Week 10 Posts Due May 1

As sad as it may seem to all of you, this is actually our last week of posts. For this week, take a moment to share your favorite quote about traveling with your fellow China Tour participants. In addition, explain why the quote is so meaningful for you. To get things started, here's one of mine: "Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road/Healthy, free, the world before me/The long brown path before me leading me wherever I choose...Strong and content, I travel the open road." (From Walt Whitman--"Song of the Open Road")

Week 9 Posts Due April 17

The second time I traveled to Thailand, I went to attend a traditional wedding ceremony in the rural Thai village of Ubon, near the border with Laos. We traveled for most of the night by bus from Bangkok, arriving at 4 am and then passing out on pallets in the loft of the bride's family home, while her extended family partied and continued preparations below. After a two hour nap, I was advised that the shower was available. Now, I had traveled in Thailand before and considered myself pretty open minded, but if my friend hadn't stopped me on the way downstairs and said, "You do know it's a traditional shower, right," I would have been confused and probably embarrassed myself by returning unshowered to our hostess. "Shower" in my experience has always denoted an overhead faucet with water running down; never has it conjured pictures of a dripping mid-waist high pipe filling a large garbage can with a smaller bucket and pail beside it. A traditional shower means that you stand close to a hole in the bathroom floor, pour water over yourself with a pail, soap up, and then rinse off with another few pailfuls of water, all the while attempting to keep your dirty water from getting in the large garbage can. Incidentally, the same pail is used to pour water into the toilet for flushing--no handles.

Consider some experiences you have faced while traveling, either in the US or abroad, in which you found yourself forced to expand outside of your normal experience. How do such circumstances affect us, both short term and long term? Why are they valuable for both ourselves and the people that we meet along the way? What advice can you offer your classmates for how to enjoy, rather than feel intimidated by such experiences?

Week 8 Posts Due April 10

Well everybody, we're moving quite quickly towards the end of the semester. Our journey is just around the corner. As you look ahead to the trip, consider how you plan to make the most of the coming opportunity. All too often when travelers return from time spent overseas, they come back with regrets about time spent watching TV, surfing the Internet, or even sleeping in rather than taking off to explore and interact with the country and people they are visiting. What can you do to make sure you return from your trip without these kind of regrets?

Week 7 Posts Due April 4

As the end of the semester continues to press closer, I urge all of you to make sure to keep up with your reading, and to consider beginning some of your assignments following the guidelines in the syllabus if you have time. And don't forget to get your immunizations and travel documents in order! It's been fun to read and follow your posts and see how all of you have been interacting with one another. Keep up the great work :)

Week 6 Posts Due March 27

Despite being ironically spoken through the, anything but brief, words of Polonius, Shakespeare's quote--"Brevity is the soul of wit,"--still rings true. It takes true talent to be able to condense one's thoughts into a short, but complete statement. On the other hand, many times short thoughts are anything but complete. Keep this in mind as you post and comment over the next several weeks, being sure that your words reflect careful thought and pertinent content.

Week 3 Posts Due March 6

Hey everybody, some interesting points so far. It's fun to see some conversation going on about the various topics your encountering in your reading. I'm still missing some posts or comments from some of you, though, so try not to get too behind. Happy reading this week, and enjoy a break from blogging over the spring holiday!

Week 2 Posts and Comments Due February 27

Sounds like everyone has some interesting reading ahead. I'm looking forward to reading more about what you're learning and the thoughts you have to share.

Week 1 Posts and Comments Due Feb. 20

In order to make the posting easier and keep them in order, I will set up a weekly post section on Monday of each week. All you need to do is just click the comment button and add your post from your reading. Since this is the first week, and I imagine you're all rushing to come up with something to add or may have even completely forgotten to get your book from the library, why don't you just start by sharing the title and general topic of your different books. That way, we can work out any of the "kinks" in the whole process and then be prepared to make some more thorough posts next week. I'll add instructions for comments to next week's posting section on Monday. Good luck to all of you. The initial comment is a sample to give you all an idea of what you can add in the future. Note! If you do not have a google account, you will need to set up a gmail account to post on the blog, but you can delete it after the course if you wish.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain