"Had my parents allowed me, when I read a book, to pay a visit to the country it described, I should have felt that I was making an enormous advance towards the ultimate conquest of truth. For even if we have the sensation of being always enveloped in, surrounded by our own soul, still it does not seem a fixed and immovable prison; rather do we seem to be borne away with it, and perpetually struggling to pass beyond it, to break out into the world, with a perpetual discouragement as we hear endlessly, all around us, that unvarying sound which is no echo from without, but the resonance of a vibration from within."
Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, p. 90
Yes, we are now less than two months away from the trip to Zanzibar. Of course, the students will drive me quite mad long before then, what with their refusal to read emails or respect deadline or understand that there is a difference between Passport Photos and photos of passports (although, to be fair, I do need both). While I think the Zanzibar trip to going to be an extraordinary educational experience for the students, and for Steve and yours truly as well, I also have some mixed emotions about it. I was really happy when I was there before, so there will be enough appropriately Proustian moments and images that will probably leave me quite melancholy quite a bit of the time. Still, it doesn't stop me from trying to share international experiences with my students. A couple days ago I finished proposals for two more travel courses: 1) a Thanksgiving break trip for fall 2016 to Madrid and Lisbon with my friend Mike Kelly, and 2) a spring break trip for spring semester 2017 to India with my friend, titular little sister and boon travelling companion Cyndi Brandenburg.
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| On the way out to swim with dolphins, which we'll definitely be doing with the students. |
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