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Here’s To The Bad Decisions I Made While Traveling The World
I very much lack a typical sense for danger that most people inherently have. And damn, it was bad when I decided to live abroad after I graduated college.
I was an ambitious 22-year old that sold nearly everything she owned in exchange for a wanderlust. Lacking any sense of apprehension, I knew nothing of the fear of traveling alone. I just knew I wanted to see as many countries as I could and experience something other than what my at-the-time mundane life could offer.
Looking back, four years later, I question the flat-out dumb decisions I made and how I survived them. In an effort keep you from making the same mistakes I did, I am writing out the worst decisions I made while traveling thus far.
Befriending a Chinese Gangster
To be fair, I didn’t know he was the equivalent of a Chinese gangster when I first started hanging out with him.
I met this guy at one of the frequent night clubs that were popular amongst the tight-knit expat group of the city I lived in, Chengdu. John — that is his English name, and his Chinese name evades me — was a keen supplier of his go-to drink, Jager bombs, to the foreign crowd. He was a fun guy to party with, even though he spoke no English and often used a translator.