’s her interview:

Where are you and what are you doing now?

I am currently in Cape Town, South Africa, doing a three month term placement for my Masters degree.

Of all the places you’ve been, which is your favorite?

It’s hard to pinpoint just one, as every place is steeped with it’s own memories, relationships and experiences specific to the time and reason I was there, so every place has left a lasting impression on me.  I would have to say that I have really fallen in love with the East Coast of Canada and that the Caribbean will always hold a piece of my heart, likely because Jamaica was the first place I ever lived/worked in for an extended period of time.

Was there a place that was your least favorite, most disappointing, or most challenging?

Undoubtedly, my time in Azerbaijan was one of the most challenging and frustrating years of my life. The combination of crusty, old-school (Soviet) mentalities, heated tempers and difficult development work was much to endure, which I credit to the support and companionship of my colleagues and good friends there. Visits from family and friends, as well as holidays outside the country, also made a big difference. Despite the challenges and the grief it caused, I still value this time in such a unique part of the world and often find myself longing for a bowl of delicious lentil soup and the random, absurd encounters only found in this part of the world!

What are the rewards of your nomadic lifestyle?

Being stretched outside my comfort zone and growing in new ways. Continously learning more about myself and others. Meeting wonderful and interesting people I might not otherwise associate with, and experiencing the kindness of strangers.  A life where nothing is ordinary and every day is an unexpected adventure.

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2010. The year of half-baked plans, false-start projects, and half-finished songs. It was not a good year for me and productivity. We had arguments. We threatened each other (“But you need me! You’ll see!”). And for a long time we didn’t speak.

My passion and hobby of writing songs (something I started in 2009) fell by the wayside to watching downloaded episodes of Top Gear and late nights immersed in Japanese animation series.  My promises on the blog homepage to restart writing were continually extended – “I’ll write again when I start traveling” became “I’ll start writing when I’m working again”. Any regular readers I may have had are long gone, I’m sure.

But I let it happen. And sometimes it takes reaching a certain level of dissatisfaction to be able to make a drastic change in your life. In the past, writing on this blog has helped keep me motivated and accountable for my goals, something I sincerely miss. So, I hereby reclaim Project Hitchhiker, and commit to writing one post per week for the next year. To be clear, this is a promise to myself, and to any readers willing to trust me again: I will post every Sunday, for the next year.

What did I actually do last year? 2010 in Review

Despite hardly accomplishing anything of note, I did have a great year. I had fun and traveled a lot – and there were certainly periodic intervals of awesomeness.

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Self-help, personal development, call it what you will – it has a bad rap. Cheesy guys running around on stage in 2-star hotel lounges with audiences of hundreds of guys who have lame lives. These are the pictures that come to mind when someone says “self-help”. That, or those Chicken Soup for the Soul books…

If people were to get around the stereotypes and open their minds, they would find that there are some fantastic, potentially life-changing products out there.

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I had a dream a few nights ago that I was living in a frigid cold snow cave. When I awoke, I looked outside my tent to see a blanket of snow covering the desert sand floor and the stunted pinion pine trees. The afternoon before, the scorching 40 degree sun had cracked my lips and burnt my neck a bright crimson red.

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