There are a few reasons that I decided to title this blog "Jaywalk the World". For one, in the first few weeks of traveling, Ethan and I were both scolded by police (first in Donghae, South Korea; then in Khabarovsk, Russia) for jay walking. At one point early on, I figured I'd try to jay walk in every country I visited just to see what the reaction would be, but soon realized that no one cares about traffic rules in most of Central, Eastern, and Southern Asia. In fact, if you aren't willing to break every rule your mom taught you about crossing the street as a child, you probably wouldn't ever cross a street in Asia.
The second reason comes from the original meaning of the word "jay", which was another name for a hick, rube or a country-bumpkin. Back in the days when the first automobiles were hitting the streets (and consequently, occasionally hitting people too), new rules for crossings streets were put in place for the sake of safety and efficient commerce. The people that didn't walk in the cross walks were referred to as jays, as the assumption was that only country-folk would be so naive, ignorant, or just plain stupid.
In the context of traveling from country to country with new cultures, social rules, languages, money systems, methods of travels, English proficiency, etc., travelers are very often jays (though many try their best). Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you all the naive, ignorant, or stupid things I do, but it does happen.
I hope in the coming months to post every week. I'm hesitant to promise it will be coherent, merely because I don't want to spent a lot of time writing out what I know I've done. For a short time I considered using twitter, but 140 characters seemed too limiting. I am thinking it might be more like multiple detailed tweets at a time using a blog format. When I shared this idea with Ethan, he replied snidely, "Oh, you mean paragraphs? Like in a blog." And I replied, "No, it's a twog."
For now, I'll let Ethan do the writing at v-w-x.blogspot.com until we part ways in the next week or so.
The second reason comes from the original meaning of the word "jay", which was another name for a hick, rube or a country-bumpkin. Back in the days when the first automobiles were hitting the streets (and consequently, occasionally hitting people too), new rules for crossings streets were put in place for the sake of safety and efficient commerce. The people that didn't walk in the cross walks were referred to as jays, as the assumption was that only country-folk would be so naive, ignorant, or just plain stupid.
In the context of traveling from country to country with new cultures, social rules, languages, money systems, methods of travels, English proficiency, etc., travelers are very often jays (though many try their best). Unfortunately, I'm not going to tell you all the naive, ignorant, or stupid things I do, but it does happen.
I hope in the coming months to post every week. I'm hesitant to promise it will be coherent, merely because I don't want to spent a lot of time writing out what I know I've done. For a short time I considered using twitter, but 140 characters seemed too limiting. I am thinking it might be more like multiple detailed tweets at a time using a blog format. When I shared this idea with Ethan, he replied snidely, "Oh, you mean paragraphs? Like in a blog." And I replied, "No, it's a twog."
For now, I'll let Ethan do the writing at v-w-x.blogspot.com until we part ways in the next week or so.
yo don't sweat it bro, my mom said she'd read your blog too.
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