First journal entries!

Guys...just wanted to share with you the AWESOME journal entries I received. Thanks to all who participated! Great work!

Question: If you could travel to only one country in the world, which would it be? Why?

Evandro

It's a really difficult question! There are a lot of countries in the world that I'd like to go. But if I could go to one, no doubt, it would be for USA. I know it’s a common thing, every one ever wants to go there. It's a famous country, there is no denying. I have my personal reasons why I would like to go. I have a dream of professional achievement and the USA seems be the right place to perform it. The movies always were and always will be the most beautiful piece of art in my eyes. I admire all kinds of art, but movies are special. The large production studios, really good actors, the great movies. There are many bad movies of course, but there is a huge amount of very good movies also. The blockbusters, the visual effects, the costumes, the wonderful scenery make me want to increasingly be part of this world. My inspirations are also there, two actresses I really love, Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. The first is the lady of cinema, and the second its young promise of success. If I could choose the time to go the US, it certainly would be in February. The month of The Academy Awards.  To be in Los Angeles in February is my ambition, and not just to be there, but to be within the theater, to be a nominee, to win the statuette. Meryl has already won three Academy Awards!!!! I wait for this gala party during the whole year.

There are some reasons why I'd travel to USA, the cinema is the big one, but of course, I'd like to travel to many areas of the country. Texas is probably the state that I want to go the most. Go to NY, walk in the Sidewalk of Fame in Hollywood, see the Niagara Falls, be on Miami Beach, be in Orlando (I really want to go there), be in Hawaii, anywhere, I'd like to do it.

Anyway, I think these are the main reasons why I would choose to go traveling in the USA. I'm sure that I would not regret it!

Robinson 

If there was only one place to go in the world, I would ask to go to Canada; I would die there willingly, if it happens to be the end of the world. Looking from outside, sometimes this country reminds me of a true fairy tale land, where there seems to be no inequity nor prejudice, true colors acceptance - maybe from the rainbow -  and too much snow (love it). This is a place where I could walk free without being afraid of kidnapping, assaults, pickpockets or other terrible things. I also know that this could exist there, but once a Brazilian, always scared. A place where I could go and be recognized, where you pay taxes but you can clearly see results. Again, this place is real and has its flaws, of course, but so much less than my reality.

What about the underground city in Montreal? A dream come true. Why? I hate sunlight and blue skies full of clouds (except if the wind blows so cold, and then I’d love it). It sounds depressive, I know, but I love the night and I don’t know why. Maybe I was an owl in my other life, but I prefer streetlights, the stars (even though I wouldn’t be able to see them because I would be under the surface), cold weather and a smaller number of cars on the street.

Maybe I’m creating a perfect Canada in my mind, but this country is a state of mind to me, my safe spot as was once my mom’s lap. A place where I can go to escape from troubles and tragedies, even only in my mind, but a place that makes me think that life’s worth living, and if someday/somehow I’m still feeling that I don’t belong here, I can try to belong there, I just need to taste the sweetness of Canada. In my imagination, it’s like a candy, a juicy candy that you keep on eating and never feel satisfied. Everybody has a blind passion for Paris, mine is for Canada. Don’t want to compare them, just want to make you understand how I feel about this place. A love, a dream, a deception? I’ll never know if I never try. And I am so willing to take this risk.

Yuri

Well, I don't really know. Really, it's a big world; there are far too many countries out there. It would be difficult for me to pick just one, since I'm not the kind of guy who has a 'favorite' one. I mean, with each day comes a desire to go to a different country; by the end of the week, I'll have fallen in love with about 7 countries (hey, it's not an exact science). So how can I tell now which country I would like to travel to? I can't predict which one will be next in line for me; I can't tell if tomorrow I'll end up hating the country I love most today, and if after tomorrow I'll reconcile with it.

There are, like, dozens of countries I'd like to travel to. I'd like to go to Japan, walk on the beaches, lose myself in those colossal cities filled with light and smoke, visit all the Buddhist and Shinto temples, climb mountains and walk alone in the wilderness, and pray sometimes. I'd like to go to China, wander in the desert, climb Hua Shan, find all the places where the best chinese poets of the old times wrote their works, maybe meditate in a forsaken temple in the middle of the trees, on top of dreadful cliffs like the ones which Lao Tzu mastered. I'd like to go to Russia, drink strong vodka locked at home, filled with sentiments of misanthropy and humiliation, and let the cold wind forge something inside of me. I'd like to go to India, walk the paths that the Sakyamuni Buddha walked, eventually find some tigers and monkeys here and there, take a look at the Ganges as the sun sets. I'd like to go to Portugal, see some good sights and try to master their vocabulary. I'd like to go to Romania, find the Borgo Pass, listen to the sound of the oak trees and breathe the air that inspired legends. I could go to Greece and try to find God, or Pan, or a mountain. I'd like to go to Germany, and nest myself in the Black Forest; eat cakes and drink beer in old bavarian houses, and gaze at distant castles. It would be great to go to England, grow a beard and smoke a pipe and lay down somewhere on the fresh grass. I'd like to go to Norway, or Sweden, or Finland, and find myself a Troll, and explore mountain and rock and fjord, and get really familiar with the stones that come from deep down under the earth, and build myself a pretty little house in a village. I'd love to go to the United States, where everything is so big, where there's so much of everything and you couldn't exhaust your options in the whole country not even in two lifetimes; hitch rides aimlessly, jump from Golden Bridge, live in a forest in Oregon and cut down some trees for a living, be a desert junkie in Texas and Arizona and Nevada, and travel down the Mississippi feeling like Huck Finn, hang out in New Orleans, see the Everglades in Florida - generally, tramp around the South to feel like a good hilbilly -,maybe spend some time not sleeping in New York and find some street poets, and search for Thoreau's Walden in Massachusetts, or try to find beauty in the countryside of New York, that old red-platanus-leaves-and-big-trees-and-hills stuff.

But today, I think I would go to France. I wanna find a small town there and live quietly and intensely; maybe I could go to Poitiers - I don't know if it's small enough -, 'cause it looks like a pretty quiet city. Or Aix-en-Provence, in the south... yes, it would be good to be close to the sea. Well, I guess I could go to Le Havre or Brest, if that's the case. Shit, I don't really know.

Igor 

Well, if I could travel to only one country, I’d travel to the USA. For many reasons. 

First of all, I want to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter so bad!

Second, I dream about going to New York City! And it includes more things to talk about; like Broadway, I HAVE to watch some play on Broadway; also I want to visit the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Central Park, Times Square, and every single part of this city.

Third, I want to go to California, mainly Los Angeles (because of Hollywood, I confess, haha).

There are a lot of places in the USA I would love to visit... Actually I think I would love to visit all cities and states from this country.

I think that's why I'd choose to travel to the USA.

(And Cynthia, I'd surely visit you in Kentucky, haha!)

Pri

This question is pretty easy to answer; I don’t have any favorite place other than USA! Yes, I’ve spent all my life hearing my family say that the stork missed the target and put me in the wrong country.

I don’t know where this passion for American culture comes from, but every time I watched American movies I wanted to be there! I just like listening to music in English, and started to study English because I really wanted to learn this language. For me, English was the language of power, French of romance, and so on J

Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, ok though, but USA is huge and different in some states… Yes, and this is so amazing (somehow it’s like Brazil, we are completely different each city you visit), but if I have to do a route, first of all I would live in New York City (just because of the advertisement and everything people say about it!)…

Actually, I’m going to USA this year (so excited about that). And I chose a historical trip, starting with Washington D.C, passing by Lancaster (PA) and going to Philadelphia, also in Pennsylvania (obvious!). After two days there, I will go to Boston and then NYC.

Of course, I will only stay there 20 days, my biggest wish is that I could spend a whole year (even the rest of my life), to see all the traditional parties that exist there: Saint Patrick, Independence day, Valentine’s, Thanksgiving, and so on… But I believe these days will be magical and I hope to go back many times (because my husband loves baseball and he wants to follow a Baseball Season).