The untold want, by life and land ne'er granted, Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.... - Walt Whitman
(The picture at the top of every page was taken at Oxford during my trip to the UK in 2009.)
I was a year old the first time I traveled internationally. My father was in the Air Force, and he got a station assignment in Misawa, Japan.
He went over there first, found housing, and then my mom and I flew over. Unfortunately, I only have the fuzziest of memories of the three years we spent there.
I remember a few earthquakes.
I remember visiting my mom in the hospital after my sister was born. Mom wore a white- and yellow-checkered long quilted robe. I've got a picture of me holding my three-day-old sister - we're sitting in a mamasan wicker chair (it looks like a giant bowl with a big round cushion in it - I still have this chair).
I remember flying in a stripped-down plane (military, I assume) coming back to the States. There was a big bag of potato chips in the seat pocket in front of me.
There are pictures of me in a fake fur-lined coat with white neck scarf and sunglasses at an ice festival, about to go down a giant slide made of ice. (I need to scan some of these in sometime, I think).
I called all the Japanese people "domos" because they'd bow and say "domo," which means "thank you."
My mouth still waters at the thought of my mom's boneless fried chicken and rice. She also makes really good potatoes O'Brien. And popovers that rise like nobody's business.
We hauled back a great deal of Japanese furniture and art and knick knacks when we came back to the States. I have the saki set, some nice chopsticks, and porcelain figurines of an old man and an old woman, which I think are good luck symbols and often found in Japanese households.
Since then, I've been all over the US, mainly for work, although I spent a few years in Texas for college. I like Texas. It's big, and windy, and flat. Nice people. Good food. Love the Southern bohemian vibe in Austin. Love the architecture in San Antonio. Loved driving slowly through a herd of cattle in Fort Worth after taking a wrong turn into some sort of market area. My roommate and I almost made it to the Oklahoma border once - we meant (or "were fixin'" as my roommate would say) to go to an art show in some nearby city or other and missed an exit somewhere.
I've traveled internationally more in the last few years - Australia, the UK, France. I'm steadily adding to the list. And I would like to see more of the US on a leisurely basis, rather than an in-and-out-of-the-city-on-business whirlwind.
home from Paris more
Versailles more
Louvre more
Pere Lachaise Cemetery more
Marais District and Jewish Quarter more
Montmartre more
Ile de la Cite more
arriving in Paris more
King's Library and the Clocks and Watches Rooms more
British Library and British Museum more
Windsor and Eton more
St Paul's Cathedral and Oxford more
Cabinet War Rooms, National Gallery, Picadilly Circus more
Thames, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey more
arriving in London, Belgravia, Chelsea more
