Blog 2-Discussion

1.) I travel because I want to see what else is out there, and maybe to see what else is in me.  When I am traveling, I often find myself without luxuries I am used to having at home, such as being able to just walk up to the fridge and take out string cheese when I want a snack.  Traveling really teaches me how I get around not having these luxuries, and that's why I love to do it.  I discover little things about myself, such as when I am in a hotel, I always shower right before I go to bed so my hair can dry overnight because I don't travel with a blow dryer.  Or that I always drink orange juice at continental breakfast, but never at home.  (I still have no idea why I do this.)  My reasons to travel do line up with Iyer's.  Iyer mentions that when we are on "the road, we often live more simply", and this is precisely what I do, but not just in the obvious ways.  I also tend not to wear makeup or put any products in my hair when I travel (many girls wouldn't give these things up for anything).  Not because I don't bring them, but because I feel that I have much more important things to do.  I relate most to Iyer's references to simplicity because I find myself to be a much more low maintenance person when I'm away from home.

2.) This means that even if you have seen a picture of the Taj Mahal countless times, you never really feel the magic until you actually see it.  It's impossible to capture the sounds and smells and tastes and textures in a picture, so when you go to a magnificent place for the first time, you can see it with a new outlook.  When you think back to that place, you don't think of the pictures you see, you think of the view and the people and the smells and sounds you experienced.  This would apply to me because this is actually how I feel when I go someplace that I have only seen pictures of.  When I think of certain places such as San Francisco, I think of the foggy morning I spent with my family biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, not the opening credits of Full House.  (Full House is what I used to picture before I actually visited San Francisco.  I promise.)  Going to a new place makes me look at it differently.  I take mental pictures and associate completely different words with them than I would have before I visited, which is how my mind processes looking at things in a new light. (When I think of Santa Fe, I think cold and windy, not sunny and warm, as one would expect.  Boy, that was a surprise.)

This is exactly what the Golden Gate Bridge looked like on that morning.  You couldn't even see the top.

 3.) When you travel, you fear just about everything.  What are you going to eat, how will you get over any language barriers, whether you'll like your destination, and I think the list goes on for about sixteen more miles.  However, traveling forces you to overcome these fears, and upon returning, you can cross some things off your list of things you're afraid of.  Fear is what turns a travel into an adventure.  On this trip to Australia and New Zealand, we're going to be faced with things we'll be afraid of, like it or not.  Overcoming them is what will make this trip that much better.  For instance, some people find trying new foods terrifying.  But that's going to happen.  And who knows?  Maybe we'll return with some new favorites!

4.) I do believe that a certain burden rests on each traveler's shoulders and this is precisely it.  As travelers, we go places to learn, and it is our duty to share the knowledge upon returning.  In addition, friends and family kind of expect the traveler to share his or her new knowledge.  What would the point of a carrier pigeon be if no one wanted or needed the information he or she carried?  It would be like going to college and then doing nothing with that sought-after diploma that you worked so hard to earn.

5.) "For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with."  I absolutely love this quote because it describes traveling in a way I have never seen before.  I have never associated travel with falling in love, and this quote showed me how those two parallels can be drawn.  It also absolutely sucked me in.  I was able to picture it in my head, kind of like a movie.  (It sounds weird, but I pictured a bunch of black and white photos of major cities.)  Besides, I think it's beautifully written.

Paris

London

Blog 1-Once Upon a Time...

Hi, my name is Bridget, and I'm a sophomore at North.  I guess there's not much to say because everyone always says we learn by experiencing things, but I'll try to tell you about myself in a nutshell.  I'm Irish.  Yes, I have been to Ireland.  No, I have never seen a leprechaun, but I'll let you know when I do.  My favorite color is fire engine red, my favorite movie is The Breakfast Club, and my favorite song is Let It Be by The Beatles.  I play soccer and tennis, but mostly soccer.  My favorite soccer team is Chelsea FC, and my favorite tennis player is Rafael Nadal.  I have an older brother who is 20, and I live with both of my parents. My outlook on life is that you only get one, so why not stretch its limits and see how far you can go?  

The Breakfast Club.  Clockwise, from top left: John Bender (the criminal), Andrew Clark (the athlete), Claire Standish (the princess), Brian Johnson (the brain), and Allison Reynolds (the basketcase).

I signed up for this course not only because I really want to go to Australia and New Zealand, but because I also want to gain an understanding and another point of view of how Australians live.  I have no idea as to what they eat for breakfast, or where they go on vacation, or what time they eat dinner, or how they came to live on the island.  And that's really why I'm here; I want to know.  If I'm going to visit, I might as well have some insight into their culture.  Besides, a half of a history credit isn't too bad either.

I hope that traveling abroad will show me just who I am and why I am the way I am.  I hope that looking at another culture and being submerged in it will help me understand the American culture among others.  I'm also hoping to learn just how good I am with rolling with the punches.  At times I can be either very lax and chill, but at other times, I'm wound tighter than a spring and an absolute perfectionist, so I would love to know which one I am the majority of the time.  I think that traveling abroad will reveal just what type of person I am and how I cope with the not-so-awesome situations, as well as how others deal with them too.

The Sydney Opera House!

I have never been to Australia or New Zealand, and I know next to nothing about their culture, including cuisine, daily routines, where they vacation, where they dream of traveling, and what they do on their own time.  I also really like the idea of going to the Great Barrier Reef and seeing the Sydney Opera House as well as other landmarks because these are things you only hear of and see static pictures of.  I personally like to see people and things moving, to be there, to live it, and to observe it.  For instance, when you see pictures of the Eiffel Tower, you only see the view from the top and the tower itself.  You never see the vendors beneath trying to sell you cheap key chains or ice cream cones or postcards.  That is exactly what fascinates me about other places; the people that live there and use these landmarks to their advantage.

I think that learning about a place before you visit can make an experience much more exciting because you actually know about where or what you're visiting.  As you learn about where you're going, it really makes it real and it gets you pumped for the trip.  It's also important to learn the history because you appreciate the experience so much more than if you just know what's written on the plaques because you can be looking at something and just think, hey, we talked about this in class, and I can really see how this is an important feature.  The whole trip is just that much more valuable.