It's just personal observations, pop-psychology...so YMMV.
But I like to travel overseas. I find that the stranger the environment, the more enjoyable. I think it's because the details, the things I can't readily filter out all come flooding in again.
A week in Seoul is a totally different kind of experience for me than a week in NYC. Even though they have lots of superficial similarities.
But I also notice that my brain seems to spend more time subconsciously analogizing what I'm seeing rather than learning things new from whole cloth like when I was young. It's like the filtering mechanism is working overdrive and knows it can't just toss things away (it can't make a value judgement) so its first pass is to try to find similarities so it can start to make these judgments.
"So this kind of place is like a department store, but also like a fleamarket..." my inner monologue goes.
After a few days in a new country, I'm usually just mentally exhausted and look for some familiarity, something I don't have to work for.
After a week or two, I'm usually comfortable enough in a place this feeling goes away and everything starts to look "normal" again. Meaning my filter is locally tuned and working at normal efficiency.
But I like to travel overseas. I find that the stranger the environment, the more enjoyable. I think it's because the details, the things I can't readily filter out all come flooding in again.
A week in Seoul is a totally different kind of experience for me than a week in NYC. Even though they have lots of superficial similarities.
But I also notice that my brain seems to spend more time subconsciously analogizing what I'm seeing rather than learning things new from whole cloth like when I was young. It's like the filtering mechanism is working overdrive and knows it can't just toss things away (it can't make a value judgement) so its first pass is to try to find similarities so it can start to make these judgments.
"So this kind of place is like a department store, but also like a fleamarket..." my inner monologue goes.
After a few days in a new country, I'm usually just mentally exhausted and look for some familiarity, something I don't have to work for.
After a week or two, I'm usually comfortable enough in a place this feeling goes away and everything starts to look "normal" again. Meaning my filter is locally tuned and working at normal efficiency.