Welcome to the TravelPod forums

[starlagurl]

I just created this forum so that new people can get comfortable with the rest of the group. Maybe we are a little insular with our jokes sometimes, so this will be a special place for anyone who doesn't know anyone.

We really are very nice people, and I can prove it! Everyone introduce yourself now...3...2...1...go!

A little about me:

I'm Louise Brown, TravelPod's "Community Manager" and my job is to make you feel at home here. So if you have any questions about anything at all... ever... just ask me. If I don't know the answer, I will find out for you.

I am 26 years old and I grew up in Niagara Falls, Canada. I moved to "our nation's capital" Ottawa to go to journalism school at Carleton University when I was 19 and have lived here ever since. Before working at TravelPod, I used to work for the Ottawa Sun as the "band listing girl" and I also watched news all day for the government at a media monitoring company.

I am very enthusiastic about life, super environmentally and socially aware and open to many different kinds of experiences.

Some of my favourite things: roadtripping it to Montreal, cycling EVERYWHERE, couchsurfing ANYWHERE, camping, going to any kind of music or theatre event, playing piano and Dance Dance Revolution, writing an endless amount of blog entries, bugging all my friends to read them, and of course, all my buddies in the TP forums.


Places I have been: Literally all over Canada, the east coast US, western Europe and the Caribbean.

Places I am going in chronological order: Rhode Island, Kelowna ---> Canmore --> Yellowknife and points in between, Nunavut (2009), Alaska --> California on my motorcycle (2010, still looking for travel buddies)

Philosophy: Right now, I'm living my life from one moment to the next, I can't seem to successfully plan anything, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying! I guess this is a tragedy and also a blessing. I live because I breathe and I try to impact the planet with the smallest footprint possible.

Favourite Music, Movies, Books: Waking Life. Books: too many to list. Music: Ska, reggae, punk, electronic, indie... manymany

Types of People I enjoy: People who don't care what anybody else thinks. People who dress up for fun and people who appreciate the journey more than the destination.

Things I can teach: I can teach you how to play piano, also, how to make fabulous cocktails.

Ways to contact me:
TravelPod: http://www.travelpod.com/members/starlagurl
Skype: starlagurl
MSN: fairyprincess@hotmail.com
Email: louiseb@travelpod.com
Couchsurfing: starlagurl
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=718...=brown%2Clouise
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/louiseottawa
Orkut: http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=556034708644115819
Hi5: http://www.hi5.com/friend/1364719--Louise--Profile-html
Twitter: starlagurl

[donyan]

Hello Travelpod:

My name is Wolfgang Hamacher on legal papers only: a bad (URGENT!) translation of Wolfgang to french, and in real life I was oraly re-named and refered to as JeanLoup, FOREVER. Pronounced YanLú in spanish and since I am the family Don, my name turned out to be donYanLu or donYan for short.

¿Why was it so urgent to translate my name to french? Well...I was born in Paris, january 1943, by a french belgian as my mother, and a german military engineer as my father. I am his first (and only) male son so he proudly named me like him: Wolfgang! (he was Franz Friederich Wolfgang, I am Wolfgang Theodor) Then June 6, 1944 happened. That day my mother asked for the Nibelungen meaning of "Wolfgang": it's "Wolfs Path" = "Chemin de loups". The closest (and more comon) name was "JeanLoup", since both are pronounced very much the same in french.

When the Russians & comunists became the new USA enemy, all hunt for germans and collaborateurs stoped in France, the Marshall plan went under way and we could stop hiding in the woods (such beautiful forests, by the way) of Chevreuse in la porte de Versailles, and crossed the Pirineos mountains to Spain. I was five years old when I crossed the first border without papers... and first time in school to learn spanish. We lived in a refugee camp in Pamplona, and after a year my father got a job: we had a home again!

Four years later we moved to Madrid & lived there for another four years. After two years of being in Madrid, father decided to cross the Atlantic Ocean looking for better economical oportunities. He started in Canada, where he bought a blue 1954 VW Karmman Cabrio (a convertible Beetle, Käffer, Cucaracha, Coccinelle...1.1 lt engine!) and drove to the South. On reaching Mexico, he found prewar friens (VW company, Bosch company, etc) and started a new life...and a new family.

In January 1956 my mother brought us (my Pamplona born sister and I) to Mexico, and divorce was worst than the ending of WW II!!!

So after two years of mexican divorce (we were proof of bigamy, my sister & I) I decided to do my own life, went wet-back to the USA. I was 14 years old when I crossed another border without papers...and learned english, in Haskell Texas Junior Hi. My older half sister had married a NewYorker academic specialized in spanish & english literature. To this date they are the only stable & durable marriage of this family, since many many generations.

When I finished HiSchool, I came back to Mexico. The "american way of life" deffinitly is NOT my thing...started working as a hunter in jungle plantations and cattle ranches over the mexican SouthEast, and from then until 1991. That's the longer I lived in any given place of this planet (such a beautifull planet): 4 years at the most. In 1991 I took a Skydive training in Tequesquitengo lagoon, south of Cuernavaca near the Cortés hacienda, now converted into hotel Hacienda Vistahermosa. Dungeons and all!

Something happened, because the calendar started to gallop like crayze horses on a stampede. I would wake up on Monday in Cuernavaca (my location in 1991) and drive to Tepoztlán where my Cerdenian/italian friend Paolo had a Pizza retaurant. And arriving there, maybe half an hour drive tops, his calendar said Friday!

Then I met this colombian woman from Cali, and had a three day party heavy on boos and food. I had to pick my two sons at their mothers home and be a father again for a while crocodile. The strangest thing ocurred then; arriving their mothers home, it was time to prepare Christmas dinner! But I went to Paolos restaurant in April...calendars are not to be trusted, I decided. Never said a word to anyone since I was feeling healthy and active (that Cali girl really made me healthy!!!)

We decided that the elder son had to leave mothers skirts, and start a life. He wanted to go to Chakagua lagoon, on the Emerald coast of Oaxaca state. He told me that a lot of fishermen had new outboard boats and needed a mechanic. And since I am a back country mechanic, with a complete shop on wheels (then a VW Thing/Safary, turned into a Kubelwagen réplica) we headed for Chakagua (three hour drive to Acapulco, plus a six/seven hour drive to Chakagua)

The economics of the place were not buoyant, beer being the only currency. My son started his Scuba diving carreer (now a deep sea diver, living in Sharm el Sheik Egipt) and I moved to PuertoEscondido, an hour drive south of Chakagua mangrooves.

I lived there my first record; six years! First time IN MY WHOLE LIFE!!! But the calendar was printed with errors: for me three months had passed, and the calendar said THREE YEARS HAD PASSED!! Before I had time to complain with calendar makers, Paulina came, and PuertoEscondido was devastated...no food, no work, no travelers, empty hotels, no comunications, no light, no tap water...a hurricane is nothing: it's afterwards that things go sour. I had just moved on with a wonderfull argentinian woman and rented a cabin on Zicatela beach. We held on from September (when Paulina arrived) until May.

From there, we moved to Cuernavaca, where I reside now, after 10 years (another record!). Calendars slowed down again now, no more of those errors. Every day I travel the roads giving assistance to automobiles, or visiting those litle villages where my sons were born at home, with the local midwife and yours truly helping the birth labor. The very best happy trimes of my life, I must confess.

¿Why did the calendars go crayze? Now that's a longer story than this simple and short (JÁ!!!) introduction...so I'll sum it up: I got struck by lightning, it afected the Hipotalamus (those two seahorses at the center of the brain) All our senses send their info to the Hipotalamus, where info gets potentiated (whatever that means) and is then sent to different sectors of the memory in the brain.

So I was not recording my actions!!! I did not loose stored info: only the inmediate memory was not working. I had never made so many notes to keep track OF EVERYTHING!!! Or I would simply freeze without a clue of what was going on. But when you don't remeber, you don't worry nor panic. My life changed for the better, I feel more relaxed and enjoy my family every day, here and on the Net. My two sons are married and abroad: the other just went ro Beijing...in charge of the Restaurant wagons on Bullet trains!!! His grandfather das General, was in charge of all french railroads before loosing the war...trains run in the family: must be a destiny!

So now I'll have to do my first travel blog, I guess. Hope I did not bore you all donYan