You should write a blog!

“You should write a blog,” Jean casually said at a brunch to celebrate my move from a suburb of New York to a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was not the first time someone had said this to me, nor the first time I thought about it myself.

I considered writing a Travel Blog for a while. I have always loved to travel and explore new places. And almost as much as the experience itself, I love to do the research in anticipation of a trip. I cull books, magazines, and the internet like I am doing an FBI background check on the place to search out the offbeat as well as the must-sees, the
must-experience and the must-eats. I try to discover what the locals do that the tourists never get to see to balance the travel book suggestions. I prefer to explore on my own and blend into the crowd and only take a tour if absolutely necessary for safety or accessibility reasons. Even when I am not researching an upcoming trip I keep lists and files of restaurants and sights I come across in magazines or by recommendation for places that I frequently visit or hope to visit someday.

  

My sister always encouraged me to write a Culture Blog. Like travel, I love the visual and performing arts. No, not like a normal person does. More like a stalker. And New York provides an endless supply of things to see and do to satisfy my obsession.

I would scour the Sunday NY Times, the Village Voice, and later Time Out NY to see what was happening in the world of art, dance, music, film and theater.  I never missed a blockbuster art exhibition or an obscure but interesting little gallery show. I love film – independent, silent, foreign, animated - whatever. I love dance - ballet, modern, jazz, tap, flamenco. (At one point, my husband and I subscribed to the NY City Ballet, the American Ballet, the Joyce Theater and the Brooklyn Academy of Music all at the same time.) Saw at least one Broadway, Off Broadway, or Off Off Broadway show a month. Concerts, jazz clubs, opera, performance art, … Never missed an  event, a parade, a film festival, peak bloom at a botanical garden, the opening of an envelope, ….

But writing a blog about travel or cultural events did not interest me.  I’d rather just do it. Could not see what was in it for me.

However writing about the experience of divesting one’s life in the United States and creating a new one in South Africa? Now that does interest me. With this one I could answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” For one thing it could help me to process the experience in my own head and maybe provide some cathartic and therapeutic value. And more importantly, I got nothing but time once the move is complete, so it will give me something to do.

Thanks, Jean!