I have found in my life a persistent love of exploration and discovery, ever since I was a child and my family packed up the minivan for vacations year after year. I've been to twenty five states and nine countries. I speak French and English fluently, and have picked up smatterings of Italian, Greek, German, and Portugese over the last several years. The world has always seemed wonderfully interesting to me, and I have a great desire to experience as much of it as I can - and, I have been blessed to be able to see quite a bit of it.
But as all would-be explorers know, traveling is complicated. It's expensive. Vacation time is limited. There are responsibilities to see to, and bills to be paid, and weekends to be slothed away in front of the television. And yet I don't believe the desire for exploration ever quite dies out. No, I think that, once it's there, it's quite difficult to get rid of. The need to look once more just around the river bend persists, despite busy calendars and fledgling bank accounts.
Happily, here in 21st century America, we live an increasingly globalized existence. Bits and pieces of other countries and cultures slip past us every day, whether we notice it or not. The latest British boy band sensation sings over the store intercom. We go out to lunch at the local Thai restaurant, or Italian restaurant, or Sushi restaurant. We watch BBC, secretly love Studio Ghibli movies, and tune into "The Amazing Race" every Sunday. In many ways, we don't really need to travel to experience the world - the world is coming to us.
And so the idea for this blog sprung into my head. The world is undoubtedly large, but I want to make it small. I want to reach out into the big, wide world, and fit it into my one-bedroom apartment life - whether through music, television, books, movies, or anything else that might cross my path. And I want to write about it.
I'm setting off on a journey to discover our great big world, and make it mine. Our world - my world. Made small.
Care to join?
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