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A lot of people ask me if I am done traveling.  I am pretty much done with my trip throughout the world, but I will never stop traveling.  Even before my trip, I traveled a lot and I will continue to travel as long as I am willing and able.  I have heard about or discovered places that I would love to see and experience some time in the future.  The more I traveled, the more places I realized there were to experience and see, the more time I wish I’d had to spend in all kinds of countries and the more interesting ways I learned about how people were traveling.  Within the United States alone, there are many places I’ve never been, but will go to one day. 

There are 2 other questions which people ask me all the time.  1. What is the favorite place you’ve been to?  2. Did you ever feel in danger or an unsafe situation?  I cannot honestly say I have a favorite place.  I can tell you what is more expensive, which places have the best weather, where people speak English, where people are nice and some of the first places I’d go back to.  However I haven’t pinpointed my favorite place.  I might have to just say it’s home here in the United States.  My appreciation for the U.S. has grown in magnitudes throughout the past year.  In my opinion, it really is the best country in the world.  At the same time, it is the place which answers the 2nd question: The most unsafe I have ever felt would probably be in some of the neighborhoods I’ve been through in Atlanta, GA.  There are also places in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland where I have felt more insecure than anywhere else I’ve been to in the world.  This obviously has to be because I have spent more time, feel more comfortable and can understand these places much more easily, so I take greater risks.  You have to look at the world in the same context you look at the places you live and frequent.  Most of the time, you try and avoid danger which means you avoid the unsafe places.  Countries get bad reputations, but this is usually due to isolated incidents or certain neighborhoods/areas which a smart traveler would never find themselves in.  Random crime happens everywhere.  You could have a friend with a crazy story about how he was robbed abroad, or I could tell you how my brother has had his car broken into multiple times in San Francisco.  The world in general can be dangerous; even just driving down the road you are playing a statistical end-game, which actually puts you at a higher risk of dying than all kinds of activities including terrorism, skydiving and flying.  One thing, however, I often forget to mention because I think I became so accustomed to it, are the “hawkers,” “touts,” “sellers” whatever you might call them, which exist in mostly poor and third world countries.  Most of these people are not dangerous, but just want to make some money off of you.  They ask you to buy whatever the hell they are selling because they need money and to eat just like you do.  I can see how they come across to people who first encounter them, and remember having to learn a saying in Chinese, meaning “Don’t want” to ward them off in Shanghai, but it’s part of life and makes things interesting.  In fact, sometimes I have found these people a great convenience to get a drink or something to eat and you can always negotiate with them.

I do like big cities though, where you don’t really need a car and everything is within blocks of your home.  In my order from where I’ve been and what I like, these are: 1. New York City, 2. Shanghai, 3. Hong Kong, 4. Chicago, 5. Paris, 6. London, 7. Berlin, 8. Buenos Aires, 9. Rio de Janeiro, 10. Istanbul.

So over the past month or so, I’ve had a pretty enjoyable time back home in the U.S.  I spent the holidays with my family in Florida, and then New Years with friends in Key West.  Man, that is a crazy place which I hadn’t been to in a long time.  I’ve been fishing somewhat with my dad and I’m learning to scuba dive.  Currently I am on a trip to California to visit my brother and go skiing with friends.  I’m also working on employment, but wont say anything until I know what I’m going to do for sure.  I’ll probably keep updating my blog, pictures, etc., but maybe not as often as I have done in the past.  I am really looking forward to some trips this year, including one to South Africa, where I plan to attend the World Cup and cage dive amongst great white sharks.

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