I've had the good fortune to be able to travel quite a bit in both my professional and personal life. And I really have to echo everything the author says. But three points in particular:
"The media lies" is something everyone should take to heart. It's an astonishing thing to be in a place where the #1 story of the day is happening and not see anything even remotely representing the reporting on it at ground level.
Also, as an American, I can vouch for "people don't hate Americans". Individual people may be rude, or behave poorly, but they're likely rude and poorly behaved to everybody. It's amazing how that one simple act of understanding can completely change the lens you view the world with. There's an old American adage that the French (Parisians) are rude to Americans. Not so! Parisians are rude to everybody, it's just like New York! If you understand that, and get into the vibe, places with rough social interactions like Paris or New York actually become very navigable and pleasant.
And finally "Everyone should travel". I can't express this enough. There's absolutely no substitute for actually spending time in a place. Reading about the Urals is one thing, eating dill laced food from local farms everyday is another. Talking about how South Korea is modern but different than the West's version of modern is one thing, taking the Seoul Subway to a Korean bar and meeting up with a dozen friends for a night of laughter, drinking, eating and otherwise having a good time is simply a different kind of experience than doing the same in the states. All the broad brush strokes are the same, but the particulars...the texture of the event...are all different.
'"The media lies" is something everyone should take to heart. It's an astonishing thing to be in a place where the #1 story of the day is happening and not see anything even remotely representing the reporting on it at ground level.'
For what it's worth, that's not unique to international news. Anyone who has been involved with a national scale story can tell you about the disconnect between what the news reports and the truth. My involvement was being home-from-school during a school shooting, and the news reports were seriously doing well to simply spell the names of those involved correctly. Most everything else just came from a pre-canned "disaster in small town" template without any sort of checking for truth or anything.
This was 1993, too. The media hasn't been worth the paper it's written on for a while now, the Internet just let us collectively discover the rot.
Parisians are rude in the spring and summer, when Paris is overrun by tourists. I can't say I blame them, I found the tourist situation in July insufferable. In the fall I've found Parisians as nice as anyone else in a huge city. I've never found New Yorkers particularly rude, especially nowadays.
I'll second that, as a New Yorker who works in midtown I see tourists all the time. Mostly people ignore them, often we give directions or advice (like don't stop in the middle of the sidewalk, don't leave your purse on the subway seat, this train doesn't go west 4th).
Most visitors aren't used to having so many people around them. Just be mindful of your surroundings. Probably good advice for any city.
"The media lies" is something everyone should take to heart. It's an astonishing thing to be in a place where the #1 story of the day is happening and not see anything even remotely representing the reporting on it at ground level.
Also, as an American, I can vouch for "people don't hate Americans". Individual people may be rude, or behave poorly, but they're likely rude and poorly behaved to everybody. It's amazing how that one simple act of understanding can completely change the lens you view the world with. There's an old American adage that the French (Parisians) are rude to Americans. Not so! Parisians are rude to everybody, it's just like New York! If you understand that, and get into the vibe, places with rough social interactions like Paris or New York actually become very navigable and pleasant.
And finally "Everyone should travel". I can't express this enough. There's absolutely no substitute for actually spending time in a place. Reading about the Urals is one thing, eating dill laced food from local farms everyday is another. Talking about how South Korea is modern but different than the West's version of modern is one thing, taking the Seoul Subway to a Korean bar and meeting up with a dozen friends for a night of laughter, drinking, eating and otherwise having a good time is simply a different kind of experience than doing the same in the states. All the broad brush strokes are the same, but the particulars...the texture of the event...are all different.