More musings on foreign travel

[mangosteen]

So, it has been about six weeks since I went to the UK. In another six weeks, I will be going back. A friend once related that international travel is like sex. The first time you do it, it's a really big deal and you're all nervous about what to do and how to do it. The second through umpteenth times are not nearly as worrisome. I'm inclined to agree. To extend that concept, going to the UK for a first international trip would have to be like having sex with an incredibly experienced close friend who you've had a crush on for years, who just happens to have a penchant for virgins. You already know the person, you each know each other's language, you know that you're not going to grievously insult the person by some communications misstep, and they're used to the idea of having sex with people just like you.

In the final analysis, the UK just isn't all that foreign to someone from the US, not to mention being a New England resident.

Observation: New England's founders weren't terribly creative when they named New England towns, as one finds out rather immediately when one touches down in the UK. Then again, New England's founders weren't terribly American when they named said towns, either.

And so, while I fully expect that I will enjoy going back to the UK in six weeks (and many times in the future, as well), it has almost attained the status of Canada in that it's Just Not Foreign Enough. So what's next? Well it involves several questions:

• Do they speak English natively?
  
• Do they speak English anyway?
  
• Are the signs in English?
  
• Do you need a phrasebook?
  
• Can you get well and truly stranded without really trying to do so?
  
• Do you look fundamentally different than everyone else?
  
• ...and probably several others.
  

All told, it broke down to:

• The rest of western Europe
  
• southern Europe
  
• central Europe
  
• Israel (which, for me, is probably a step backward in foreignness)
  
• Australia
  
• The Pacific Rim (Japan first)
  
• ...and I'll figure things out from there.
  

It appears that I have a bit of traveling in my future.

Realization: One of the things I really like about going somewhere else where I know very few people (if any at all), is that no one knows who I am. There is no past history, no preconceptions, no information about who I may or may not be. This is incredibly liberating. One of the wonderful things in the UK was, although I looked different from most people, no one could tell what kind of "different" I was. I have a definite Eastern European cast to my facial features, but I could have been from any number of countries, until the probability waves collapsed when I opened my mouth, and it was quite obvious that I was an educated US resident who probably came from the northeast. However, until that point, I was any number of people at the same time. Schroedinger's Geek.

LJ Meta:I have found that I don't add people to my friends list until I have figured out a color for them. Weird.

Observation: I've noticed that if you repeat a word multiple times in a row, it starts to divorce itself from its meaning, and just becomes this odd sequence of phonemes. The word "daughter" is my favorite example, but "loan" and "cooking" are pretty good examples, as well.

Comments

hee. I like it.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

The description of international travel, that is. :)

Some of my favorite travel destinations so far: Amsterdam, Italy, Turkey, Aus/NZ, Hong Kong, just about any island group in the South Pacific. Most places I've travelled have been countries where I look nothing like the average resident; this has good points and bad. I've certainly had problems with unwanted male attention in certain countries...ick.

As for the observation, I get that all the time. It especially happens with the first letter of words or names in any given section of the dictionary or phone book. The more I look at the letter, the stranger it appears.

[pookfreak.livejournal.com]

Great observation of the UK - I felt the same way when I went to London - my first (and only) off continent travel has been to Paris and London - part business/part fun.

I've said to several people Paris felt foreign where as London felt very much like Boston in many ways and I was slightly disappointed only in that I was looking for foreign when I really think about it. But I did enjoy myself.

My next off continent international trip is probably NZ/AUZ dec '02/jan '03 - unless I go wild and do something else before but I imagine lack of funding will not allow that to happen. I however do want to go to Montreal and maybe even up to Old Quebec City which I hear is really nice and have never been to before.

[cos]

One of my first reactions to London when I went there was, "this isn't foreign. now I know why the area I live in is called New England." But that didn't bug me, because I wasn't specifically looking for foreigness, I was looking for London, and there it was. Also for the people who I was going there to meet. Ditto for Newcastle. Edinburgh was somewhat foreign, but I still kept thinking it felt a lot more like home than many places I've been to in the US.

I still think New Orleans is one of the more foreign places I've been to (I've spent a cumulative total of about 16 days there). The greatest culture shock I ever witnessed, though, was when I visited Katy in Kenya where she'd been living for a few months, and then took her directly from Kenya to visit Israel.

I have found that I don't add people to my friends list until I have figured out a color for them.

I just hesitate for a long time until I force myself to choose a color :)