Archive for March, 2006

A new life in Morocco

“It’s my duty to give my children an interesting childhood.”
So says Tahir Shah, a British writer who moved his wife and two children to Morocco, renovated a 10-bedroom mansion, began a new life, and then wrote a book (The Caliph’s House) about the whole experience.  The New York Times profiled Shah and his new home.
Home [...]

March 30, 2006 live/study abroad, travel writing 2 Comments

Immigration and national identity

It goes without saying that immigrants are central to the U.S. identity.  But that doesn’t mean that Americans have always agreed about the issue of immigration.  Far from it. Descendants of the early U.S. settlers struggled to assimilate the southern and eastern Europeans that came after them, such as the Italians and the Poles.  Today, those immigrant groups are equally [...]

March 29, 2006 countries & regions 0 Comments

Travel in the Balkans

Nice trio of travel articles in the Sunday Washington Post about the Balkan countries of Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro:
But as striking as the panoramas are in this part of the world, there’s something deeper than aesthetics going on. Here, in the overlooked southeastern corner of Europe that once stood for brutal warfare but is now [...]

March 26, 2006 Europe 0 Comments

Educational benefits of travel

Today’s NY Times has an excellent column by Nicholas Kristof about the educational benefits of travel.  A few brief excerpts:
Universities are – oh so slowly – recognizing that they need to prepare students to survive globalization. But most overseas studies programs are both too short and too tame.
So here’s my proposal.  Universities should grant a semester’s [...]

March 21, 2006 RTW travel, live/study abroad, why we travel 4 Comments

Spring, baseball and culture

Well, here goes. How does one start a new blog? What is an appropriate first entry? The first day of spring seems like a good time to launch a new venture, and the advent of baseball season is a sure sign of spring, so why not begin with a post about baseball and culture?
Jayson Stark had [...]

March 20, 2006 sports cultures 1 Comment