June 20, 2006
I really enjoy traveling. Sometimes I get cranky or tired, and I often get hungry when we're walking past dozens of places to eat because David's just sure there's a better one up the road. Sometimes I'm scared of the unknown and wish the language, culture, people--whatever--were just a little more comprehensible, but overall I love the exploring aspect of travel. Meeting new people, seeing how they live, hearing about very similar and wildly different ways of things. Traveling, too, has a way of reducing life to it's most basic, which can be oddly invigorating. Worrying about finding food and shelter and interacting with strangers in a way that will prove helpful, makes me so much more aware of everything. I worry about things I don't at home, too: finding the nearest bathroom, trying to decipher a menu enough so that I don't order fish, which I detest, wondering whether the bus I'm on is actually going where I want, and even if it is, how I will recognize the stop. It's all a lot of fun, even if it's stressful.
Even more than traveling, though, I love reading. It has the same exploratory aspect for me, without the physical discomfort. The mental discomfort from reading a really well written book can be as great as that from traveling, though you can always take a break and return to the safe and known world of the everyday. And reading while traveling can be especially rewarding. The intersection of two new worlds can be really exciting. I've read some great books while traveling and hope to read several more on many other trips.
But there are some new worlds that probably shouldn't intersect. Some worlds are better explored from the physical comfort of home, because they're so mentally taxing. *Blindness*, by Jose Saramago, is one of those. It's an excellent world to explore, but since it's concerned with the breakdown of modern society and what happens when people are reduced to a life without an infrastructure they're used to, rather like traveling, reading *Blindness* on a train from Dalian to Shenyang is not the best idea. So read it, and explore other worlds through travel, but don't do the two together.
-Leah
