Moody Monday: How Travel Changes A Person

Travel brings unique problem solving, figuring out which train to take, getting to the station on time, and taxis. We have arrived in Edinburgh, our first time in Scotland. A pretty, if somewhat cramped train ride from London. We saw lots of sheep and flowing fields. We had a first for me, a proper British Roast Sunday Dinner, in a Pub on the Royal Mile. It was special, because it was the first, not because it was the best.  It was an experience that has evaded me for a couple of decades of trying.  

We live in a bubble of normality, what is around us becomes what is right. We expect things to work the way they do at home, to smell the same, to taste the same, for words to have familiar meanings.  It is what is normal for us, it is our world. 

I have lived in five US states, and there are differences from region to region, most of them subtle, some surprising. I rapidly adjust, and the new surroundings, become the new normal. 

Travel - especially travel outside of our home country or continent, really exposes us to differences.  Over the past 40 years I have spent enough time in the United Kingdom, that the differences in British English and American English no longer bother me. Exploring unfamiliar foods, has become an important part of the adventure, and not a disappointment of finding what I think will be familiar is actually different.  I like to see how people live, the pace of life. Shops that close for two hours for lunch, and stay open a little later in the evening, give a different balance to work and life. Offices that serve a high quality lunch to all who work there, not for a fee, but as part of what the business does. Maybe these are ideas that would improve the quality of life at home. 

Even the experience of being the person who does not speak the language changes us.  The feeling of relief when we find someone who genuinely tries to help when the language or even the money does not make sense.  That kindness changes us as a person. 

So where am I at this Moody Monday. If all has gone to plan, Scotland, expanding my cultural understanding. I hope I return home with an idea that makes my life just a little bit better.