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In a perfect world I would be a travel writer.

I have been to seventeen countries around the world, and every time I step onto a new continent I start a new blog, so that my friends and family can come along with me on the adventure.

Not everyone will travel, so not everyone will be exposed to other ways of going about things; but a certain percentage of humans are born with a special gene - the Wanderlust Gene - which propels them to go out, look, and come back; like a resource scout.

I have seen nooks and crannies of the world so similar to my own that I have felt at home there; and other places where I was dizzyingly overwhelmed by the differences I was faced with.

Having wrapped around the globe a few times, I can tell you that there are three ethnicities: People who eat with chopsticks; people who eat with utensils; and people who eat with their hands. Though, due to globalization, the majority of the world switches between methods depending on what fusion of foods they are eating.

I can tell you who has the best music, or the savouriest stews; where I have seen the best manners; or drank the best beer.

I can tell you who lives in the moment, and why the countries with the highest suicide rates experience spikes. I have farmed in Africa. Built furniture in France. Given speeches in Korean.

I am also a Historian; School Teacher; Woodworker, and Artist, so I can tell you where to find the most beautiful cathedrals, fascinating cultural villages, finest fabrics, and juiciest jackfruit.

The best smelling flowers. The most beautiful beaches. And the most alarmingly under-resourced schools

I have stood in Concentration Camps, traditional tribal villages, the Colosseum, and a cat sanctuary inside a Roman ruins.

I have seen the lights of Japan, eaten skate fermented in its own urine, and danced with travelers from all over the world.

I do not get tired of newness - so I drift through life, learning and exploring; and, because I am a Teacher, Artist, and avid Writer, I love to share my experiences with the world.

Photographs, stories, anecdotes, comparisons, and delightful surprises - all come together to shape an understanding of what else is out there.

Of course - reading and watching videos of other people’s experiences also helps to plan one's own travels.

Looking up what landmarks to visit when you arrive in a new area will warrant you a list of the most popular or well advertised hotspots - but it takes personal experience to know that Brugge is much more quaint than Brussels, and that if you get into a taxi that is not blue in Vietnam, there is a chance that the driver will rob you at knife point.

You need to meet someone from Malawi to know that they are the nicest people on the planet; and you have to eat Korean food in Korea to experience the mudflat sourced flavors of the cuisine. Or - if you do not like spicy fermented cabbage, and looking at devastating poverty - you can read my blog to learn about how most of the money that rich celebrities like Michael Jordan send to Kibera Slum in Kenta goes into the hands of corrupt NGO operators - NOT towards infrastructure improvements - as a teacher while I wandered through those slums.

People do not have to spend a lot of money, endure malaria, or find out the hard way what time the sun goes down in a remote village they have found themselves wandering through at what suddenly seems to be a rapidly approaching dusk!

They can instead endure my own tales - of losing my entire backpack including my passport on my first day in Nairobi (“Nairobbery”), or - a bus windshield crumpling into my lap as I headed for Mombasa on a night bus swerving through unlit traffic during a terrifying rainstorm, that did not stop for a washroom break for sixteen hours.

No one has to bribe an embassy guard to let them into the building where they will then also have to pay for an entry visa to then actually get into the country.

They can follow me on my adventures - from the safety of their temperature controlled homes - as I drive across America in a van with no air conditioning, through sweltering deserts and nauseating altitude changes. I will show you pictures of the cactus flowers. Do not worry. Rest right where you are.

More comfortable with change than consistency - let ME, Sarah Lyons, show you the world.