Out of the country for the first time in sobriety

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Out of the country for the first time in sobriety

louisa · Senior Member

((ZZ)))
Sending you love and prayers...
Louisa xx

Dave Harm · Senior Member

Never thought of that, but I will be doing that as well in seven weeks... I have never been out of this country sober... that is a pretty cool thought...

Best wishes,
In my thoughts and prayers,
Dave

mikef · MIP Old Timer

Thanks for staying in touch,in support and prayer........bring a laptop and stay connected!!!!! Enjoy you first trip lucid!!!!!!

mikef · MIP Old Timer

et cum spiri tu tuo.......sorry early childhood rescitations :) as an altar boy "and with you also Dave!!!

Jerry F · MIP Old Timer

Like MF...a reminder; you are and will never be alone in your recovery. We stand
hand in hand with each other for it. Have a safe trip. smile

StPeteDean · MIP Old Timer

ZZ be sure to invite your Higher Power to go with you on the trip. If the hotels have an exercise room, hit the weights and the stair climber.

SteveP · MIP Old Timer

Sounds great ZZ. I've done a bit of travelling in sobriety -- Belgium, Germany, Denmark. It rulz :)

Have you checked out meetings in your destinations?

I find that the great part is going to meetings in the various destinations I've been to. It's like, re-charge the batteries, connect with the Fellowship and meet sober locals.

I'm supposed to travel again with work this Friday and I'm planning on getting to a meeting on the
morning before my business thing.

Keep coming back.

Steve

attilio · Veteran Member

we are with you ZZ stay in touch.

pinkchip · MIP Old Timer

Take some speaker CDs...it's like attending a speaker meeting on your own.

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Thanks for all the support guys. I do have some audio files of speaker meetings, yes, and will listen to them. I also will have about one down day in a pretty big city so will try to make a meeting there. Getting some exercise should be no problem also.

Big dinner with colleagues tonight and EVERYBODY was given beer, but I smiled and handed mine back and said "thank you but my doctor says no!" No problem at all, nobody thought twice about it.

Thanks again to all of you and my Higher Power.

Dave Harm · Senior Member

I love going to meetings in different towns... I have always felt welcomed... if you have a hard time finding one contact a local hospital or mental health facility... they usually know where the meetings are

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Good tip Dave, thanks. I can see me walking into a clinic: "Hello, I'm a crazy foreigner, can you tell me where to find some drunks?" Actually they probably hear that every week....

louisa · Senior Member

(((ZZ))) Was thinking of you !
Hope your trip is going ok !
Louisa aww

xx

SteveP · MIP Old Timer

lol - like that idea.

I'm in Paris right now and am going to a meeting tomorrow AM - can't wait!

Steve

louisa · Senior Member

(((Steve)))
Hope you enjoy/ed your meeting too!
Louisa xx

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Well, we had a typhoon here that caused me to change a flight so it looks like I'll miss my meeting in the other city. I'll probably go to the zoo here, that sounds like a fairly wholesome, sober activity. Also I'm in email contact with a local AA guy.

Steve: Wow, Paris, cool. Let us know how that goes.

Thanks for letting me check in, guys.

Thanks for your thought Louisa, that's very sweet...

SteveP · MIP Old Timer

Thanks ZZ, Paris meeting was great!

Mainly North Americans, all had nice crisp shares about what it was like, what happened and what they're like now. Meeting place was in an English church not at all far from the Arc de Triomphe, so I did a bit of the tourist thing too getting there and before the conference.

Thanks to AA, I made the conference early and all was good.

Paris really is a beautiful city. First time I'd been there since I'd come into AA. Made it nicer.

One of the things that struck me was that two years ago I was speaking at a conference in another French-speaking city, Brussels. That was a few months before I had found AA. As per usual, I went drinking in Brussels the night before. Let's just say that it wasn't so good.

Much prefer life in AA. :)

Steve

-- Edited by SteveP on Saturday 23rd of October 2010 06:08:36 PM

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Sounds cool Steve, thanks for sharing. I really want to go to Paris. My wife lived there for a year, and I think she sang in the choir at the "American Cathedral"? Was that your place by chance?

I'm in Shanghai which is considerably less glamorous. Been touring factories all week, whoopee...I remember the last time I was in China was during the terminal phase of my active drinking, and I was always crippled with anxiety that I wouldn't be able to procure enough booze to suppress the withdrawal symptoms for business meetings. I don't know how I kept my job. Totally different this time!

I'll be in Saigon later in the week and it looks like there's a little fellowship there, so I might try to contact them. I really want to say I went to at least ONE meeting on my trip....

zzworldontheweb · Senior Member

Well here I sit in the Hong Kong airport waiting on a flight to Saigon and checking this board at a Boingo hotspot. Isn't life interesting.

Little bit of a challenge last night as my driver got lost and couldn't find hotel, then found they didn't have my reservation! After much begging, threats, and phone calls, they gave me a room for the night.

I was tired, hungry, it was late, and being an airport hotel, the room was STOCKED with 6 or 7 different kinds of booze, and I recollected that this was the type of situation where I USED to drink. But I got some food, took a bath, and put it in perspective, so, no problem. Also I gathered up all the juice and gave it to the maid, which helped. I never actively thought about drinking it, but that just made me a little more comfortable.