• you have to mediate as i definitely want to not be a tourist but i also don't want to be a crushed ant worker in a hagwon somewhere

this is a mini retirement. a homestay would be nice, as would couchsurfing, volunteering, wwoofing sometimes, etc. volunteering is ideal in cheap places for meeting people. or short teaching stints but i still want to MEET people. studying abroad i.e. a university stint is the other ideal - a language school or something. can i afford that? i prob can. that would be incroyable for seoul, say, but 800 quid...! but then you also don't want to go and pay that money just to socialise/get drunk and not work. or something. idk idk.

• "If you’re willing to learn even ten sentences in a language, you can also very easily find people who will help you. Make the effort and people will reciprocate." "I also tend practice sports, and I like art * it’s not too terribly difficult to find a group of people with similar interests and simply ask them if you can tag along. Most people reflect your attitudes and behavior. If you’re friendly and kind of aloof and humble, then people will generally reciprocate that. It’s not too tough. You just have to get out."
• "I’ll take a bike tour of the city, which will give you a very good feel for different neighborhoods, and a very good understanding of the city. I’ll ask all of my questions of the tour guide, as well as — if I’m in a hostel — the head of the hostel. People in hostels tend to be more knowledgeable staff-wise than people in hotels, as far as how to find apartments and so forth."
• The most important thing in seeking richer travel experiences is learning how to slow down. This can be hard to do, since as Americans we tend to micromanage everything to make things more efficient back home. Travel isn’t about efficiency. It’s about leaving yourself open to new experiences. You can’t do this when you’re racing around on a strict itinerary.
• "Be a minimalist. Reduce clutter. Obviously travel by its very nature is going to do this, since you can’t pack everything you’d keep in your home office. But this should apply to your travel office as well. For example, get a cheap laptop, and use it only for your work. Save your important information into Google documents (or something similar) in case the laptop gets lost or stolen or your pack falls in a river. Don’t use the laptop to surf news online; go to the local newsstand instead. Don’t use the laptop to watch DVDs or listen to music; go to a local cinema or nightclub instead. Nobody should travel around the world just to sit in front of a laptop and fart around."
• "By far the most important lesson travel teaches you is that your time is all you really own in life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that your most extravagant possessions can’t match the satisfaction you get from finding new experiences, meeting new people, and learning new things about yourself."
• "When you travel, you get to embrace the privilege of witnessing life as it happens before your eyes. This attitude need not be confined to travel."
• "One of the advantages of long-term travel (as opposed to a short vacation) is that it allows you to slow down and let things happen. Freed from tight itineraries, you begin to see the kinds of things (and meet the kinds of people) that most tourists overlook in their haste to tick attractions off a list."
• "Even on a day-to-day level, travel enables you to avoid setting limits on what you can and can’t do. On the road, you naturally “play games” with your day: watching, waiting, listening; allowing things to happen. There’s no better opportunity to break old habits, face latent fears, and test out repressed facets of your personality."
• "Not shocking, but every day I meet people who are fascinated by what I do and how I live. The desire to travel is there, but fears and excuses usually prevent people from doing it."
• "The only way to really have a sense of how the world works is to see it yourself."