New Experiences From the Start
From getting the stamp in your passport, hearing and seeing a new language, tasting new foods, when you visit a new country, it is an exciting experience from the very start.
Visiting a new country affects different people in different ways. For most people, they are energized, ready to soak in anything and everything. For some people, they seem unaffected (so they think) just viewing from the sidelines (with mouth hanging open). And still for others, it can shake them to the core, so that when they return they are forever changed.
How do you react or think you would react? Of course, there’s no right or wrong answer. In fact, the truth is, you’re not affected the same by different countries. Ask me how I returned from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The “Wow” Factor
For some people, that thrill of the new experience can get downright addicting. I would consider myself one of those people. There are few things I enjoy more than the first few days of a new place, whether a city or village, within a country or a new country.
How Many to Visit?
The family and I took a 2-hour flight to Rome, Italy for Christmas 2009. If I count them up, Italy makes my 30th country visited.
By the way, it’s taken me 18 years to reach 30 countries. It’s no race, nor do I have a goal to simply visit a new country for the sake of visiting it. Each place was because I was a student, for work, for vacation or it became ‘home’.
My List (to date)
I’ve been asked a couple times where I’ve been. Again, hitting as many countries is not my goal, but getting to experience a new place is. When an opportunity comes up to go somewhere new – I take it. Here is my list by today, 29 December 2009:
United States
Canada
Finland
Russia
Ukraine
Uzbek
Estonia
England
Saudi Arabia
Bahrain
Germany
Scotland
South Korea
North Korea
China
Greece
Australia
Netherlands
India
Denmark
Czech Republic
Egypt
Sweden
Austria
Croatia
Belgium
Malaysia
France
Norway
Italy
