I’m very flattered to have been nominated by 3 fellow bloggers for a Liebster Blog Award. From what I’ve read, the award is basically a way for up-and-coming bloggers to give each other nods of encouragement and support. The nominee answers 11 questions put forth by the nominator, and then pays it forward by sending out 11 new questions to 11 other new-ish bloggers.
If I were to play by the technical rules, I would answer each of the nominator’s 11 questions. However, I wouldn’t expect anyone with the smallest bit of sanity to be entertained by reading a post of 33 fun facts about me. To keep the self-indulgence to a minimum, I’ve picked 11 of my favourite questions from my 3 nominators: A big thanks to Sonja from The (Happy) Travel Bug, Scott from Backpacker Scott, and the always lovely Katie and Geoff from Wandertooth:
Snake or tiger? (Yes, I AM asking you which animal you’d rather be killed by)
That’s a tough one. I think it would depend a lot on whether the snake was the poison-y kind or the strangle-y kind. I would also like to know whether the tiger would take me out with one powerful swipe, or whether it would be a more sadistic, play-with-your-food kind of cat. If I could have my choice when it came to all of these factors, I’d go with quick, poisonous snake bite.
Okay…now you’re alive again, but you’ve been reincarnated into a __________(fill in the blank)
Dolphin. I was obsessed with dolphins when I was a kid, and I still wear a silver dolphin ring that my parents gave me when I was 10. Also, Brent says that my general temperament reminds him of a dolphin, so it would be a pretty logical transition.
Enough with the morbidness. Let’s move on to something happier. Like rainbows: which colour are you and why?
Probably red. Overall, I’m not the kind of a person who does anything halfway, and red strikes me as a full-on colour. Other colours of the rainbow can be soft and muted, but red is always bold.
What’s your favorite post on your blog? Link it
My favourite post is “So She Blogged Anyway”. After nearly a year of blogging into the void, this was one of my first posts to receive a lot of feedback and comments from readers. Sadly, the post comments were lost when I moved Ways of Wanderers from Blogger to WP a few months ago. Plus, I’m still proud of this post. Baring my feelings in a post for the first time gave me the courage to take more risks and write with more brutal honesty in subsequent posts.
Tell me about the last time you got arrested or deported. What? That never happened to you? Try to see into a future time when you finally get busted for your shenanigans…what are you in for?
Arrested
A few years ago, Brent and I decided to spend the weekend at his parent’s lake cottage unannounced and without explicit permission. We used a hidden spare key to let ourselves in, and then went out for a few beers and managed to lock ourselves out. It was late, we were drunk, and so we smashed a window to let ourselves back in. We were awakened in the morning by a literal angry mob of neighbours and a police officer banging down the front door. They had heard the noise and were convinced there had been a break-in – it was a small town, so this had pretty much created community chaos and outrage. The neighbours hadn’t seen Brent in a few years, so he ended up out on the porch, trying to convince the crowd that he was related to the owners, and that, at one point, we actually did have a key, and so we kind-of-sort-of-hadn’t-really “broken in”.
What’s your favourite way of travelling? Plane, Train, Bus, Ship etc…?
On the 3rd class sleeper train in Thailand
I would have to say train. I love being able to stare off out the window while I’m traveling. Plus, I feel like trains often reflect a lot about a country’s culture. For example, in Germany, the DB Bahn was sleek, spotless, and fast. Whereas the 3rd class train in Thailand is rickety, slow, painfully hot, and full of food vendors. I can’t think of any other mode of transport on which I’ve had such diverse and interesting experiences.
Your iPod is stuck on repeat for 24 hours, and you HAVE to listen to it upon punishment of never traveling again…what song do you choose?
I would have to pick a song that I don’t take too seriously. I’d need to be able to flail…I mean “dance” to it. Earthquake by Labrinth followed Brent and I for most of our trip to Spain. It gets a little more awesome, and a little more hilarious every time I hear it. Also it contains possibly my favourite lyrics ever (I say this ironically, of course): “Fire, Fire. We about to set this place on fire without a match or lighter”.
Favorite candy?
Gummy Bears – partially because the cartoon of the same name was my favourite TV show as a child. The Gummy Bears defeated bad guys by drinking “gummy juice”, which endowed them with a supernatural capacity to bounce. So when I eat Gummy Bear candy, I get my sweet fix, plus the warm and fuzzies as I reminisce about the cartoon show.
What celebrity do you most want to be sitting next to on the long haul between L.A. and Singapore.
Leonardo Dicaprio. Titanic came out when I was the very impressionable age of 12, and it turned out to be the beginning of a life-long crush. I have literally seen every movie he has even been in. Yes, every single one. Yes, even Total Eclipse. Yes, even the entirety of Critters 3.
You’re going to an island for a month, but only have room for either toilet paper OR toothpaste. Which do you choose?
Well, I’ve been living in Thailand for about 8 months and most of the country is BYOTP (Bring Your Own Toilet Paper). I rarely have the foresight to have any with me, so I’ve been forced to go without most of the time. It’s not pretty, but I’m surviving, so I’d probably go for the toothpaste instead.
Tell us about your worst. flight. ever.
Pre-boarding
Brent and I went home to visit Canada for a few weeks last Christmas, but because of our teaching schedules, Brent flew back a few days before me. This meant I had to face about 20 hrs. of flight time alone, which was reason #1 why this particular flight sucked. Secondly, I booked with a budget airline, and when I got on board, I realized that the only in-flight entertainment was a single movie screen at the front of the plane, which showed various TV shows in Mandarin for the entire flight. Thirdly, there was a fair amount of turbulence, so I was completely convinced that I was going to die alone and in a state of painful boredom.
Alright, and now I’m passing the honour on to 11 other bloggers. I know these kinds of memes aren’t for everyone, so no pressure to do a post on these questions, guys – really!
Hannah and Adam from Getting Stamped
Bonnie and Josh from Wild Buttercup
Agness and Cez from eTramping
Beatrice from Eille La Cheap
Mariah from TheBarefootBeat
Rika from Cubicle Throwdown
Joy from Joy and Challenges Abroad
Tammy from Tammy and Chris on the Move
Steve from MidLifeWanderlust
Julika from Sateless Suitcase
Dan and Vanessa from Sauteed Happy Family
Here are my questions for you lucky bunch:
- If you were to write your last blog post ever, what would the title be?
- Which food do you miss most when you’re on the road?
- What is one job you’ve had that you would never ever do again?
- If you had to give up either visiting beaches or historical buildings/monuments for the rest of your traveling life, which would you choose?
- What is the worst meal you’ve had on the road?
- What song do you blast in the car first when you head out for a road trip?
- What is the most unusual item that you travel with?
- Do you have a favourite travel-related book? It can be a travel narrative or a guidebook.
- What is your biggest insecurity?
- Do you consider yourself to be more of a planner or a flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of traveler?
- How do you keep yourself entertained during long train or bus rides?
Tag! You’re it! If you want to play, answer these 11 questions, and then come up with 11 new questions for 11 other bloggers.
Aw, thanks for tagging us! Your arrest story sounds hairy!
Haha – it was! We still get glares from the neighbours when we go back their with his family.
We just answered your 11 questions!
http://wildbuttercupblog.com/2013/02/11/weve-been… Thanks again for nominating us.
My recent post We’ve Been Liebster-ed
Awesome! I can't wait to check out your answers.
Thanks for the tag! So you migrated from blogger to wordpress? I might need to pick your brains in that case, as I am thinking of migrating too. Am too scared though.
I was too scared for a long time as well, Tammy! It was definitely a big adjustment, but it was the right thing to do in the long run – blogger was just too limiting. Email me any time if you have questions!
Thanks for the nod and for sharing your questions! By the way, I totally agree with you on death by snake bite! Hopefully it’s a spitting cobra with lots of venom so you go quickly!
No problem, Mariah! And yeah, I think quick, painless death always beats slow and terrifying.
Thanks for the tag! Gotta hate those half-way-around-the-world flights that only include one movie for everyone in the flight! >.< I still have a lot to learn about preparing for long-distance flight entertainment. haha. My current theory is try to induce myself my brain into some sort of zombie state… Don't think about flying in a metal bird above vast shark-infested waters… or think about how 5 hours have gone by and it's not even 1/3rd of the way over.
Hope you get better in-flight entertainment than Mandarin movies!
My recent post That Time We Pet 30 Cats: aka The Cat Cafe
Wine usually helps with the zombie state, haha
. But then I usually wake up a few hours later confused and dehydrated.
That was fun! I learned lots about new things about you. Just curious why you decided to switch from blogger to WP?
My recent post Trump International Hotel: Chicago
It was mostly for SEO – I was getting serious about blogging, and there's no way that I know of to optimize blogger posts for search engines; so it was kind of setting limits on how much this blog could grow.
Thanks for the nomination. I will get round to answering the questions.
No problem, Steve! Looking forward to reading your answers.
Thanks Jessica!! I need to get to work!
My recent post Figuring Out Life
No prob! Looking forward to reading your answers!
Love your "Leonardo Dicaprio"-answer
My recent post Polaroid: A Miracle Of Modern Science Is Back!
Haha – thanks. If you've seen Critters 3, you would understand how dedicate I am.
I'd also like to be a dolphin
My recent post The Liebster Blogging Award
It would definitely be fun to swim around and jump all day
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I was seeking this certain information for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck.