The README file

G’day, Mates!

Howdy from Australia. I’ve been under here a few days and have a few things to report.

I usually do this by e-mail, but I decided to join the new millennium and post to a blog. It should help you read this in spurts at your convenience and not lose it in your inbox. I really should make a Cliff’s Notes version. Don’t expect too much organization, because part of the reason I write these is to jot down my jumbled thoughts before I lose them. You’ll have to excuse any errors.

Before I go on, however, I need to put my usual disclaimer here. If you received my Capitol, China, or Singapore FYIs you have already heard this. If you’re new my travel logs, I hope you enjoy them and don’t get overwhelmed. I don’t always have internet access or time to write, so I tend to send these in one-week bursts that make for very long e-mails. Amazing sights are always a good reason to go somewhere, but a lot of the reason I enjoy traveling so much is the experience – the people, the culture, and the quirks. A lot of times these things strike me as odd, humorous, or just as something I had never thought about before. Consequently I like to joke about what I see in another culture. This isn’t meant to laugh at their culture, but rather to enjoy the opportunity to see into a culture from the outside. When I see something that seems out of place to me that makes me smile, I’m sure they would smile for the same (but opposite) reason if they came to the U.S. and saw our version. You will also notice that my analysis of things often evolves as time goes on and I pick up more observations. This reflects another caveat, which is that I don’t claim to be an expert on any of this. I try to learn as much as I can about a people/place, but there is a limit to what I can learn as an outsider who is on the move and only sees a small fraction of each country.

That “ethnocentricity disclaimer” aside, here are some of my thoughts.