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I attended a lecture last night called Travel as a Political Act given by Rick Steves, the popular travel author and host of PBS television's Rick Steves' Europe and public radio's Travel With Rick Steves. Rick is based locally, just north of Seattle in Edmonds, WA. His guidebooks were key in making a special anniversary and birthday trip we made to Paris in 2004 delightful, memorable and carefree. My husband had been to England and Honduras, but I had never traveled outside of North America.
It was after that trip that I developed a habit of checking a live Paris web cam everyday to get a sense of the weather and a glimpse of the beautiful City of Light I had fallen head over heals for. I abandoned that practice when I discovered by chance Eric Tenin's Paris Daily Photo blog in 2005. Through Eric's beautiful daily photos and his journalist's knack of presenting interesting and informative commentary, I grew to understand more and more about Paris in particular and France and the French in general. It was his influence and the encouragement of others following his lead that got me photoblogging about Seattle in 2006. That has led me to discover first hand my own city's history, culture, people, and places through the lens of a camera and share it with others. I continue to visit others' City Daily Photo blogs from every continent except Antarctica. The number of current CDPBlogs has grown from that first handful of cities to over 450. I have made many friends among them and become better informed and aware of the heritage, culture and day to day happenings in cities around the globe. Our thoughtful discussions and the multitude of helpful perspectives have shaped my understanding of the world and informed my own citizenship. This has led me to be more curious about international news, and has resulted in my regularly listening to several countries' and regions' daily news programs. This proves to be a helpful mirror of how my own country is perceived and the effects it has upon the rest of the world. So, even though I'm mostly an armchair traveler through my friend's' blogs at present :-), Rick's insights on how foreign travel and interacting with people from other cultures shapes us politically certainly resonated with my experiences with you all. If you'd like to check out his new book on the subject, his recent visit to Iran, or any of his travel materials and programs, click here.
It was after that trip that I developed a habit of checking a live Paris web cam everyday to get a sense of the weather and a glimpse of the beautiful City of Light I had fallen head over heals for. I abandoned that practice when I discovered by chance Eric Tenin's Paris Daily Photo blog in 2005. Through Eric's beautiful daily photos and his journalist's knack of presenting interesting and informative commentary, I grew to understand more and more about Paris in particular and France and the French in general. It was his influence and the encouragement of others following his lead that got me photoblogging about Seattle in 2006. That has led me to discover first hand my own city's history, culture, people, and places through the lens of a camera and share it with others. I continue to visit others' City Daily Photo blogs from every continent except Antarctica. The number of current CDPBlogs has grown from that first handful of cities to over 450. I have made many friends among them and become better informed and aware of the heritage, culture and day to day happenings in cities around the globe. Our thoughtful discussions and the multitude of helpful perspectives have shaped my understanding of the world and informed my own citizenship. This has led me to be more curious about international news, and has resulted in my regularly listening to several countries' and regions' daily news programs. This proves to be a helpful mirror of how my own country is perceived and the effects it has upon the rest of the world. So, even though I'm mostly an armchair traveler through my friend's' blogs at present :-), Rick's insights on how foreign travel and interacting with people from other cultures shapes us politically certainly resonated with my experiences with you all. If you'd like to check out his new book on the subject, his recent visit to Iran, or any of his travel materials and programs, click here.
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