Choosing a country

I played around with various ideas on how I'd choose a country each month. I wanted it to be random and I wanted it to be eclectic. In the end, I decided to use another one of my hobbies to decide the order of this one.

I participate in Postcrossing, a great site for people who like snail mail. Really, go check it out. I'll wait.

Are you back? Doesn't it sound fun? I forget how I first heard of it, but it's brought immeasurable fun (and friends!) into my life since I first joined, about 2 years ago.

Anywho, back to the divination of the countries....

So, I figured that whatever card showed up in my post box during the last week of a given month, would determine the theme country for the next one.

If in the case of this first month of July, I didn't have any cards coming my way, I'd always leave a card unsent from my allotted amount, so that I could then select a card to send through Postcrossing. Whatever country that turned out to be, would then become the chosen theme country for the upcoming month.

In the unlikely event that no card is due to arrive and I've run out of cards to send out as well...then I'd probably pick one out of a hat or something ;o)

But I think using Postcrossing will work great with this!

Stay tuned for the first chosen country :o)

P.S. Picture above is solely used as an example and does not represent the first theme country :o)

Genesis

The impetus behind this blog came to me years ago.
In fact, I can't even remember if I came up with it or if it was one of my many online dates that first suggested it. Yep, i like to keep it honest. I'm not going to claim complete and utter creativity here as there's a remote possibility that a long ago date of mine implanted this into my brain.
Then again maybe I did come up with it. 
My memory from 15 years ago isn't that grand :D

But back to what this is about...

Since the prototypical movie and dinner date wouldn't quite fly with moi or the kind of guys I used to date, I (or anonymous old date) came up with something a little bit more fun...at least for my geeky self.

Why not travel around the world without ever using your passport?
Spend a day/weekend doing something/lots of things all from the same place.

I'll give you an example.

Let's pick France as almost every large city around the world would probably have some Frenchie things :o)

Morning: Check out exhibit by Monet at (insert your local art museum)
Lunch: Grab a meal of Cassoulet at (insert your local French restaurant)
Afternoon: See a new print of "Breathless" at (insert your local art house theater)
Late afternoon: Grab a Napoleon and Cafe au lait at (insert your local bakery)

Et voila!

You've spent a day in France (sort of) without leaving your city! 

Lovely Versailles  :o)

Depending on your city, maybe you could add a visit to a Francophone library/bookshop, take a class on making madeleines, etc.

So taking this idea and running wild with it, I thought, why not do this over the span of a month, to really try to absorb a bit of the chosen country's culture?

I'm married, have a 2-year-old, 3 cats, work on various writing projects and hobbies, run an online Etsy shop, as well as all the usual family and friend obligations, so traveling often isn't really on the cards for me at the moment. But by doing this, I can attempt to immerse myself in another culture and hopefully learn some fun things along the way.

Maybe I'll learn a handicraft from Bulgaria, or make a dessert from Indonesia, read a book (or two) by a Chinese poet, and see some Papua New Guinea art. The sky, and whatever is available in my area, is the limit :o)

I hope you'll come along with me and follow my adventures as I explore the world without ever taking off.



P.S. Thanks to the wonderful Jules Verne - a tremendous influence on my childhood dreams and adventures - for the inspiration for the blog's name.

P.P.S. I live in the NYC metropolitan area, so for right now, some of the activities will be NYC-centric. But hopefully you'll be inspired to find your own local versions :o)