China

It's been said that to truly know your own country, you must leave it for a while to get perspective.  We are heading for China, Vietnam and Cambodia in two weeks and will have an opportunity to test this saying.  I'm exhilarated, thrilled and just a wee bit terrified!  I have only been in a "big" city once (Chicago) and that was for four days.  I spent nearly all my waking hours in art galleries and just can't say that I became familiar with the American culture.  For nearly six weeks, we will be in several genuinely big cities.  We will be absorbing sounds, smells, sights and customs that are completely new to us, and yet old as Methuselah to the citizens of those countries.
So, during this trip I'm hoping to make time each day to record, through sketching and journaling, some of the effects all that stimulation will have on this old soul.   Our budget is small, and we will be traveling with friends who speak the language and know the culture and customs AND have the wherewithal to keep us out of the tourist traps set for the foreign devils!  I'm reciting to myself some basic rules of etiquette as laid out in various books aimed at people like us - don't point your chopsticks and don't stab food with them, don't pat children on the head  (it's a sacred part of their bodies), don't point the soles of your feet at anyone (rough on me because I'm short and always wiggling around in a chair, looking for a comfortable way to sit), don't make constant eye contact (also rough on me, having spent 16 years learning to make eye contact because we live in a small town now) and a few others which I'm sure I will be forgiven for if I commit.