KNOW WHY
There's always a reason why I'm traveling but until this latest year long adventure the cumulative effects were stretched out over multiple months, multiple years and that did not justify an effort to consolidate the experiences into a single source. Now that I am stacking multiple adventures on a trip around the world I've decided to formalize my approach and memorialize my efforts.
There are many travel cliches: travel broadens your horizons, provides a greater perspective, helps to gain insight and understand new cultures, teaches you important life lessons, etc. There's one more cliche that I'll add that broadly summarizes all of these - travel provides you with a degree in life. You may learn more in a one week vacation than one year at a university. I consider this past year a pursuit of an MBA in life studies and consider the travel to be a personal investment no different than paying college tuition.
This section is where I take these travel cliches and act upon them. To gain an understanding of an upcoming destination I prepare a country summary and read a book or two about the country, history or literature, travelogue, etc. Further, beyond the cliches I try to consider when travel broadens your horizons and gives you a new perspective what exactly does that mean? What specific first hand lessons helped to understand a new cultures? How does this new knowledge transcend that specific time and place and have a greater influence?
There are many travel cliches: travel broadens your horizons, provides a greater perspective, helps to gain insight and understand new cultures, teaches you important life lessons, etc. There's one more cliche that I'll add that broadly summarizes all of these - travel provides you with a degree in life. You may learn more in a one week vacation than one year at a university. I consider this past year a pursuit of an MBA in life studies and consider the travel to be a personal investment no different than paying college tuition.
This section is where I take these travel cliches and act upon them. To gain an understanding of an upcoming destination I prepare a country summary and read a book or two about the country, history or literature, travelogue, etc. Further, beyond the cliches I try to consider when travel broadens your horizons and gives you a new perspective what exactly does that mean? What specific first hand lessons helped to understand a new cultures? How does this new knowledge transcend that specific time and place and have a greater influence?
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WRITING
Nothing more than thoughts on subject matters confronted during traveling. The major limitation and caveat of this writing is that limited time in a country and exposure to a subject matter may lead to an inappropriate conclusion to may analysis. Therefore I've tried to not frame my thoughts in a right or wrong context but merely as new thought or talking point. To the extent possible I've tried to supplement my thoughts with additional research and referencing, however, I am far from an expert. |