The Curious Case of the Spiritual Gangster

In an Increasingly well traveled world, the Barter Economy and Go-Givers Harvest the highest rewards, knowledge and Information.

The Why:

Travel is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself, because of the people you meet and the experiences you have, if you are open minded. In the past, I've written about how The Singing Cerveza Salesman who won my business, today I am going to write about how being generous with what you have can get you the experience of a lifetime.

The Story:

This story took place over the St. Patrick's day Weekend in Memphis, Tennessee. The name's will be changed as always. All events take place in and around Beale Street.

We Started on

Enjoyed a Parade of Boll Weavels, Shriners, Cruella DeVille Cars, and Memphis Grizzlies:

After the parade, we found ourselves at Silky O'Sullivans which was crowded and an amazing experience where I got to partake in a magical bucket. The experiences that this magical bucket called a "Diver" never stopped ceasing to amaze me. It caught eyes and attention, it was communal, and it brought people into our circle that will forever be friends for the rest of time. Our circle grew. The contents of this bucket could be traded, not for currency but for value. The value of a good time. As the day progressed on the contents of the bucket seemed to dwindle but sometimes people would share their time with us and somehow the bucket never seemed to get truly empty. The more we shared, the more a magical haze overtook me, that can only be described as the beginning of the magic of St. Patrick's Day.

The Magical Bucket:

Being from Nashville, TN, I wanted to drop in and say hey to my neighbors at Tin Roof in Memphis because I've been a fan of the Original Tin Roof on Demonbreun for as long as I'm allowed to legally remember.

Here begins the tale of how a pair of Ray-Bans magically passed over two of my close friends and led the spiritual gangster into my life. During the day I was wearing my glasses and couldn't wear my sunglasses. So my first friend wanted to borrow them, of course this is no problem! "J," now with a pair of sunglasses was able to meet "A." "A" had a pair of sunglasses that "J" was able to keep up with because a silly leprechaun kept knocking the sunglasses off A's head. So now my Ray-Bans were able to be commandeered by my good brother Forrester. Forrestor wore my shades until the sun had set and I had my contacts in.

These magical sunglasses were able to lead J and Forrester to their own spiritual gangsters, they had finally come to rest back on my head with one last task: find me a spiritual gangster.

Though my day had been arduous and my feet were calloused, I was not giving up hope to find a true intellectual conversation. The attempts throughout had been many, yet none were fruitful. Since Tin Roof in Nashville was familiar territory for me, Tin Roof on Beale Street quickly became a comfort zone in which I thrived. I introduced myself to some staff and sent regards from Tin Roof in Nashville.

The Dance floor seemed fun, but not this late, my spirit was dwindling and I needed a few more carbohydrates anyway. Returning inside, I found my way upstairs, I found my friends J, N, A, K, B, and Forrester up here!

How Amazing, the Magical Bucket and Sunglasses re-united us! I made more friends, a Real Estate Agent, an Attorney, and an interesting gentleman who's name I never got. But alas, the spirits were not in my favor... yet. All of these conversations were great, but none of them truly enlightening and all ended too soon.

That's when the wind shifted the tide and led me to Elle. Elle was tall, which I liked. She also seemed to be fairly un-amused with her current accompaniment. We hit it off pretty quickly with polite complements traded. Elle had an amazing story being from Hawaii originally, and you don't hear that very often! She Also had a Carmen San Diego thing going on especially since I think she mentioned having lived there, in fact it's where she started her company. I had to know more, why was she in Memphis? Was she merely visiting or did she live there? Elle actually moved her start up from San Diego to Memphis to catch a big Fish and as a salesman myself, I appreciated the willingness to travel, plus it made huge business sense. As the magic of the night increasingly took hold of the atmosphere, the Altruistic Leprechauns moved the magic hands of time and place. The Spiritual Gangster hat was of significant importance to Elle. Perhaps, perhaps not. I will never know.

The Hat:

The Curious Case of the spiritual gangster

But I do know that the exchange of ideas and thoughts in not only English but in Spanish as well was worth more than any classical education could buy. To read more on how to get more from your education while travelling abroad and the significance of learning a second language, read my article about Staying Healthy while Travelling Abroad. 

Before Hailing a ride, Elle and I exchanged items in order to guarantee we would re-unite at a future point. The Spiritual Gangster hat that she had placed such High Value on and my Ray bans which I didn't pay anywhere near to full price for were traded.

I valued very much my sunglasses because of the magic that they were able to work for my brothers and for me, so I wonder what magic and good fortune will bring because of the Highly Valued hat? Stay Tuned for the update of when the Spiritual Gangster Strikes again! Elle and Myself had exchanged so much information and generosity; however, it was time for me to retire to my room for the night. Elle was awaiting a friend anyway and I urgently needed a change of socks.

So I hailed a Lyft home and had one more amazingly intelligent altruistic conversation with my Driver, T. Fortunately, due to the wonders of technology I was able to get word of my brothers whereabouts and that Elle had finally reunited with her friend.

The Moral

What this whole story comes down to is this, that even though currency is simply a means of exchange, true value can be found from meaning, conversation, and experience.

Through true friendship, kind acts, and generosity, you can truly have an amazing time. As Eric Weinstein said in a Joe Rogan Podcast, "Take something simple like a harmonica" something completely unexpected and using it in a different way "Something you get as a party favor as a kid" he continues "There's 4 secrets and suddenly the world opens up" ... "There's so small a number of secrets and you have to have a reason." "They're small financial options, you can exercise them or you can not exercise them."

 Body language is the language of the world, and that's a tale for another day.


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Studying Abroad and Staying Healthy on a Budget

Studying abroad during your university years can offer several opportunities to grow professionally, academically, and personally while going on a once in a lifetime adventure.

For me, studying abroad seemed unrealistic. I was focused on work-study programs and figuring out the best financial aid options or looking for a part time job while trying to keep my weekly expenditures down.

I think it was during one Christmas feast when my mother's brother, my uncle, told a story about his oldest three children (6 total!) and their experiences studying abroad and how they did it.

My wonderful mother finally talked me into going to the study abroad office and looking into it. It turns out this was the hardest part of starting (until now) my greatest life-changing event. There are several ways to travel abroad with little or no extra tuition payments and reimbursing travel costs, like airfare. In fact, some universities even pay you to go abroad!

I had to decide between Japan (6 weeks for a summer Semester and a separate cost of roughly double my tuition) or Spain (4 months in the Fall and the only paying in-state tuition). Japan's program was more prestigious and I have always wanted to go visit Japan because I find the culture extremely fascinating. I knew nothing of Spain, little Spanish, and Germany, Scotland, or Ireland seemed to be way more "right up my alley."


Ultimately, being here in Spain has been amazing and I recommend to study abroad anywhere you can get the opportunity to and I want to share some of the things I've learned on staying healthy while travelling and living abroad on your own for the first time.

An image that appeared on my facebook during my time in Spain. The Erasmus program is for higher education students that is open to European students. The social aspects of it mirror that of similar organizations back home like Fraternities, and take on the same feel of starting college for the first time. Scary and exciting, to name a few emotions.

Given my past experience with the Freshman 15 (in my case, the freshman 40) I was severely concerned with gaining weight back having to live abroad in a new country and experiencing city-life (Valencia has a population of around 2 million) for my first time.

While I cannot join erasmus, several of the events like free Paella mixers and organized travel to nearby cities in Spain are open to all students of the Universities here in Valencia. Given an erratic daily schedule, Roman Numeral number IX scared me to death. After all, I had worked really hard for 6 months on losing weight!

What to do and what not to do

When you arrive in a new place for the first time, it's natural to explore. Use this natural tendency as an opportunity to find health stores and gyms as well as recreational areas like parks that you can use in a pinch.  Valencia is a beautiful city with several green areas and lots of small parks.

As a student, start looking around school for clubs and organizations that are free to join and engage in the activities you enjoy. If there aren't any, establish a group of friends that like to stay active.

To the right is a picture of our small group one weekend in the mountains just outside the city. We spent all day hiking a trail and got to visit several small towns along the way. We found a small tavern run by an old man that had the best Paella I've eaten in Spain.












A group of International classmates on a weekend trip to the woods for some friendly paintball!




Find out where the local farmer's markets are located. Valencia has several that offer fresh fruits and vegetables, farm raised chickens, and fresh caught seafood (I'm really going to miss living in a coastal city!) not only will you be supporting the locals you'll get some great deals. I bought almost a whole salmon for 9 euros which equals around $12-14. Many stands had whole chickens (medium seized because they were naturally raised) for 2 euros each. That's like $3.50 a chicken!

Living in a city, it's tempting to want to get a bike. I think this is a fantastic idea if you are going to be working there as cycling is a great form of aerobic exercise. However, for the student on a shorter stay, I recommend using your legs to travel everywhere. You get to take a more leisurely stroll and enjoy the sites while at the same time helping break down those pesky triglycerides (especially if you are fasted). I never got around to buying a bicycle saving me 60 euros.

Your first time abroad and away form the family will be scary, but will give you an opportunity to grow personally. Living independently for 4 months means I am now so much better at managing my budget to save up for the things I want to do like Travel or going to concerts. There are several cheap options to travel in Europe. Check out sites like blablacar.com  that offer ride shares. A friend of mine traveled to Madrid from Valencia for 12 Euros using this service. If you want to explore a new city and the hostels or hotels are all booked up, why not try couch surfing?

According to Volume 34 of Society and Economy in Central and Eastern Europe, the most competitive industry today is the discount airline industry. Use companies like RyanAir or Wizzair to make connecting flights. These two companies compete with each other driving costs down. They also compete on service, RyanAir boasts that it is always on time, in fact they will take off early if everyone is boarded (but be careful they will leave people!)! You may have to hop on a train to get to another city to fly out again that night but when you save $165 dollars for that trip to Ireland you always wanted to take, the extra searching is worth it.

This is me arriving in Malta, a small island similar to Hawaii. A flight with Ryan Air that cost only 43 euros.

Our group of 12 booked a hostel for 8 euros a night, it just doesn't get any better!

Through studying abroad I've also become better at having better health and making good long term decisions. Because Mom and Dad aren't around to watch your every step or criticize every decision the temptation is there to go do things you never would before, like buy that expensive suit. You also realize though, that you are on your own for the very first time. The path your life takes ultimately rests on your shoulders.

How did your study abroad experience turn out? Where are you planning to study abroad? What are some of the pros and cons to studying abroad? I want to hear you thoughts and opinions.