Adapting (and Dreaming)

I asked my German friend how long she expected the pandemic to last. It was a bewildered Xmas holiday musing, and the reply was that it would still be around for Xmas 2022. While nobody knows anything, I find some comfort in her prediction. A year is a manageable span of time - hopefully short enough not to be overwhelming, yet long enough to cover at least a substantial chunk of the rest of the time we will be irritated by this malaise. 

Sometimes I dream of overseas destinations. The last place I visited in my subconscious was NYC - a brightly lit place having its last heyday as the sun set, and the skyscrapers rose out of waterways. Now that I think about it, I think I was both saying Hello and Goodbye to this much-vaulted place that looks set to be engulfed by rising authoritarianism. 

I have travelled widely across Western Europe and East Asia, but my familiarity with North America pales in comparison in terms of both number of places visited and the last time I was there. It's all very well dreaming up A Farwell Tour While Biden Remains, but there may be more factors drawing me away than pulling me in... to this day. 

Recently I have been building enthusiasm for Japan, dreaming of spending time taking in my surroundings in themed cafes and near-inscrutable libraries (or bookshops), or getting away into the countryside some autumn afternoon to inhale the foliage. Forest bathing, except in a garden attached to a temple, where the likeness of the Buddha is sculpted out of stone, subtle but inviting as a stepping stone to enjoying the rest of the expanse.

On another note, I want to experience for myself the immigrant country with the Angel Complex, our Commonwealth cousin, Canada. I want to start in Vancouver and take public transport East, stopping at various points along the way, until I reach Quebec City (or Montreal, if that's too ambitious). I want to visit scenic sites as well as big cities like Toronto, which has long fascinated me due to its immigrant and PoC numbers. 

And then there's the continent I keep returning to out of sheer admiration, Europe. It's hard to balance other continents with Europe, because for me, it remains a stubborn mainstay of my dreams. But we'll see. There's a lot of world to cover.