Overseas

OK, it looks like the foreign travel for the next year is coming together. I'm leaving 23 May for the southern Africa trip, first Zambia and then South Africa. Then, amazing as it seems, it looks like I am returning to India, flying out 22 June for Mumbai (events in India to be determined) and then leaving Mumbai on 3 July so that my Dad and Annie can get back to the States - I'm carving off three days in Belgium (I can't begin to afford any of this, but I do want to spend the time with Dad while we still can). I don't know about travel for later summer or next fall, mainly because I don't know my travel budget for next year or how Champlain will handle my Global Modules project while I'm on sabbatical - but I'm sure there will be one trip or another. And then the sabbatical - as it's schedule now I'll be off the entire 2011 school year - spending the spring semester teaching at Corvinus University in Budapest, and then the fall semester at Zayed University at either their Abu Dhabi or Dubai campuses in the United Arab Emirates. Theoretically, this might mean that I'll take off next December and not return to the States for an entire year (anyone want some furniture cheap?).

Muscovites Visit a Dairy Farm

I mentioned that we just wrapped up a visit from two professors and five students from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. It was a great visit, and people here at Champlain knocked themselves out putting together a number of enlightening experiences for the Russians. One of my favorite moments was taking them to the Nordic Dairy Farm in Shelburne, which was arranged by Michaela Fortin (one of our wonderful students). The students learned a lot about what economics and international trade mean on the local level - and how even Vermont dairy farmers adapt to a changing financial and technological world. That said, these were big city kids and they have never visited a farm - and even Gradya, who is from Siberia, had only visited a farm once (she told me that she had managed to go twenty years and only visit one farm, and that I took her to three in a week - I replied that this is Vermont, and this is what we have - we're short of hot celebrity-filled night spots, but farms are not an issue). Anyway, the presentation by the fairy farmers was amazing - and once the Russian students got over their highly dramatic horror at the smell of cow manure, they really enjoyed themselves. Here is a picture of a curious cow (wondering why there are a bunch of jabbering Russians next to the milking machine), Olya, Gradya and Masha covering their noses, and Denis "refusing" to come inside.

If it's the 4th of July it must be . . .

. . . Brussels, Belgium or Agra, India or Alexandria, Egypt or Bratislava, Slovakia. I'm developing this tradition of spending the 4th of July in all sorts of odd places. Last year it was in Bratislava, Slovakia as part of the seven week marathon march from the Middle East through China and then Eastern Europe before heading to Spain. The year before it was in Alexandria, Egypt as part of the 2008 Faculty Internationalization Initiative trip - great memories of sitting on the dock of the bay. In 2004 it was visiting the Taj Mahal with my father. He's determined that he wants to revisit India this summer, and even though I'm poor as a church mouse I'm going to go with him. For one thing, neither of us are getting any younger and you never know when the past becomes the past - and, secondly, as is well-documented, India is my favorite place. So, I'm looking at possible itineraries with the utterly invaluable Rochelle and the one which seems like the best fit passed through Brussels on 3 July, so I'm thinking about carving off a couple days. Beyond passing through the Brussels airport I've never visited Belgium, and my great friend David Kite tells me that the country is wonderful (he spent time there in graduate school). I have no great overwhelming desire to spend the 4th of July overseas - and I'm not completely unpatriotic (especially when they play the national anthem at baseball games - although that may relate more to baseball than the US) - but it does seem to be a habit of mine.

Body Language

OK, so I'm way behind on posting. I've included nothing from my recent trip to Russia, partially because it was followed by a visit to Vermont by two professors and five students from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, Russia. I finally put the Russians on the plane yesterday after ten fun but exhausting days. We're just getting into finals weeks here at Champlain so I don't have a lot of time to do anything, but I'll try and post some material from both Russian trips. In the meantime, I thought I'd post this picture for a couple reasons. One, it's actually a fairly good picture of me, which is unbelievable because I'm the least photogenic person in the world. More importantly, however, it displays one of those subtle little body language clues that you pick up while travelling. The picture was taken on a tour of the Magic Hat Brewery here in Burlington. I was talking to the Russians and, to make them laugh, was using my fingers to gently flick the side of my throat - which apparently in Russia is a not too secret way to bring up the topic of drinking. So, if I wanted to ask someone out for a drink, and I didn't want the crowd to know about it for some reason, I may say, "Hey, want to go play chess?" while flicking the side of my jaw/throat - which would actually mean, "hey, let's go get something to drink". Or, I might say, "Yes, so-and-so decided to leave the company" while gently flicking the side of my jaw/throat - which actually would mean "so-and-so was a complete drunk and they fired him." In the US I guess we would just use our hands to make the sign of a mug of beer and pretend to drink it - the Russians are much more subtle.

Zambia

OK, it looks like the African trip is starting to come together, although in a shorter and less complicated form - which runs counter to how my trips normally go, when they start off simple and they grow wildly complicated. I'm going to fly into Lusaka, Zambia on 23 May (arriving on Monday 24 May) following the traditional Burlington-JFK-Johannesburg-Lusaka route that we've all flown from one time or another. I'll be attending an African eLearning Conference, which should allow for me to make connections with sub-Saharan universities interested in the type of online discussion that we feature in the Global Modules. I'm now in the process of starting to do research on Zambia - on the surface it seems pretty grim (50% unemployment, 86% living under the poverty line, 10% HIV - however, those stats are from the CIA website and they are not completely free of exaggeration, although I don't know what the advantage would be in this case) - but it also seems that they are making progress on several fronts so it may actually be getting better. Strange fact I saw somewhere - that Zambia is the only Africa country that produces cell phones (?) - can't believe that South Africa doesn't produce cell phones, so that may just be an urban legend. After a week in Zambia I'll be flying to Johannesburg to talk to a couple partner universities. More as the trip comes together.