Viajero contra turista

In being here, in a foreign land, amongst foreign people and families, I have started to realize that they are becoming less and less foreign. This leads me to my point. This is an enormous difference between a "traveler" and a "tourist".
A tourist flies into a country with a plan, a camera, plenty of sunscreen and bottled water, maps, phone numbers of hotels and travel agencies, and most importantly, a fanny pack. A tourist comes to gawk, to take pictures of themselves in front of monuments and buildings and strange people on the street. A tourist travels to look, to see, and to tell stories when they get back. A tourist, ultimately, takes from a country and sees what it has to offer, leaving nothing but some money at a souvenir shop, and eventually returning to their safe home. This sounds too critical, but you folk get my point, hopefully. Ultimately, a guest.
In contrast, a traveler comes to a country with some essentials, a camera, a return date in the future, and a will to immerse oneself. A traveler comes to observe, snap some pictures of places and people, eat at the restaurants in alleyways, make small talk with those eating. A traveler comes to form a small part of a country, to act as even less than a citizen of the country, to live there not as an obvious tourist, but from the minority instead of the visitor. A traveler is open to change and be changed by the country, to leave a small part of themselves there, not as a refridgerator magnet that says that they left their heart in Dublin, but a small piece of their mentality. A traveler internalizes the stories, and experiences. Where they are, they are.

I aspire to be like a traveler, following the idea that visiting and taking pictures is different than living with the people and going to school, following the rhythms of everyday life with my new countryfolk. Ojalá lo logre.