Gary Arndt, Author of Everything-Everywhere.com
August 23, 2010
On March 13, 2007, I handed over the keys to my house, put my possessions in storage and headed out to travel around the world with nothing but a backpack, my laptop and a camera.
Three and a half years and 70 countries later, I've gotten the equivalent of a Ph.D in general knowledge about the people and places of Planet Earth.
Here are some of the things I've learned:
1) People are generally good
2) The media lies
3) The world is boring
4) People don't hate Americans
5) Americans aren't as ignorant as you might think
6) Americans don't travel
7) The rest of the world isn't full of germs
8 ) You don't need a lot stuff
9) Traveling doesn't have to be expensive
10) Culture matters
12) Everyone is proud of where they are from
13) America and Canada share a common culture
14) Most people have a deep desire to travel around the world
15) You can find the internet almost everywhere
16) In developing countries, government is usually the problem
17) English is becoming universal
18) Modernization is not Westernization
19) We view other nations by a different set of criteria than we view ourselves
20) Everyone should travel
Full article here to see elaborations for each of the twenty entries
