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