Forward thinking

If I could write the forward to my friend's book, it would go something like this...


Traveling is something that I aspire to do when I’m older and have no need for a 9 to 5 job. To experience a new land, its tastes, smells, people, culture, terrain is a lesson that can’t be taught in a classroom.

I have had the privilege to travel a few times and I’m always amazed at the questions people ask about the places I’ve visited. Did you go here? Did you go there? Did you take in the beaches? Did you do a lot of shopping? But there’s so much more to traveling. There’s the culture shock, change in time, the change in foods, the change in language. You soon realize that the natives don’t need to learn English. You need to learn their language. These kinds of stories can be just as colorful and sometimes more interesting than the view at the popular tourist traps that you inevitably end up visiting.

It is that experience, the everyday getting around town that fascinates me. I want to know about buying a loaf of bread, getting a taxi, the lodging, day-to-day activities that make or break a trip. I am so fortunate to have a friend who is ultra observant and who has the ability to see things in the most ordinary situations that others don’t see. She also has the inability to go without getting on the computer for more than a day at a time. So when she goes away, she sends me email updates telling me about her observations. That’s what this book is; her observations in email form. This book is divided into four sections, each corresponding to a different trip that she took in 2004.

Now, let’s get one thing straight right in the beginning. She didn’t give me permission to compile this book. In fact, when I told her that I wanted to put all her emails in a book form, she told me not to do it. But I love reading these stories because they make me feel like I was right there with her smelling the different aromas, meeting the people, living the life of a world traveler.

Do I think she’ll be mad? Maybe she will; but only for about an hour. She can’t stay mad at me for too. But just in case she kills me, someone will have to call my job to tell them I won’t be in for a while.

Enjoy these stories. I sure did!

Julie
a.k.a. Shirley
(I don't know why her husband thinks that's my name.)