Name five places you would like to visit.
India - It seems so beautiful and exotic. I loved Indian movies when I was a kid, and still love them, and I would terribly enjoy visiting, I think.
Japan - I would live in Japan if I could. The culture, at least what I know of it from books and movies, appeals to me very much. I like it all, from work ethic, to hot spring, to food.
Great Britain - I can't even explain one coherently, but I'd love to go.
Spain - It has almost the same draw as India for me: exotic and lovely.
Black Sea - Yep, still have the Southern Russian's stereotypical yearning for Black Sea.
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Comments
Okinawa - I'd like to see where I was born and where my bio-parents grew up.
Greece - I don't know, there's just something romantic about Greece to me.
Scotland - Bagpipes, lochs, scottish accents; I'd be in heaven.
India - Ditto what you said, except I didn't really discover Indian movies until I was older.
Great Britain is one of those 'must go' places for me. Ireland I've had the pleasure of visiting briefly about 14 years ago. Luckily my husband is something of an adventurer and we're attempting to get a plan together to move to Ireland next February.
At some point I would love to go on an African Safari, to Kenya, see the Serengeti Plain- see Lions. :) And hopefully not get eaten, or bitten by a black mamba... *grins*
Finland- in the summer. My father's family is from there, and I've always been curious about it. Plus, hearing that the Finnish language (as spoken in the Karelian area- and I think I've got that right) inspired Tolkein's Elvish, has only increased my urge to visit.
New Zealand holds great appeal as well. A friend was in New Zealand and the pictures he brought back were amazing!
Japan would be an incredible place to visit. The culture shock would be huge, but something to kind of look forward to as well.
I would love to live in Japan. Tokyo is the fastest growing city in the world. Or something like that. Plus, outside of France, the best place to get good patisserie is Japan. And I love seafood. It works out quite well.
I did like Yalta and Odessa when I went to visit but that was a few years ago. And there has been a lot of construction since then it's all touristy there now. Plus the Kvas!!! Yumm!
New Zealand. I have (used to have?) a friend there and I always promised I would visit.
Alaska. The ultimate wide-open wilderness, I guess, to my fevered mind, and as close as I'll ever come to actually living in the middle of nowhere for a while.
Greece. Because of all those slides in college.
Thailand and Cambodia, because my father went last year and it looked and sounded just amazing, and utterly different than anywhere I've been before.
My mother is doing a program right now that will, at some point, involve a month in India. My family was talking about maybe going as a group for a week or two while she's there. I would not turn the opportunity down.
1)ANYWHERE in south america. South america is so beautiful and has so much wildlife and it's one of the few places that still has a working rain forest. hell, when Darwin himself had questions on how animals became what they were, he went to south america for the answers and developed his theory of evolution there.
2)Ireland. mmmmm....potatos.
3)Japan. I'd go there just to visit the different martial arts schools there and the swordmakers. Its so different to visit the country that devoloped the beliefs you grew up with. That, and uh, well, I'd totally want to see a monster destroy tokyo. GODZILLA! RAWR!!
4)Canada. Everyone knows about them, no one can say what real differences there are. And seriously, movies don't cut it. Have you ever seen a foreign made film about america? They think we're all valley high girls and cowboys. >.< Also, I have so many friends in canada it's ridiculous.
5)Australia. Dude, I totally wanted to be an aboriginey when I grew up. Yes, it's impossible, but I still wanted to! It'd be so cool to go meet the people and wildlife.
Sure, you get the awesome hindus and peacemakers and Ghandi and scientests that are all about curing diseases, and stopping weapons- but no one questions why these people have such a strong aversion to violence like that.
Modern Indians(from india) aren't JUST those wonderful people we see. They can also be ruthless and focused on nothing but the business side of things.
It's crowded and EVERYONE USES THEIR HORN- CONSTANTLY. If you're anywhere near a busy area you won't STOP hearing the horns the entire time you're there.
Women can still be looked down upon. It's a little better there, but a lot of the lowerclass people still think that a woman is good for babies or bringing honor to the family by joining the religious group (it's females only btw). Marriges are still arranged and violence towards women is still seen as less important than if the same thing happened to a man.
Lastly, BEAR DANCERS. Gypsies in India still make their money by bear dancing. Before anyone here starts thinking that bear dancing is romantic- it's NOT. They use an asian bear called a sloth bear and it's an insectivore. It eats fruit and bugs and is as gentle as a large dog. Poachers hunt them for the ivory in their claws and because the gypsies buy them. Gypsies illegally get the bears from poachers and most bears are torn from their mother's arms before they've even been weaned. the gypsies then put a ROPE THROUGH THEIR NOSE. and it's not like a bull. they put it through the nasal cavity and out the nostril and then they loop the rope around the bear's head in a muzzle/lead. They starve the bears, don't clean them or properly feed them, choke them when they don't dance, and when the bear is too sick or old, they kill it and sell the ivory from their claws. In one city, there can be as many as 500 bear dancers. they're practically on every corner.
...so uh, ranting a bit at the end there, but it's horrible and stuff. I couldn't stand everyone making india sound so romantic when it's modern day counterpart can be so horrible.
But I think what you're describing is a personal rejection of culture. I'm probably going to say some politically incorrect things here, but I'm not presuming to lecture or to flame anyone.
When I interacted with international students during my highschool and my first stab at college, I often ran across disgruntled exchange students. These guys made disliking US their mission.
They hated the food, they hated the big smiles, they hated the young people - they were too loud and too stupid. They hated the older people - they were too snide. They hated the traffic. They hated the campus. I swear, some of them have made a career out of sneering at the US customs, while explaining in great detail how at home everything was better. They were of just about any nationality - from Jordan to Russia - so I've come to the conclusion that nationality itself really had nothing to do with it.
The knee-jerk reaction is to view these guys as ungrateful, intolerant, close-minded people. But I think that might be wrong. After all, they came to US because they wanted to visit. They must've been excited at the prospect of living there at some point. But once they arrived, the culture didn't click with them.
I don't know if that's because their preconceived notion of what the country might be like differed radically from reality. Or maybe they became just too home sick to submerge. For whatever reason they were strangers in a strange land and so they remained.
I don't think that it's right to demand people to sing praises to a place where they are clearly uncomfortable. And I don't think there is anything wrong with the fact that you seem to intensely dislike modern Indian culture. But I hope you will allow for a fact that your experience will not necessarily be my experience.
Because I found myself in US at a young age, basically forced to survive on my own, I have a very strong adaptive mechanism. Things you describe wouldn't bother me personally, even though many other people would find them offensive. (Except for the bears. But I don't support rattle snake round up, gator poisoning and wolf shooting either.)
In fact, if you dropped me in the middle of India, inside a year, aside from my accent and looks, you wouldn't know I'm not a native. It's a result of culture shock trauma. I don't argue with people, I don't try to change their customs, I simply let myself be assimilated and accept it as is, as if I didn't have a different upbringing.
To reiterate, I'm in favor of admitting differences between cultures. But I wish that you didn't phrase your comment quite in the way you have, because instead of "I went there, tried it, and it was a huge culture shock and not my cup of tea and I don't think most Westerners would like it," right now it reads more like "India is bad."
Edited at 2008-05-01 06:55 pm (UTC)
I thought you made some excellent points and I really appreciated your perspective. I didn't think at all that you meant to say "India is bad", but since I started this discussion, it's kind of my responsibility to point out that it might be read that way.
Very often people have this magical idea of a place and when they arrive and have to be shoved into subway, packed like sardines, or shooo chickens from under the table in a local "cafe", they get terribly upset. They say, "Well, nobody told us!" So I am very glad that you did tell us :P
Myself, I'm darn glad I've had some of the incredible opportunities I have. BIshkek was not necessarily up to the living standards I was used to, but the people were nice, the food was pretty good, and it was someplace different.
meme ....
Germany was one for many years, and now I'm here!
Greece: Must agree, it's on the list.
Ireland for sure; have ancesters.and Scotland along the way ...
New Zealand because it's very cool.
And I'd love to go to Hungary.
Australia - I want to go diving with the Great White Sharks. Well, I want to be in the big cage, diving with the sharks. :)
Scotland- I will find Nessie!
Other UK bits - Castles and more!
Spain - I actually get to go there this fall. *dances*
Sweden - Many a year ago (several generations) my somthing-great grandfather came from there. It'd be neat to see it.
It's a very sad story. Years ago the locals were getting a tad annoyed with Nessie eating all the wildlife. So they caught it, stuffed it and mounted it for all to see. They say it's still swimming free to draw the tourist in.
not perfect but hey, i'm calling it a thursday.
I'd say: London, somewhere in the Scottish highlands, a lush villa in Italy, a secluded cabin in Oregon, or back to my home country of Indonesia :)
-Thea
1. Egypt! I want to see the pyramids and Petra, etc... (very cliche, I know!) Sinai desert, Dead Sea and Israel
2. Greece and Turkey and Italy
3. The Cook Islands, Fiji and Hawaii
4. UK/Ireland/Scotland
5. New Zealand - I want to see Hobbiton! lol
2. Egypt - archaeology degree, nuff said
3. Russia - ok, actually, most of the various Slavic countries. But St. Petersburg in particular.
4. Venice - and the museums in Italy
5. Peru - and we're back to the archaeology degree. Plus, I spent part of my youth in Latin America, and I have memories both terrible and wonderful.
Now you've got me pining...
New Zealand, because if it looks like it does in the movies, that's some brilliant scenery.
Italy, because I'd love to see the Roman ruins that have held up for all these years.
Wales/western England/Isle of Man could be a single trip--it'd be a return to the latter two for me (and it's almost a pilgrimage in my mind), and a first trip to the former, which is where my family came from only a few generations back.
Thailand, because my cousins-in-law are currently over there, one working for the state department, so it moves into my top five for the duration of their stay. ;)