Theory of Travel
It is strange how in the U.S., international travel isn’t looked upon as highly as it is in Europe and Australia, for example.
In other countries, they have something called “Gap Year” which is when a young person takes a year off and travels. It is a common and well-known practice there.
Here in New York, everyone has traveled. If you meet someone who hasn’t been out of the country, it is a surprise. Back where I am from, if you meet someone who has been to Europe, it’s like, “Whoa, cool!” I think that’s for a few reasons.
1. People here have more money.
2. More people here have direct ties to foreign countries since they are more recent immigrants. (For example, if you meet someone who says they are Italian, it probably means their parents or grandparents were born there. Where I’m from, that probably means their great-great-great-great grandparents came from there.)
3. I guess people might be more educated and realize how important traveling is. You won’t hear anyone here say, “I like it here… why would I go to a foreign country?”
Tags: Pre-Trip
Kelly
That is so strange. I even knew people from “where we’re from” (: that hadn’t been out of MICHIGAN–or if they had, they’d been to Windsor, or Sarnia. Ha.
I think of my friend’s family who have lived all over the world and how they still continue to travel to cool places–Corsica, Morocco, etc. Plus, since my friend lives in London it is possible–they go on “holiday.” (:
Yeah….I know a lot of people like that too, and when you tell them you are going somewhere they act like you think you are all fancy and how did you get ALL THAT money to do that (even though it isn’t that much), and WHY would you spend your money on that?
Those very same people shell out just as much cash for a trip to Orlando for a week. Seriously, tickets to London and back were cheaper than ones to Miami when I was looking a year or so ago.
Totally!! You can get cheap tickets to London for $200 (plus $100 tax, grumble), and you can take super cheap flights within Europe …. I think people from home just don’t realize that, and they think traveling abroad is scary and too hard.