If not now…

I’ve written about this before, but it bears repetition and elaboration.

I love to travel. It’s funny, because as I look back through all of my travels, there aren’t exactly a ton. To the east, I’ve gone as far as Ireland, and to the west I’ve made it to Wyoming. There’s the Caribbean to the south, which was a while ago, and…well Ireland is my northernmost trip, too. So I’ve been places, and I’ve enjoyed it. But now I’m in the mood to go somewhere and stay there, for a while at least, this no doubt stemming from my presence in Wausau right now. But I want to live somewhere exotic and different and experience new things and be forced to step outside my little box.

I know before I said my big goal was a year in China, but I am also very tempted by Japan. They’re both distant…and in Asia. I don’t know where this particular interest in Asia comes from. They do have very cool gadgets and technology, and it would put me outside the English/American/European sphere of “Of course someone around here speaks English” safety net that is…well, a lot of places.

Between the two, China seems like it would be much more of an adventure, maybe because of the culture, or maybe because of the, er, Communism. Japan is an island, which I like because something comes from living there–which is why the UK and Ireland have always intrigued me, too–but their language is completely foreign to me, which is thankfully fixable due to the wonders of the internet. China has big cities, which I like, but Japan still seems more metropolitan. And Japan has the Bullet Train. China has the Great Wall.

I could go on and give you the illusion that I can’t decide, but right now I’m mostly interest in Japan. However, my ‘mostly interested in’ is always changing. Maybe next week I’ll want to live in Jordan. Oh wait, I already tried that one. Never mind.

Half-way around the world, sort of.

As quiet as my love for comics is, my love for China is, to most people, nothing more than a whisper.  While at Lakeland, I took a semester of Chinese and afterwards decided that one day, somehow, I would end up in China.  It just seems so far, so remote, and so different.  I want to be thrown into something unexpected and totally beyond my understanding with the hopes that eventually I will understand it.  I wish I remembered more Chinese, as knowing Chinese is rather pivotal to the whole Chinese experience thing, but that’s what books are for.  One of my favorite books right now is called Shenzhen, which is a graphic novel/travelogue by an artist who spent time in China, and then recorded it all in comic book style.  It’s amazing, and if I could do that sort of thing the rest of my life, I would be there in a flash.  But again, I can’t draw.  One tiny dream of mine is to perhaps go to China for a year or two after I graduate to teach English.  There are a lot of programs available (for a lot of countries around the world), it’s just a matter of finding something perfect.

Those looking for an interesting perspective on China and foreign cultures in general will appreciate Sexy Beijing, a series of videos on Youtube.  They’re human-interest style pieces, but quite funny, the introduction being a parody on Sex and the City.  Even if you don’t care a bit about China, check out the video.