Adapters

Since our retirement adventure began, Scot and I have traveled to five countries, switching currencies each time. We’ve taken 10 different flights, and also changed hotels 10 times. We’re currently in Auckland, New Zealand, where we’ll be for a month before heading to the South Island, where we’ll be for another month.

All these changes have meant we’ve had to adapt to changing norms and circumstances. Most have been minor, and actually kind of fun. For instance, our vrbo here in Auckland has most everything you need to cook, but no potholders ( I used a washcloth). We have no local phone or internet, so navigating the world without google maps has been difficult ( you don’t realize how much you use internet until you don’t have it on your phone).

And today, thinking to use my computer for the first time on this trip, I discovered that— even though we have every international adapter known to man, we didn’t seem to have one that changed a US 3-prong into a 2-prong. Momentarily defeated, I trudged to an electronics supply store, only to have the salesperson snap it into a slot whose pattern I hadn’t detected. “That won’t do it?” She asked. Of course it did, and that’s what travel is: finding new and surprising connections you never saw before, and experiencing things in a new and unexpected way.