Adam

Happiness Plunge Inc.’s Q3 “Report To Shareholders” – Still Great Outcomes, Still No Income

May 14, 2012

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been nine months since I hit the road and three months since my last quarterly report and six months since the first quarterly report. But it has and it’s been a great three months in South America. My experiences in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru have, for the most part, [...]

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Labeling People – The Happy “Pakistani” Nomad

May 12, 2012

People often rely on stereotypes and preconceived notions to judge and classify people. It makes this complicated world easier. Maybe it’s partly biological, a survival mechanism left over from hunter-gatherer days. Below is a conversation I have had hundreds of times on my trip. New person: “Where are you from?” Me: “The U.S.” New person: [...]

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Is Your Imperfection Covering Up A Superpower?

April 23, 2012

I’m not sure when I realized it, but at some point when I was a teenager I realized my left breast was bigger than my right one and I became horribly self-conscious about it. I was heavier then, so their size was bigger and the difference was more exaggerated. I wore really baggy clothes partly [...]

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Lost In Translation – I Can’t Spell, Apparently

April 16, 2012

In Latin America I have had to spell my name out many, many times. I can honestly report that not a single time have the ten letters been transcribed correctly by the person on the other side – and that is when they actually try. Often they hand the pen or keyboard over to me [...]

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I Am Off Balance

April 11, 2012

As I leave Baños I realized that I am off balance. I’m not in as good a mood as usual and something is just generally off. It didn’t help that in Baños I got sick again, battling giardia for the second time on this trip. But despite my illness, and despite the snafu in Lago [...]

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Ayahuasca – My First (And Probably Only) Experience With A Hallucinogenic Plant

April 4, 2012

As I mentioned in the post about rappelling down a waterfall, I didn’t really know what was going on or what to expect that day. I’d say that summarizes relatively well my ayahuasca experience. Melissa, the Peace Corps volunteer who helped me get in with the Tsachilas, told me they do ayahuasca ceremonies. ayahuasca is [...]

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Another Attempted Robbery – This Time In Ecuador

March 31, 2012

Yesterday I went out to see a few places with the lady I’m staying with here in Quito. We went to a couple monuments and used the Metro three times. At some point on the Metro, even though we were by each other and talking, someone cut open her purse to steal her wallet. You [...]

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Can You Help Me Spread The Word?

March 26, 2012

In exactly two months I’ll be home, hanging out with my family and getting ready for the Asian leg of The Happy Nomad Tour. I’m looking forward to it. But hopefully I can spread the word about The Happiness Plunge as well… For the past week, in between teaching my English classes here in Peru, [...]

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Happy Nomad Tour Update – Peru, USA, And Asia

March 19, 2012

While the blog will enter Ecuador on this weekend, I physically entered Peru a week ago. On my last day in Ecuador I sat in front of the computer for hours running free flight searches (using frequent flier miles) on the two airlines I have miles with, and I finally came up with a plan [...]

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