Recently in Travel Category

just a few comments about bastille day and what i witnessed:

• i managed to only go as far as across the street to the jardin du luxembourg.
• i saw a band blend jazz and polka!
• i viewed the splendid fireworks from the 7th floor terrace (and the fireworks from neighboring "boroughs").
• my students (the ones who were there) ate macdonalds in a moment of great irony.
• the students sang american patriotic songs.
• they took photos and video of the fireworks and i am sure the commentary on the video is one to put me to shame.  in fact, you can probably hear me say in the background "j'ai honte" as they crack jokes or make TERRIBLE mistakes in french.... one involving hair and horses and a woman....
• i actually got to sleep by 1 as paris was not too loud thereafter.
• the fireworks were beautiful.  and best part.... i could sleepily walk downstairs afterwards and toddle off to sleep.

cnn is reporting this today!  i have to see it.  this was like some of the only tv i got growing up!

i know my thoughts on the matter are controversial but i really do believe that not everyone needs to go to college.  i understand the need for an educated society, however, that presumes that only form of education is found at a university or college system.  to be quite honest, there are other places to learn. 

i find it sad that our society "only" values people who hold a degree, and at that, a degree in certain fields.  i don't think education should necessarily hold a purpose or a degree should be utilitarian.  learning can be done for learning's sake.  why not? 

so when i see articles like this one on cnn today, i am very pleased with it.  i find it valuable for students to have "other" experiences.  those experiences of traveling, volunteering, working, etc. are invaluable tools to a world view and a perspective that cannot be learned at a university, or for that matter, valued appropriately by the student with no experience.

i find students today frequently shuffled into college when they aren't ready.  they only sigh-up because they are told this is what they have to do.  for four, five, six years, they are miserable, have no goal, no perspective, no idea why they are there nor what they should be getting from the experience.  this is tragic to me.  i so wish someone, somewhere, ANYONE, (thank you princeton) would say, take a year, travel, volunteer somewhere, teach english, do mission work (ugh!), get a job, gain some perspective before agreeing to do something that you don't even understand why you are doing it in the first place.

i would make an awesome high school counselor.  parents would have me fired!

where, oh where are we going to go for new years this year???

i finally made it home after a very daunting trip back.  i must say, i really have done something horrible in a past life to deserve my traveling woes.  oh what, oh what have i done to deserve this?

i will not bore you with the bitter details of another travel story because i have many.  instead, i shall bore you with why i am happy to be home.

the obvious one would be thomas.  so i'll start off with the sappy and get it over with.  add your own ahhhs and isn't that sweets.

i get to see one of my best friend's babies!!!  (add ahhs and isn't that sweets here).

my choices in shoes just quadrupled.  as did my clothing options.

i have wifi.  all the time.  unlimited.  like all the time.  and, all over the house... omg!!!

i can do laundry and relax in my bed with my pillows and watch tv in english.

the cats and dog are actually excited to see me.  like uberexcited.  like crazy in love with me excited.

what i am not excited about...

i love riding the metro.  even better is seeing a monk in full regalia (or not regalia as the case may be) get on the metro and then stand next to a student reading sade.

only in paris.  only in the metro.

ahhh, paris.  how i love you in the summer.  right now, this is the paris i know and love in the summertime.  it is cool and rainyish.  it pours and gushes at any given moment and there is that subtle cool breeze that makes you think you are standing in a doorway to an air-conditioned building.

the paris i know and love always has me carry a scarf in my bag just in case i get cold.  this is the paris of layers, the paris of getting to sit around in a park and enjoy the sun and the shade.  to get to go and relax at a cafe and sit under the awnings because it could pour.  to watch all the people run and duck for cover in their local brasserie until a shower passes and while it passes they pass the time with a beer.

my paris is me sitting in various places at various times.  i walk a lot but only to get to my destination chair in another part of the city.  each little locale offers me something the other doesn't.  that one is great for watching people.  this one for reading a novel.  that one just for dozing and listening to people talk.  then there is the coffee.

my paris has millions of people carrying bags tucked with all sorts of things for different occasions.  a book just picked up that was recommended by a friend.  a new sweater to wear out.  the new pariscope with all the latest times and dates for movies this week.

my paris is my paris right now.

so you sometimes wonder when the travel karma will kick in.  i know for a fact that i must have clubbed a baby seal in my past life to deserve some of my travel woes.  i clubbed the hell out of that seal and then kicked it and then beat up its baby brother.

so.  i am in newark.  in a crappy hotel.  the toilet keeps running and there are weird noises.  and when i turned the corner to come down the hall to my room, i just knew those freaky-a$$ twins from the shining would be standing at the end of the hall asking me to come play with them.  i'm pretty sure they are outside the door mocking me now.

i waited for that hotel shuttle for 40 minutes.  by the way, the shuttle was soaking wet... on the inside.  yes, the seats were wet.  nice.  there is free wifi and i am in a nice king size bed.  but my flight isn't until later tomorrow and i am way to tired to do something fun and cool, like take a cab to the big city and shop.  oh my god.  traveling has clubbed my inner shopping seal.

i'm all packed.  i have everything i need to leave.  i have suitcases and passport and computer.  i have all my supplies and teaching material and books and camera and plenty of socks and panties to survive 7 weeks.  but i have this nagging feeling that i am forgetting something.

you know that feeling you get when you go over your checklist and over it, and over it, and over it.  and everything checks off.  you packed the toothbrush, you packed the socks and plenty of panties, wait, i already checked that off.

but i just know that something isn't quite right.  something isn't there.  something is being left behind.  oh.  it isn't something.  it is my someone.  my someone who doesn't get to go with me this year.  who doesn't get to stay with me for 7 weeks or any of it.  my someone is staying behind.  i will miss you, my someone.  i will continue to feel like i have left you behind, that somehow, i forgot to pack you, that you should be right there beside me.  i love you, my someone.