I am not a world traveler. In my 51+ years, I have been outside the borders of the good 'ol US of A for about 4 hours! My one sojourn was part of a trip taken with my dad and brother. We decided -- rather spur of the moment -- to cross the border from El Paso, Texas to Ciudad Juarez. While there, we didn't venture far and ended up eating lunch at a Denny's Restaurant! Then we skedaddled back to our side of the border.
By comparison, my wife has a bit more international experience. She attended high school in The Azores (Portugal) when she lived with her air force-serving sister. While she never realized her dream of exploring mainland Europe, living on a small island out in the Atlantic Ocean is a far cry more adventuresome than my meager experience.
Many of my friends and cohorts regularly visit foreign lands. A friend of mine, who is a history professor, has lived in Germany with his family during his sabbatical periods. Another friend regularly visits China and Singapore. Heck, most of my friends here in the northwest can at least say they've visited Canada! (I may try that one day.)
It only seems to be through the blogosphere that I visit and am visited by folks from points far and near. Looking at my traffic tracking software, I can see that within the last day TRT has had visitors from Australia, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Romania, Mexico, Ireland, Greece, Finland and Spain. Over the past week this list would also include Kuwait, United Arab Emigrats, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Brazil and Poland.
As a person who rarely travels beyond a three-county area, all I can say is that this is really cool.
By comparison, my wife has a bit more international experience. She attended high school in The Azores (Portugal) when she lived with her air force-serving sister. While she never realized her dream of exploring mainland Europe, living on a small island out in the Atlantic Ocean is a far cry more adventuresome than my meager experience.
Many of my friends and cohorts regularly visit foreign lands. A friend of mine, who is a history professor, has lived in Germany with his family during his sabbatical periods. Another friend regularly visits China and Singapore. Heck, most of my friends here in the northwest can at least say they've visited Canada! (I may try that one day.)
It only seems to be through the blogosphere that I visit and am visited by folks from points far and near. Looking at my traffic tracking software, I can see that within the last day TRT has had visitors from Australia, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Romania, Mexico, Ireland, Greece, Finland and Spain. Over the past week this list would also include Kuwait, United Arab Emigrats, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Brazil and Poland.
As a person who rarely travels beyond a three-county area, all I can say is that this is really cool.
Yes, it's kind of overwhelming when one realizes all the eyes that may be reading what we write, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe world has become a small village, and writing blogs is making a difference.
I hope you can make it to Canada one of these days. But I am afraid it's a lot like Oregon. We enjoy going there because of the shopping, the Mexican food, and other stuff. But, given that you don't live here, you may find interesting stuff that we are too used to to appreciate.
I have not been to any country outside my own (Singapore) except the one just next to mine, which is Malaysia. I have been to Thailand, but only for military training.
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