Traveling outside of the comfort zone
2012
When I tell people I’m going to China I get some rather interesting reactions. Reactions I’m not used to getting–when I went to Europe everyone was all That’s so exciting and You’ll have so much fun or I’m so jealous. I get some of that now but I have gotten more…
China? Oh. Why…would you want to go there?
My initial reaction is confusion. Well, why wouldn’t I? Is there something I’m missing? I know that people don’t agree with their politics–and neither do I. Their culture is very different than ours and maybe some people just don’t like their culture, for whatever reason. Maybe they’re scared of the language barrier-but I’m right there with them.
Yeah, sure I get that. But I don’t get why people wouldn’t want to visit it–I don’t get why people wouldn’t want to visit anywhere. Unless they had this unhealthy hatred towards Americans and everyone in the country was trained to kill us. Then I could see not wanting to go there.
Is it going to be a culture shock? Oh, I have no doubt. This will be my first time visiting Asia and it’d be an understatement if I said I was intimidated by this large country. There’s the language barrier, the language barrier and did I mention a language barrier? When I think of China that is the only thing that could have potentially held me back from traveling there. But it’s not…
Every single time I look up something on China, whether it be on Pintrest, an article I find through Twitter or grazing through my 1,000 page Lonely Planet I am struck by just how gorgeous it is, how wide spread everything is and how I MUST DO ALL THE THINGS. (I just won’t sleep, I’ve decided.) I mean, how can you not visit a country that produced PANDAS, only about the cutest animals ever to live?! (which by the way, genius work, mother nature. Create a BEAR that is so cute and cuddly you’ll want to hug it and then it’ll eat you.)
China never has been on the forefront of my travel desires yet when my friend invited me to visit him in Shanghai, I suddenly knew that this was the destination I had to go to this year. The more I learn, the more intrigued I am, the more I’m all OMG WHY WOULDN’T YOU GO TO CHINA?
Do I know much about China? No and I don’t expect to know it until I get there, and even then I will only be getting a flavor of what makes that country and culture tick. That’s the case with anywhere–you can do all sorts of research beforehand but until you actually go there, you don’t really know what you’re getting yourself into. That’s the beauty of travel and always has been for me. Every place is different and I could never imagine not being interested in traveling to a certain country.
I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone with this trip and I’m so excited about it. What trip would push you out of your comfort zone?
6 comments
Trackback e pingback
-
Anniversaries, Comfort Zones and Rhythm Deficiencies | Ashalah
[...] I’m shaking it up. I’m going to have adventures, the biggest being China. China is a huuuuge step outside ...
I am so excited for you and for this experience! I’ve never been to China (or anywhere outside of the U.S. other than Italy), but I’ve heard great things, and actually, one of my photog friends from Nashville is there right now. Her name is Alex Bee (http://www.alexbeephoto.com/), and if you needed any advice/thoughts on what to do, I’m sure she could guide you in the right direction.
We were in Beijing last Oct and it was great! Just DO NOT EVER GO during a public holiday week (1st week of April and 1st week of Oct), which we did. Seemed like the entire country went to Beijing.
The language is tricky, but doable, esp in Beijing where all the signs are in English as well. We used the App ‘Huaying’; it was great for translating into Chinese and it helped us to get the right food, for example. Show your phone with the right word in Chinese written and make some gestures
.
A country out of my comfort zone would be Saudi… Wouldn’t even be possible to travel there without a man accompanying me! And covering up. Luckily there are many other countries I’d like to visit first. And would definitely go back to China!
SO MUCH GOOD FOOD. <– honestly my initial reaction.
You will have a blast.
In China, I’ve only been to Hong Kong to visit a friend for like, a day. I was fascinated by the city (and the country). The language barrier is certainly a problem and the food is much different than the Chinese food Americans are used to. I definitely want to return to China and visit Beijing and Shanghai sometime, though I have to admit that returning to China isn’t high on my list (so many other countries that I still need to get to!).
Right now, the only place that is out of my comfort zone is Africa, but only because I have yet to meet and befriend anyone who lives over there.
I would love to go to China one day, but I never found an appeal to it. Then again, China is not out of my comfort zone. Not like I’m really Asian anyways, but I’m more familiar with that lifestyle than most non-Asians. Africa or South America would be out of my bubble.