Am I the strange one?

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A year and a half ago I bought a semi-automatic camera and started joining half-day guided walking tours almost every weekend, organized by various institutions. These tours don't cost little money, but they take us to amazingly beautiful places, from one to the other.

Invariably, I'm the only one who looks around in each new place. Everyone else gathers in a circle around the tour guide and looks at the tour guide all the time while the tour guide talks non-stop, lecturing on the historical background of the place. I read about the places, and any related subjects that interest me, at home on the internet.

Yeah, I think most people if they don't want to be lectured by a tour guide would simply go on their own, rather than with a tour group.

My immediate instinct was to say no... but this is actually a good point. I chose maybe.

i chose yes, the other people seem quite "normal", if a little ignorant..
Bruce lee said (in Enter the Dragon) "It is like a finger pointing at the moon (his apprentice looks at his finger&bruce slaps him), don't watch the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory"

I'm exactly the same way. I research when I want to research, the information that I want. I space out when tour guides talk, unless they are talking about something of extreme interest to me.

Exactly. So why am I the strange one?

(I wouldn't know where to go if I went alone, and what to look for. Besides, I do listen to the guide as I'm walking around)

You are strange because you Do Things Right in a world of Do Things Together. That's it.

Crassus, hi and welcome to WP!

Now I get it! It's about being everyone together! Thanks!! !! !! Your comment is going to my file of WP wise quotes.

But how can people pay so much money, walk all that, stand in the sun, make all the effort.......to see almost nothing????

I voted no, you're not strange because the above is exactly what I do too. Makes sense to me.

CelticGoddess, are you too the only one in the group who does this?

You're strange, but why are they not enjoying the beauty, too?

I'm American, and in middle school I went to Europe with a group of kids from our French teachers different french classes. I think I recall there being 15 kids total, 12 girls 3 guys. Out of the girls, there was the two friends who were mostly looking for chances to practice conversational French. The rest of the girls were mostly looking for Shopping in Europe. One of the other guys was mostly there because his parents thought he could use the culture and it was a chance for him to get alone time with all the girls. Oh did I mention it was basically all the hottest most popular girls from our grade? So then we get down to me and the one other guy left. We happened to be best friends, still are.

He was born in Quebec so there was a certain amount of heritage awareness for the days we were in France, but beyond that He and I were interested in Seeing Europe. Some of the magnificent churches and cathedrals. I remain convinced I could have spent the entire nine days we were in Europe just in Musee du Louvre and I would not have had time to sleep. My friend and I wandered around away from the rest of the group, discussing with each other the different things we saw and the significance of the spot we were on, historic things that had happened.

In the time after we came back, I noticed something. Most of the favorite memories the rest of the group would choose to share were activity focused and had a strong group bonding element. Such as "The time we all had that fancy dinner out" or "when we went out clubbing" or "remember when crassus wasn't paying attention and squeezed into the rotating doorway with the austrian tour guide in a great affront to his dignity and we all had a good laugh". My memories are "MONA LISA!" "that pink stucco church in lucerne!" "Versailles!! !" and when I say those things to myself, I can just take a moment and re walk through all those places and re experience seeing them. They make use of the group bond to make a shared memory of the event that they then recite back the bits and pieces they remember individually to form the quilt of the whole shared experience.

You know what, I never really noticed until you asked, but now that I think about it, yeah I am. Apparently I'm quite oblivious.

I guess they're not so very interested in immersing themselves in the atmosphere, and absorb the places. I wouldn't pay all that money and make all those efforts just to be among people...

Ha. I love that!! ! Such an Aspie thing. I completely agree. I'm going to quote you in my sig line.

you're such an aspie greentea!

I can not possibly enter the mindset of those that would just watch and listen to what the tour guide said. Sure, I would listen to tourguide, but would look around and try and find other interesting stuff (for me). That said I did pick that you ARE weird.

Becuase, compared to the rest that were in the group... you were. Of coure it depends entirely on your perspective. If the labels were different it could have been sheep and "interesting", or dependend and independant. Aloof and not aloof. etc...

anyhow...