Not that we’ve been sitting around, sadly reminiscing about the trip that was and the now that is. We’ve walked, we’ve looked at old neighborhoods in a new way, found new neighborhoods, checked out the local farmers’ markets to see how they compared. We’ve taken the metro and rejected our car in favor of traveling like a tourist. We tried to hold on to this new perspective, this new way of seeing our hometown. We’ve looked and seen….but less and less every day as everything began to look like, well, the usual. Weather, which wasn’t allowed to get in our way as we traveled, now seems like a huge obstacle and a great reason to not go out, not get wet or cold, just stay inside until summer comes….eventually….in a few months.

It’s hard to change or be changed when everything around you isn’t. We fall back to our same roles, same reactions, same attitudes. Very frustrating because, as much as I’d like to keep traveling where the rules and roles were different, traveling is not only expensive, but it gets tiring after a while (although I think we had a few more months in us before we would’ve gotten tired). This is not to say that I don’t have projects that I find interesting, challenging – I do. But I’m not sure if Madison is equally as engaged in what she’s working on. While traveling she was  interested in places we visited, she could find things laugh-out-loud funny, or exciting, or impressive. But back on her home turf, where being indifferent is cool, its been way more of a challenge to sustain a positive interest in anything that remotely hints at educational. She has found a few focus areas, and we found a book about math that she finds not only helpful, but enjoyable (a word she hasn’t thought to apply to math since about grade 5), but the enthusiasm seems decidedly diminished.

Perhaps  this is more the norm and what we experienced traveling was the anomaly, but I miss it. It was like a 2-month adrenalin rush of learning and now we’re back to normal, and I’m going through withdrawal.

I still haven’t figured out how to juggle doing things with writing about them. The last two weeks have raced by – we’ve been doing plenty and then collapsing in the evening, or organizing, or packing. We’ve been to Rome, London, New Jersey, and now back in Montreal – happy to see family and friends, but sad our trip is over.

I’m not going to write the details of what we saw in Rome and London – I’ll leave that to Madison.  She’s great at researching, describing, and photographing each of the sites. Suffice it to say we walked and walked and walked and walked some more, ate amazingly well (whoever thinks London’s food is boring, boiled, and expensive needs to try some of the places we found), and swore we would return to each city. At one point we considered changing our flights and staying in Rome longer – who needs to see London?!? I had been there several times for business and it was, well, you know, English. Familiar, almost. But we didn’t and, I’m happy to say, I saw a whole new London this time. In London, we considered cashing in our return ticket and staying longer there!!!

But….we didn’t and so we saved dozens of sites and tours for another visit. Always good to have something to look forward to.

Each time we left a place, we were sad to leave so soon. How could the next place come close to being that interesting? Yet each new place was just as compelling as the previous one. Not one dull place on our itinerary.

As the “guide” of this learning experience for Madison, I always try to absorb each site at two levels. I can’t help seeing it as a tourist, as a first time viewer, often overwhelmed by the age of something like the Colosseum or the vast riches of the Vatican or the beauty of the art at the National Gallery in London. I also try to look at how it’s connected to all the other sites we’ve seen, cultures we’ve (superficially/briefly) experienced and life back in Canada. It’s easy to be the tourist – so many of the places we’ve seen are so out of the ordinary, so spectacular, that I feel I must almost physically move to another space to reflect on them as a part of the whole experience. What is the Colosseum beyond its own history in Italy? – what are the connections to what we’ve seen in Barcelona, Jerusalem, elsewhere? If travel were easier and cheaper (and safer, in some places), it would be great to follow a question we have about what happened in one place to its geographic roots. But we could only hope to remember/record these questions and pursue them some time later.

Of course, there’s always the internet, but, guess what?! Internet “tours” aren’t the same as or anywhere as powerful as standing in the real place, feeling the stones that people put in place thousands of years ago, connecting to history so physically. Obvious? Maybe, but I think we sometimes forget the power of the real thing. Of course, cost can’t be ignored, but I think too many people don’t travel for reasons other than cost.

With all this insight, what might I have done differently if I were to plan a trip like this again or if I could plan it my own way?

• First, I would buy only one way tickets to our starting point (no planned return ticket) . Of course, right away this adds to the cost. I won’t say in my ideal trip that money is no object, but let’s say I’d be a bit more flexible – that cost would be weighed more against value and the value of not having a return ticket would, in my eyes, be high.
• Next, I would only arrange housing for the first couple of stops (so, yes that means I’ve travel arrangements to at least one more location) and then be more flexible after that. It takes an enormous amount of time to find good housing and flights, so, yes, I would end up spending part of our trip time on travel arrangements (which I ended up doing anyway).So, to offset that, I would…
• Spend more time in each place. Six days in Barcelona wasn’t bad, a month in Israel was amazing, a week in India, in a suburban hotel, took more work to get out and see the world, but 5 days in Rome and 4 in London were much, much too short. So, at least a week, if not 2 or 3 or more, per place. More time means having some time to reflect, write, connect.
• More apartments, no hotels (although our London hotel room, with its bunkbeds and kitchenette, was fairly reasonable and extremely well-located). Kitchens are very convenient (really, who needs to eat 3 meals in restaurants) and having a “home” base rather than just a homebase was comforting.
• Big unexpected expense – going from the airport to the any city. In London, we finally got smart and used public transportation – the Tube (our hotel was a block away from Earl’s Court Underground Station). Much cheaper than other means of transportation, plus no stairs at either end in this case (elevators, escalators, ramps) meant no difficulty moving our luggage. (Stairs in other places were an obstacle, and, after a red-eye, not the most inviting challenge to face.)
• Less luggage. Although we used everything we brought and we had to cover a variety of weather conditions  (almost snow to dry desert heat to humid tropical heat to rain) and circumstances (business, casual, beach, modest attire, etc), I would still like to travel much lighter, but, in reality the weight of the luggage only matters when moving from place to place, and it was good we had what we needed, when we needed it. I guess “need” is the operative word here. Books, travel or otherwise, added a lot to our load – perhaps having audio travel books plus great maps would’ve helped. A lighter laptop would’ve been good, too. (New limits on luggage and charges for excess also come into play here – we were each allowed 2 bags because we bought our tickets early enough to qualify for that. That’s not the case anymore on BA.)
• Good internet everywhere. We had internet everywhere, but, sometimes, the good was missing. Also, often only one person or device could get on the internet at a time (mainly an issue in hotels). Really, does this need to be the case? Of course, if good internet wasn’t available and I really felt that we needed to go to that country or region, it’s location over access in my opinion. There are alternatives to getting connected (internet cafes, cafes with internet, etc) but not alternatives to that place.
• Use more public transportation. I liked the exercise from walking, but sometimes it would just be too much. By the time we got to what we wanted to see, we were too tired to enjoy it. Of course, all the extra walking, especially in Rome, meant I deserved those lovely pasta dishes that were so yummy. Ahh, the food in Rome…..I’ll dream of that. (In Rome, we stayed in a B&B near the Vatican – B&B Bibi e Romeo -  and our very helpful host suggested restaurants popular with locals. What food!!!)

So, those are my take-aways in terms of logistics, but some of these impact the learning efforts, too. We ran during the last few days, so it was harder to reflect on what we were seeing in Rome and London. It’s hard to discipline yourself to not try and see everything, which would be superficial and physically exhausting. It’s important to find time to not be going somewhere but to just be being somewhere.

Looking forward to using all these tips some time soon……I hope….

Hard to sum up our final time and impressions of Mumbai. Madison was very busy with the Flat Classroom workshop at the American School of Bombay and I with the school, so we had less time for travel. We did do a city tour on Friday afternoon – all the high points of the city, including some history lessons, lessons in religion, a tour of Gandhi’s “home” in Mumbai (a friend’s house where Gandhi stayed when in Mumbai) – along with some explanations and justifications for the caste system and how it has made Indians so accepting (somehow that didn’t sound like Gandhi’s philosophy). Since we were staying in suburban Mumbai, it was good to really get into the city, walk on a few city streets, see something other than the huge office buildings of the Bandra Kurla Complex or the Dharavi slums.

We left Mumbai Saturday evening, and the ride to the airport and our experiences there really summed up in many ways how Mumbai is so different from our usual life experiences or cities in the West. First, traffic is insane. If there are 3 official lanes, drivers somehow create 5 lanes. The air is filled with a symphony of honking car horns – you can’t drive there if you don’t honk your horn every few minutes. (Must be some part of their driving test.) It’s even written on the back of trucks “Horn Please – OK” which meant the driver will honk to “warn” pedestrians to keep them safe. In other words, to warn them to keep out of their way.  This meant that the roads were incredibly noisy – drivers were like dogs – when one would honk, everyone would join in. LOUD!! In addition, there were lots of people on motorcycles and they all had passengers, including women sitting side-saddle with long saris blowing in the wind, babies in baby carriers, etc. All driving in and out of the 3 official, 2 unofficial lanes. I was happy we made it to the airport unscathed. And of course, we passed slums, and even outside the slums, places full of shelters you could barely call shacks and even people just sleeping on the sidewalks.

Crowds of people were outside all the entrances to the airport – some were waiting to get in (needed to have their ID’s checked and proof that they were traveling) and their families waving good-bye. It seemed everyone had his or her own farewell party going on. Once inside, it was a bit calmer, but still with a style all its own. As we walked to immigration, one employee had the role of telling people they could not bring trolleys any further – that’s all he did, “No trolley, no trolley, no trolley” every ten seconds – he said it so frequently that no one listened to him, so he would say it again….and again….and again. Some people sneaked past him with trolleys anyway. Security was very tight – everyone had to go through a body scan with the handheld scanning devices. There were about 12 scanning stations for men – and one for women! Once we were through all this, we had lots of time to sit and sit and sit, swatting mosquitoes and other bugs attacking us. Madison was thrilled (note the sarcasm). Finally, as we were beginning to doze (our flight was scheduled for 2:45 am) we realized that our gate was changed! We had been so busy watching everyone line up for a flight to Riyadh (all but one of the 50-60 passengers were men, they all rushed the gate when they thought boarding was starting, and someone at the desk said something to them and in a nanosecond they were all in a single file line – the most orderly thing I’ve ever seen at any airport anywhere!), that we didn’t realize there had been a gate change and we needed to get moving so we could get on our flight.

Even there we weren’t finished with security. More scans of randomly selected people, including Madison and me. We were really exhausted by the time we made it to our seats – but rather sorry to leave India so soon. There’s so much still there for us to see and try to understand.

Although we were tired, it was hard sleeping on the plane – especially for Madison. All night the little girl behind her kicked the seat and jabbered.  No assistance from the girl’s mother either – she asked her to stop and did nothing when she didn’t. Talk about no follow through. The mother apologized when we landed – big deal. We were happy to arrive at very efficient Heathrow once again – happy, yet cranky. Everything was so efficient there that we ended up having hours to kill. We know terminal 5 at Heathrow like the back of our hand. Good food at Wagamama, Pret has great miso soup, Starbuck’s has comfy seats, and so on..

Now we’re in Rome and staying in a great B&B – B&B Bibi e Romeo, near the Vatican. We walked, and walked and walked today. Wanted to follow the “money trail” from Jerusalem to Rome (after the Romans razed Jerusalem and looted the city, they took that loot and built the Colosseum). Like Israel, there are ruins and digs all over the place, but here there are dozens of ancient sites high above ground. We were happy to be walking, but overdid it completely and were totally ready to pass out by the time we found a restaurant that was open on Mondays. And it rained, was sunny and warm, got cool, rained some more, stopped raining just before the sun set casting a beautiful very golden glow over St. Peter’s Basilica. A very Hollywood effect.

I was glad Madison had a chance to work on the Flat Classroom project while in Mumbai. Three days (well almost 3 full days) of intensive work on one project (rather than a little time here, a little time there, dragging out for weeks or months) that emphasized the skills that are important: creativity, collaboration, communication, problem-solving, writing/public speaking and other communication skills. Although a bit like school, it was world’s different from what school today is. It was like what school could/should be.

We’ve discussed how each place we’ve been to has a unique quality. Some are more similar to each other, some more different than we anticipated. We’re sad that this trip is going to be over soon – we still have so many things to learn and places to see.

This is so much better than sitting in a classroom….

Arrived in Mumbai yesterday and just the ride from the airport to our hotel gave us the feeling we’re not in Kansas any more. When we, in our North American way, think of slums, we somehow think of them as somewhat localized, but here you see slum dwellings scattered all over. Well, not all over – definitely not around our hotel. We’re in the Bandra Kurla Complex, a business type area full of either tall office towers or huge holes about to be foundations for tall office towers. This is the up-and-coming area of Mumbai, filled with offices of companies that couldn’t afford to expand in downtown Mumbai – too costly. Apparently there are lots of great restaurants here – a very happening place. But not right around our hotel.

The hotel is great – only open a few months, so sparkling clean and with potable water (a concern of ours). Madison and I were a bit surprised to see that the bathroom has glass walls, one frosted, one clear. I think that’s a bit more openness than I was seeking. Fortunately, there is a privacy blind that we can lower, so Madison and I don’t have to share absolutely every moment of our trip.

Our second day here we did a tour of the Dharavi Slums, the largest slum in Asia (or, at least, one of the 2 largest). Madison has written an eloquent description of our tour (http://www.madisonq2.wordpress.com) It would be difficult to add to that, other than it has given us so many things to talk and think about. Most of our time now has been at the conference and hotel – vastly different. Madison has been participating in a Flat Classroom workshop, collaborating with teenagers from around the world (China, Korea, Germany – even someone from Manitoba, once he wakes up!).  Breaks down school walls. I’m looking forward to hearing her reaction to this process.

I think Madison’s blog, as a record of her journey, is getting better and better – more reflective, talking about a broader range of ideas and reactions. Interesting change….

Of course, the best beaches we’ve seen in terms of interesting things to see, are towards Egypt (the direction in which we originally headed). That’s where Israel’s only coral reef is, where both the Marine Park and Coral Reef Beach Nature Reserve are located. Trying to keep this part of the trip something more than a few days lying on the beach, I rented snorkeling equipment for Madison and let her loose in the reef. I think that helped generate some questions and ideas about biodiversity and the condition of the world’s other coral reefs. I chose not to go in, still protecting my ears to make sure the labyrinthitis is completely gone. I actually swam in the Red Sea and in the reefs off Sinai in Nueiba, a long time ago – almost 35 years ago (when Sinai was part of Israel and there weren’t 100+ students from various schools in Israel shrieking in the water as there were today). At that time, we saw all sorts of fish, all different colors, harmless, venomous, etc.  The beach area was empty, with only an occasional person or camel ambling by. Don’t know what Nueiba is like today, but Eilat beaches are not quite as pristine or quiet. But, now that we’ve done a bit of exploring, they are better than we originally thought.

So, sorry, Eilat. We didn’t give you a fair shake. It clearly pays to stay a few days and really check things out.