Small Steps

For 15 months we've been moving non-stop. It was an excellent lesson in paring down, giving up material goods, and learning that I could live with even less than I thought. When you go to new places, the impact of environmental destruction, pollution, overpopulation, and overconsumption is shockingly obvious. Seeing parts of the ocean completely fished out, garbage dumps on pristine islands, and poverty right next to shiny capitalism, it became harder to accept that I was doing my part to be the change I wanted to see in the world. Of course, I'm guilty of not being super eco friendly what with flying everywhere - though I love trains and try to travel by them if possible (This one month trip was completely overland) - and I am far from perfect but I felt like it was finally time for me to do a little more. These aren't huge things, but just tiny ways in which I feel that a little effort adds up, is better for the environment, for my health, and probably for other people.

- This month marks one year of being anti-perspirant/deodorant free. And no, I don't smell bad. In fact, I smell better than I ever have. I found an awesome pump-spray that contains only alum (a type of mineral salt) and water. It kills bacteria, sprays without ozone layer destruction, and is also free of carcinogens and environmentally toxic chemicals. It's also insanely cheap.

- I switched to a sulfate and paraben free organic shampoo. P uses baking soda to wash and apple cider vinegar to condition. His hair is no longer falling out, and we are not putting shit into the water supply any more. After seeing what a tub of Sodium Laureth Sulfate looks and smells like, you won't want to use regular shampoo either!

- I skip body lotion and use almond oil instead, with a vanilla pod in it. There's nothing in it but... almond oil, and a vanilla pod :) No chemical additives, refillable glass bottle, totally natural. And it smells amazing.

- I cut out a large part of meat from my diet. Ideally I would be entirely meat free, but I like to keep the option of eating meat in places where it's the only available food or is humanely and healthily produced, like on small farms in Poland. I don't think eating meat is entirely wrong, I think we just eat too much meat. And most meat in the US and UK is industrially produced and highly unhealthy.

- I'm planning to make more of my condiments and foods from scratch. It's easy and fast, you can re-use jars instead of buying new ones, it tastes better, and you're not giving money to big companies.

- I started renting rooms from individuals or small family run hotels over staying in bigger hotels/chains.

- I'm planning to build my own computer instead of buying the apple desktop I wanted. It sucks, because they are so pretty, but after finding out about Apple's hideous labour practices, I can't really feel good about owning a mac. I can avoid HP, Intel components and keep supporting the BDS movement by not buying goods that support Israeli apartheid, and I can also avoid giving my money to Microsoft.

- Couchsurfing. It's been a great way to meet people I'd never meet normally, exchange ideas, and become immersed in different cultures. Everyone I've been has been generous, kind, helpful, and full of warmth. I can't think of a better way to learn about a different country and to act upon ideas I believe in.

I don't want to go all nutty and start wearing burlap sacks, but I feel like if there are little things I can do that are easy enough to incorporate into my life, I should probably do them. I'd love more suggestions! Anything that supports human rights and is environmentally friendly is something we should be doing!

Praha!

Hubs and I were in Prague this weekend, and what a glorious city. It was nice to have a break from the pregnant pause that is my life, and spend some time with P before we are brutally separated thanks to the incompetency of the USCIS. Anyway, I could totally see myself living in Czeska. Prague is beautiful, I could understand enough Czech to get by, and the art scene was hopping. I LOVED the Veletrzni Palac museum of contemporary art - even though I found a lot of communist-era-grimness - and I found a couple of amazing exhibitions at little galleries around town, including a David Cerny show. The food was amazing too; Czech food is similar to Polish food, in that it is basically all meat, meat, and more meat. By the time we got back to London I was devouring an edamame, runner beans, and butter bean salad on the train home and seriously craving some veggies.

As usual, we'd forgotten to pack our toothbrushes. I figured I'd just pull the old brush with your finger trick with a small tube of blend-a-med that we'd gotten at a pharmacy earlier. I squeezed a bit of toothpaste out and rubbed it all over my teeth. Wow, I thought. Sugarless czech toothpaste. Ick. I kept rubbing, and all of a sudden my mouth was super stickalicious. By this point I was pretty freaking sure that this was not, in fact, toothpaste. I looked at the box, which was in hungarian, I might add, and figured out that it was denture cream (from the unclear pictures). Gross. Screw you, blend-a-med, and the Czech sales assistant girl who didn't think about the fact that 20-something travelers with huge backpacks might not actually need denture cream but TOOTHPASTE!




Aside from the blend-a-med disaster, I had a super awesome weekend. I've been craving and hunting for good martini spots lately, and had a delicious one at the cute/strange Bugsy Bar that had boiled eggs and string cheese as free bar snacks . And in a hilarious ending to my weekend, I spotted Xzibit and his crew at Prague Airport!