At Home in the World: Reflections on Belonging while Wandering the Globe by Tsh Oxenreider

I was kind of not excited to read this book when I first read or heard about it on whatever book blogs I follow--I'm kind of tired of people talking about how much they *love* to travel and how it's the best thing in the world (cue this video which makes me laugh every time). But, it was available as an audiobook and I will listen to (almost) anything while I'm exercising! I ended up really enjoying this book and it definitely got me more raring at the bit to try and go on some more trips with our kids.

This book is about Oxenreider's one-year trip around the world with her family of five. It's mostly a travelogue about their travels to Asia, Australia, Africa, and Europe (they completely left out South America--doesn't that seem like a bummer?), and it seemed like a pretty magical year. They did some fantastic things like snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, seeing Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, and climbing the Great Wall of China. But I honestly felt like she was holding out on us about how the experience really was, and how they truly were able to manage and afford it all. She says over and over again that they were traveling on a budget, and they had to save money, and references doing "school" and "work" at random times, but doesn't really talk about it in depth or tell what she actually even does for work or how they could possibly have been "working" and making enough money to live for that year. And hearing about all of their marathon flights, spending 30-hour stretches flying and traveling to get from country to country, honestly made me want to vomit. That's where I felt like she was holding out on us--it could not have been pleasant to do those things with three small-ish kids, and she rarely talked about them struggling or being tired or throwing tantrums. Maybe her kids are such good, well-seasoned travelers like she talks about that they never have problems with those long days, I don't know. But there were lots of times where she refers back to something that happened in Thailand before, which she hadn't mentioned, and it made it obvious how much she was editing out of this memoir. Which, of course, she has free license to do, since it is her life and her book. She also talks about how she had severe depression while living in Turkey and several of her friends who travel for long chunks of time who they meet up with talk about how their marriage struggled and how they lost their sanity while traveling for so long with their families--and I have to wonder, does the magic of seeing all of these places make up for those problems? For having depression and struggling in your marriage?

I guess I just think of those things because I am pretty sure that if we tried to do that--travel so much all over the world in such a short span of time--I would lose. my. mind. I would literally go crazy. I like my routines. I like traveling, but if we go longer than two weeks I start to really struggle. Of course, this oxymoron of loving home but also loving traveling other places is kind of the point of this book, and really the only conclusion she comes to is that you can have both and it's okay. They end up coming home and settling down and living a normal lifestyle afterwards.

It did get me thinking and wishing about being able to go on some trips with our kids--nothing that big, of course! So I'm going to sit down with Tommy and plan out our trip to CA now!