Blog 2- Why do we Travel?

          I travel to see the way other people live and how their societies differ from ours. It is a good experience to be exposed to different ways of life and do not forget, it is also extremely fun to travel. I agree with Iyer on the fact that we travel to carry our values and beliefs to the places we may go. I believe that where ever we go, we are not only learning the culture of others, but extending our culture to them. I also believe that we travel to see things that not many hear about in the news or on the internet often. This goes along with Iyer's essay because he talks about how traveling shows us sights and values and issues that we commonly ignore. One of the main reasons I travel though, is to have fun and enjoy myself with whoever I may be with.
          Iyer's quote "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new places, but in seeing with new eyes", means that when we experience these new sights in front of us, we view them with an open mind, and are not judgmental towards the ways of others. This can relate to me because in this class, I am learning a lot of new things about Australia/NZ, and I am being given information that alters my opinion, thus creating me to see everything I see with new eyes.
          In the essay, Iyer stated, "What gives value to travel is fear". This quote can be viewed in many ways, but when I read it, I think that travel may instill fear in people, but they learn to overcome this fear and overcome themselves, which gives travel a great value, because travel ultimately can teach you a lesson. This relates to our journey because some people may be scared to be halfway across the world for 12 days, but will realize that it is not all that bad, because we will all have bonded by then and everything we see will be amazing.
          In response to a traveler being a "carrier pigeon", I don't believe that a person has the responsibility to share their knowledge, but rather that it happens naturally without the traveler necessarily knowing. When people travel, they are exposed to many people and engage with many people and share their knowledge automatically, a "carrier pigeon" without trying to be one.
          "And we travel to fill in the gaps left by tomorrow's headlines". When i read this quote, it struck me as one of my favorite quotes of the essay because of the fact it is so true. There are so many things that we see everyday on the news that we only hear a little bit about, and never the rest. By traveling, we can go to these places and experience these things in full depth and get a true understanding of what goes on.

Airplane

Australia, where we are traveling

Blog 1-The Beginning of a Great Trip

          My name is Jack Y and I am a sophomore at GCHS. All of my life I have always wanted to go to UW- Madison and I love to watch the badgers play football and basketball. I used to play baseball and tried football but that didn't really work out. Intramural basketball is where my heart is set. I have traveled to Ireland and many places around our country and enjoyed every single one of those trips. 

          I signed up for this trip first of all because when someone hears that they have a possibility to travel to Australia, it sounds like the coolest thing in the world. Going to Australia/New Zealand is not something that everyone does in their life time. It is a good opportunity for myself and everyone else on the trip to experience a culture that not many people hear about. I will also have the opportunity to meet many new people and also spend time with some of my close friends.

          One of the main things I would like to learn from this trip is how others live half way across the world and how the Australian/NZ society differs from ours. I also want to experience what is like to be so far away from home for such a long time to prepare me for any situations later in life where I may be away from home for a long time. I want to be exposed to the type of foods they eat and basically everything that the people do in Australia/NZ that is different from what I do in my every day life.

          Something that really interests me about Australia/NZ is the wildlife all around the country and different types of animals they have both on the land and in the water. One of the experiences I will have with the wildlife is going to the Great Barrier Reef which I am very excited for. Besides that, I don't have much knowledge about the two countries so I plan on going into the trip with an open mind and I will be ready to explore many new things in these countries.

          The fact that we learn about these countries before we travel to it helps us have a better understanding of what we see when we are there so we are not left clueless while traveling to many different places. It is also good to learn about things such as food and maybe the way they talk so we do not have a judgemental attitude towards the people of Australia/New Zealand. It will be good to know everything about these countries because I will have a good attitude and will not be completely lost as I said earlier.

Kangaroo, one of the many animals I hope to see in Australia

Sydney Opera House