Exotic childhoods

OK, this is really weird, but hear me out.

I was looking at some childhood photos of a friend recently, when I realized that I am totally envious of people who have childhood photos of themselves in a different country. Yes, I know they were born and raised there, but it just seems so much more exciting to have childhood photos from Italy or India or Scotland or whatnot.

I don't know what goes through my head - not just, "Hey! That's you when you were little! Cool!" but also, "Hey! That's a backyard in France twenty years ago! Cool!" Babies and small children seem to look the same the world over, but for some reason knowing that the photo was taken in another country makes the baby much more interesting.

Maybe I've just become indifferent to my surroundings. I've had them for the past twenty-six years, so it's all the same to me. When my friends came from Spain to visit me during my freshman year at the University of Hartford, I thought it was funny to see the kinds of things that excited them. School buses. Tall buildings. Baseball. Jack-o-lanterns. People who say "Good night" when you leave a restaurant at 7 pm. Hell, my friend even got excited about apple juice. It's the same around the world - Americans who go to London snap photos of the "Mind the Gap" signs (I did it too when I was there), when it's really something just as mundane to Londoners as a "No smoking" or "Exit" sign.

So why do I get so excited about childhood photos from other countries? What makes a baptism in a church, a high chair in a kitchen, a picnic in a backyard so much better when it's in Brazil or Spain or Hong Kong? I have no idea. It's just one of those odd quirky things that I find interesting. Maybe it's just because it's something different. Although I whine about how boring things are around here, it's probably interesting or exciting to someone who has never experienced anything like it before.

Sorry for this long-winded ramble. Off to have dinner and then back in the pool. Have a good week, everyone!