And so it begins....

 It begins at the dining room table

About 6 months ago, Amy and I received a unique offer to serve as staff members for a program through the University of Virginia called Semester at Sea.  After a bit of debate, I asked for a leave of absence from work and it was graciously approved.

And so the adventure begins, as a kid from a suburb of Milwaukee nicknamed "flamingo" by her high school basketball team, about to travel across the globe over the next four months. We will begin our travels in the Bahamas and then onto Dominica, Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Singapore, Vietnam, China, Japan, Hawaii and ending in San Diego.  I have to admit, that my 14 year old basketball playin' self would never have imagined this opportunity. While, many of you may have traveled to these countries multiple times. I will be leaving North America for the first time in my life. This has led me to sit in front of stacks guidebooks and surf numerous travel sites for hours at a time, trying to map out what it is Amy and I want to do with the opportunity to be in these countries.  I have begun to develop an itinerary, but I have developed a bigger list of interests than the time we have allotted.

As I have shared information our upcoming adventure with family and friends, I have had many interesting responses ranging from, "I'm envious" to "You and Amy are nuts". However, a common theme in every conversation has been an overarching sense of curiosity. We all wonder about the lives of others. We wonder about the truth in stereotypes, we wonder about safety, we wonder about how other governments function or don't function.  And also it seems, at a very human level, we wonder how much we are like our neighbors and how are we different.

I had been planning to write a blog from the onset, but knew I didn't want it to be just another travel log filled with places I had eaten and my American tourist pictures. While I am sure interesting to my Mom and Dad, it seemed well.....boring and just a wee bit trite. Also, I imagine my musings might not be interesting to anyone beyond my immediate family.  So on Friday, I had a thought. My co-workers were very nice and took me out for a traditional Wisconsin send off complete with cheese curds and micro-brew beer.  By the end of the evening I had a lengthy list of questions of items they were curious about and a few requests for specific pictures. Due to our conversation, I felt as if my own thinking about our travels had grown. In essence, I thought, I could be a surrogate researcher able to provide at least one perspective to various questions.  And so my thought was to turn this into an interactive blog with a humble hope that it might have some minimal ability to foster understanding between all of us and the greater world.

So here's what I propose, I'll post a few fun facts about the country, give you a sense of our itinerary and in return you send me questions you have about the place, the people,  requests for photos or possible destinations you would suggest and even post assumptions you hold to see where those assumptions may be rooted. Amy and I will do our best to answer questions, post photos and be responsive to your curiosity. Best case scenario....we get a really dynamic, interactive blog happenin' here.  Worst case scenario.....you get a travel log blog complete with postings about my meals and tourist pics. Either way let's take a trip together. As the flamingo travels. - julie