Many people have been asking, why are you going on this trip? It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a long time and we finally decided to take the plunge. We even sat around for a while and wrote a mission statement.
Become the change you seek in the world. That phrase has always rung fairly true for both of us. We have decided to take a more positive approach to living our daily lives. Day in day out we currently work and live the American Urban lifestyle, never fully appreciating the work and life that we live, seeming to never quite be on the path of the life we want to live.
We are hoping to take a few months of our lives and start to change our lives towards a more sustainable, happier and loving way of living in the world. We don’t mean that we’re going off the grid per se, but our inclination is that traveling and getting to know the world will help better our lives and tie us inextricably to others around the world, other places, and their sense of living this life will improve our own. Our goal is that these travels will inform some ideas we have about how we want to live over the next 60-70 years, raise our family and find our place in the world.
Specifically, we believe that being physically present and aware in a place changes your awareness of yourself and your connection to that land itself. In our adult lives so far, we have heard and come to believe that our way of living is not the only way in the world, and perhaps not the best way of living. We think that learning the food rituals, the communication differences, starting to understand the environmental challenges, the economic difference and the many ways that time is passed in other cultures and countries, is important, not only towards understanding our lives and how we can create a more sustainable way for us to live together, but to help us provide our family of the future a more hopeful perspective on the world and a good ground to emerge from.
We do have these ideas about how we want to live and share our lives with other people in the world, we have so much to learn from others’ experiences, we are hoping that this adventure becomes a constant in our lives; whereby appreciation of others’ perspectives and sharing therein is something that is done everyday, starting at the table or the kitchen and moving on into the classrooms of our lives.
Right now our loose itinerary includes Singapore, Thailand, Laos, China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, Syria, Spain, Italy and Germany. We’ve chosen these places for a number of reasons, from interest in the culinary and cultural aspects to the fact that we have so many wonderful relatives, friends and acquaintances who are so generous as to open their doors to us!
We hope to see you on the road and to keep you updated and connected through this blog.
A Surlee Voyage 
Great mission statement for this phase in both of your lives. I have often fantasized about going back to Asia at some point in my life. Maybe not Manila, per se, but maybe Singapore or Hong Kong. I feel the region is far more dynamic and forward looking than the US right now. In any case, I hope you guys return with a renewed sense of purpose in life and an awareness of the world that could only come from great travels.
I am excited for you and your amazing journey, Tracie! When you get to Turkey, should you decide to hop across the pond to Egypt, I have a very close friend who lives there (she’s from the States, but has been in Cairo for about five years). She’s an amazing person to spend some time with. I could put you in touch if you’d like. You know how to find me.