Geographical Dreams

I have barely traveled.  And I don’t really have the means to do more adventuring at this point (money, time off work, travel partners, the courage to put my life on hold and explore and experience and fulfill my dreams).  But I can continue to do that dreaming… and sighing… and imagine…

North America

• Alaska; specifically, I’d like to drive there
• Yukon; my interest has been piqued (or pikaed) by Miss Sarah
• Northern Saskatchewan; to canoe through those lakes
• the East Coast; PEI (perhaps to hike across it), but I hear it’s generally a good time out there
• St. Pierre & Miquelon – It’s FRANCE, yo!  Thisclose to Canada!
• Oregon Coast and Portland, though I’ve been warned that  I may not ever leave
• San Franscico; skinny houses and colour!
• New York… particularly the Storm King Art Centre, The Bronx Zoo and The Village

Central & South America

• Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Belize, Costa Rica… warm places that aren’t too overrun with whiteys like me
• The Galapagos Islands; are you kidding me?
• Brazil; mostly Brasilia (it was built in 41 months!) and the other after-effects of grade 8 social studies
• the Falkland Islands… why not?
• the tip of South America; mostly just to stand there… at the tip of South America

Africa

• yeah, I’ve only got South Africa on here… to be honest, Africa scares the crap out of me

Europe

• Iceland – Fire and Ice, people!
• United Kingdom – I can speak the language, there’s ridiculous history, gorgeous scenery and accents that make me melt. Ireland, Wales, England, Scotland, I’ll take it all!
• the South of France; mostly because of Katy and Rich and Jude, but also for architecture, foliage, sun and romance (in the general sense)
• Italy; art, history, food; to submerge my hands in the soil
• Crete; heck, I’ll take any island in the middle of the Mediterranean. Sun, sea, whitewashed houses… sun, sea… sun…
• Austria: architecture and fairytales
• Ukraine: to gain a sense of ancestral history
• Russia… it just seems so foreign and unreal…
• Sweden; Sarah has influenced me… but I’ll only go with her… actually, I’ll go almost anywhere with her… easygoing and multilingual

The East

• India; food, colours, and the completely surreal
• Northern Japan; scenic Japan without the Tokyo craziness
• South Korea… yeah, this is another “why not?”; also, my last two cars were built here
• the Philippines; I know some lovely Filipino’s… they say I’d love it, and I believe them. Jungle!
• Indonesia; I hear rumours of beauty and cheap living… but then I did some research and phrases like “inter-religious tension” make me nervous…

The Pacific of Tomorrow

• Fiji – sounds cool, and that’s where Oliver Queen became Green Arrow… obviously, who wouldn’t want to go here?
• New Zealand; I have heard nothing but amazing things. Plus: Hobbits and Elves live here!

The Pacific of Today

• Hawaii… sigh. The plan was to cruise here this year, but some plan changes had to be made… I still want to go. Badly. Really badly. So badly. Badly.
• Samoa and French Polynesia… yeah, a couple more warm places that just make me go “why not?”

Jennifer

An evening of showing my fears the door

I spent my entire evening practicing conversational geography. I would like to offer some reason why conversational geography is not a cop-out, but first some definition(s):

1. Conversational geography: The negotiation of place, both specific and vague, through casual chit-chat.

Specific conversational geography is easy: all participants share knowledge of the location, and discuss. Vague conversational geography is a bit of a dance: one participant knows more about a location than another. The knowledgeable participant might be insulted, incredulous, or long-suffering. The naive participant must choose whether or not to pretend more knowledge that s/he possesses in fact.

This evening I went to a party hosted by a Swedish girl. I would like to submit that already my challenge is not a cop-out, since going to a party alone and going to a new place alone (at night by bike!) are two of my fears. Not only that: being in the presence of cool Swedish girls has intimidated me ever since one particular moment on a street in Vetlanda, Sweden when I realized that I looked incredibly shabby by comparison with the locals.

There were Swedes, Chinese, Koreans, a Russian, a German, and one other Canadian at this party. I mostly talked to the Swedes, the German, and the Canadian.

When it comes to Canada and Sweden I have a pretty good handle on geography. Specific conversational geography (SGC) abounds! The girl from Ontario and I quite easily fell into a discussion of Canadian politics (Alberta: Harper: Shared shame). The Swedes and I placed ourselves around the map of Sweden and discussed dialects and travel. It was fun. I had to think a bit about some of the places that we talked about, but I still call it SCG

The German knew about as much about Canadian cities as I know about German cities. He told me where he is from in the standard format of vague conversational geography (VCG): (i) country; (ii) area, e.g. north/south/east/west; (iii) larger city nearby; (iv) actual town name; (v) reason I might possibly have heard of it. I responded that I didn’t hear of it, and asked if it was near a city that I did know (it is on the other side of the country). We then went through the same process regarding Canada. We happily continued our conversation with a somewhat muddled idea of place, but good enough to draw on later.

I think that both forms of conversational geography are crucial. I like to know where someone is from and what language they speak before I go on to any other conversation. These, for me, are two vital anchors in my own sense of identity.. so.. there’s that. I also sometimes like pretending that I know where someone is from only to get caught. I will admit to that.

Sara

Welcome to The List II

6 women (see “Participants”)

3 continents (see the locations in “Participants”)

27 challenges (see “Items of The List II”)

1.5 months (December 1, 2009 – January 15, 2010)

many reasons (see “What Is The List II?”)

1 blog (bravo! you’ve found it!)

hopefully regular updates and reflections on how we’re all faring with this undertaking…