A Grasshopper's Thought

Remember my blog post "Sites Filmed in Movies and TV Shows"? In the post I talked about how liking a movie or a TV show could inspire you to visit the place where it's filmed. I found a blog post with similar idea on "Globalgrasshopper". It's called "10 Movies that'll Make You Want to Visit London".

I was attracted by this name "Globalgrasshopper"; I knew that it's not like any other travel blogs. Globalgrasshopper is run by a couple from the UK, Gray and Becky. Both Gray and Becky are obsessed with traveling and tracing their footprints with photography. Gray is a professional web and graphic designer, and also a travel photographer. And Becky enjoys writing, which made them a perfect team to run this blog. Besides them, there are other world travelers and explorers from around the world who write for Globalgrasshoppers. Such as this post, "10 Movies that'll Make You Want to Visit London", is written by Priscilla Blossom, a US travel writer.

In the post she introduced 10 old and new movies that are filmed in London. Most of them are quite well known in the world such as Mary Poppins, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Skyfall. My personal favorite of these reconmendations is Notting Hill. Regardless of the love story between an actress and a bookstore keeper, the town gives people a feeling of home, thus I want to visit there indeed. The good news is that she had included the real name of the town and also recommended a hotel to stay in. Besides that, she suggested the near-by sites that people can visit without going out of their way. Other movie locations were also introduced like this one.

I'm glad to find someone who also have a feeling about the connection between movies and traveling. Hopefully I can go on a journey like this one day! 

3 Easy Ways to Experience a Different Culture

Cultures have always fascinated me. One of the main reasons to travel is to experience different cultures. My dream is to become a world traveler and document my journey with photos. I will collect those photos in an album and name it “Around the World Journal”. Maybe even publish it someday… Dreams aside, here are 3 easy ways that you can use to get your culture experience. 

1. Try their food.

Choose a culture or country that you want to know about and find out what kind of cuisine they eat. You can go to a restaurant and enjoy the cultural ambiance, or if you know a friend from that country, you can ask him/her to cook for you. This way you will be able to see the process of preparing the food. I have tried both methods to learn Indian culture. My Indian friends have taken me to an authentic Indian restaurant and they said that it was exactly like restaurants in India. It’s amazing how much you can learn about them from their food!

2. Listen to their music.

You can go with either traditional or modern music, it depends on your interest. Every country has its own music style influenced by culture. So you should definitely listen to some music if you want to learn about their culture.

3. Watch their movies.

Movies are reflections of real life. In my French Language and Culture class, my professor shows French movies every class. She shows only about 10 minutes of the movie but we can always observe so much about French culture.
 

I have one more suggestion but I didn't list it into the “3 easy ways” because it might not be that easy for some people. It is trying on their traditional clothes. Seeing what their clothes are like and actually trying them on is absolutely a wonderful experience. I was lucky to have an opportunity to try on an Indian wedding dress last year and I finally understood why my Indian friends stress so much about their 7-day wedding.

Hope these easy methods can help you learn more about the culture that you are interested in! Have a great Spring break.