Coffee Chats: Finding Common Grounds

As our travels start up and the pandemic winds down (I keep thinking if I say this enough it will be so), we want to make sure we are present and open to new ideas. Some of our favorite memories are always meeting new people with different backgrounds and hearing about the place we are visiting from their perspectives. Sharing coffee or a meal, these experiences often become our favorite travel memories.

In these conversations we also like to hear what foreign citizens think about America. You may have noticed our country and the world are very much on edge. Fights over masks in grocery stores and on airlines, rising violent crime rates across the country, and divisiveness in our politics dominate the news. Others' perspectives can shed new light on these current events that help us understand different points of view.

So as we travel going forward, we plan to capture and share what we learn from those we meet on our travels, and what they have to say about:

• The best things / what they wish everyone knew about their country

• What they know / think about our country

• What we could learn from each other

We hope by exploring these topics we can have more meaningful travel experiences and share what we have in common with the rest of the world. More importantly, we hope to better understand some of our differences and why they exist. I hope we can use that knowledge to become better neighbors when we are at home and more conscientious and productive global citizens.