the world and I

inspired by Robin, I tried the "world" version. This makes me look a heck of a lot worldlier than I actually am. I visited Montreal, once, for perhaps two days. Yet checking the "Canada" box gave me the entire landmass of Canada! China and the United Kingdom are equally deceptive; I have visited tiny corners of those huge honkin' pieces of land. But more astonishing is all the places I haven't been. All of Africa, all of South and Central America, not to say Australia and Central Asia -- completely untouched. It's a depressing prospect for someone who, as a child, dreamed of seeing the world.

In New York, it's a cliche, but the world comes to you. Just walking the dog, I can hear workmen speaking Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, or can stop to order takeout from Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Middle Eastern, Italian, Peruvian and French restaurants. A short subway ride in several directions can take me to locales where no one on the street is speaking English.

That's very fortunate, because I have no money, no vacation time, and a dog too psychologically fragile to be left in the kennel. I don't think I will be going anywhere for a while. New York will have to do. Forunately, it does.



create your own visited countries map

But then I have also hardly seen anything of this great nation of ours.



create your own visited states map