It Is Not About Me

There are any number of phrases and mantras that I can apply to leading the International Traveling Classroom, but this is as good a place to start as any. I knew walking into this role that this would be the case, and had also seen it at work last year when Ken did such a good job leading the group. Even so, it was the time in London that brought this most clearly into focus.

Edinburgh took a great deal of energy and effort to keep things coordinated based on the amount of time that I was there. As mentioned in the previous post there was a great deal of class time involved in that location and it was also the location where most of the students were just getting a sense of being overseas. Here I had few illusions about my free time and was guarded about being able to take the greatest advantage of it that I could. Even though it was a bit of a whirlwind of 30 hours, the time spent with Chris and Donja greatly recharged me. This bit of time for myself served to reinforce the idea that I need to take time like this whenever possible, and was so fulfilling to spend time with friends. Sounds like a great plan, something to make sure happens, unfortunately there is always a big BUT in the middle of that idea.

In my case the qualifying "but" is that opportunities like the one I got in Edinburgh are more rare than a freshly cut steak from the bone. This became clear in far more ways than I can mention here, as well as for some program-based reasons, as I continue to find myself without the opportunity to do the host of things I would chose to do. There are some who will say something along the lines of "what do you expect, it is a job, not a vacation?" In truth, I signed on knowing exactly that, yet I am continually surprised that each little window of time that appears is so small you can barely do anything with it, let alone go do something that is any distance away from your current location. The greater concern I have is with those that think I did this to get a holiday out of it. Let us be clear, I do not spend my holidays with every single day scheduled on a fixed itinerary broken down by hours. This program lives off of the structure of itinerary to make the most out of the students' opportunities for learning. If it were a holiday I would have no class preparation, no teaching, no grading, no haggling with local sites about group tours and meals, and no need to stay on site with students in hostels. In truth I am doing all of these things and more on a daily basis. In fact, even when the students get a couple of days of free travel I am going in advance to our next city to make sure that as much is pre-arranged as possible. It means that even these "free" days are chock-a-block full of time and energy spent on things for them and not me. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to have the opportunity to lead/guide a group of students on a study tour of a lifetime opportunity, but that also means that guiding/leading makes it about them, not about me.

So for those of you that would think "its work, not holiday", I'm with you, it is a job and I take it quite seriously. I spend hours of each day guiding and supporting the students as they go about the business of learning how education, travel, and exploration can be blended together to create a rich one-of-a-kind experience. These are hours done in addition to teaching multiple hours at a time and in joining them for visits to cultural, social, and aesthetic sites in our location. There are very few short, or even standard length days to be had. It is for this reason that I am repeating the mantra "it is not about me," knowing that the richness of their experience is the key, not the richness of mine.

ITC in Scotland - By the Numbers

Rather than take dramatic lengths to discuss the time in Edinburgh I thought it might be more digestible to do it by the numbers.

• 25 Students, 1 Group Leader, and a later introduction by one of the two short-term faculty.

• 15 full days in Edinburgh, staying at Dalkeith House, home of the Wisconsin in Scotland program since 1986. The spring 2014 WIS group was in the house, many having arrived about the same time that we did. I have never seen the house so full, and it sure did make finding a bit of privacy difficult to do. 

• Over 40 hours of classes taught, including 30+ hours of sociology and international studies classes and 12+ hours of humanities. This was actually classroom time, not the affiliated events in and around the area.

• 12 tours and events, not including the 3-day highland tour. Among the sites visited: Scottish National Gallery, Scottish Galleries of Modern Art, Writers' Museum, Greyfriar's Cemetery, National Library, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Castle, and a match at Hibernian Football Club.

• 50+ hour tour of the Scottish Highlands though MacBackpackers, with a fantastic guide/driver named Neil. He took us to places like Dunkeld, Culloden Battlefield, Clava Cairns, Loch Ness, Dunvagan Broch, Faerie Glen, Eileen Donan Castle, Glencoe, and Doune Castle. A few others were sprinkled in, but that is some of the bigger stuff.

• 10 or more Chinese takeaway bags used for meals due to our days out of the house and Henry's hectic schedule at the house dealing with our 25 students, the WIS program's 43, and the faculty and families of the programs. Always good recycling for later use.

• 3 versions of the calendar due to changes in events and availabilities. Being in one place so long meant that it was necessary to alter the schedule much more than I anticipated or wanted to do.

• 3, as in celsius. This was most commonly what temperature I was being told it would be in Edinburgh on that day. There were a few nights when it was clear and the wind picked up that I thought that was also the temperature reading in my bedroom. I didn't take to wearing a wooly hat in the house, but it wasn't unusual to see students wandering around with blankets around them.

• 2 days on which it was blowing a houlie (or blowing goats). It happened first when we were at Edinburgh Castle and it was clear why there were times that they would close the castle due to the high winds. Even though it isn't too high in the grand scheme of things, it was sufficiently exposed to blow you all over the place when it was really blowing. The second memorable one was an overnight where the windows rattled throughout the night and kept the house feeling terribly cold.

• 0 days of being able to wear sunglasses all day. There were hints of sun now and again, but all told we even had rain when we had sun. It isn't that this is unexpected, rather it is just the reality of a wet winter over here.

• 2 lovely days with our friends in the Scottish Borders. Chris and Donja are always so welcoming and are such fun to be around. They got me to the Preston Reed concert on Saturday night, which was absolutely fantastic in this little spot in Selkirk. On Sunday we had a long leisurely walk along the River Tweed, with one of the better William Wallace statutes looming above us, tea/coffee at Scott's Abbotsford home, dinner at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, and a final stop by St. Andrew's Square and the temporary art/light exhibit. The time spent with them flew by way too quickly as always.

Welcome to the Whirlwind

Since arriving on Thursday we have been doing things pretty fast and furious. In brief it has gone pretty much like this:

• Thursday after check in we had INTS 365 (Contemporary Europe) followed by a wee wander into Dalkeith, dinner, and an effort to keep the students going until about 9pm if possible.
• Friday started with three hours of the Social Problems class followed by a trip to Edinburgh Castle (where it was seriously blowing goats), a trip to MacBackpackers to settle up details of our three day trip to Skye on Monday, dinner at the Malt Shovel, and a stop in to see Gavin at Maysons.
• Saturday entailed hearing Marian and Henry talk about drinking culture and responsibility in the morning, nicely linked to my Social Problems class. In the afternoon we cancelled the walking tour because of an impending chance of serious rain (which unsurpisingly came upon us heavily). I got into Edinburgh in time to secure Hibernian FC tickets for next Saturday for the whole group and to see a bit of sun up on Calton Hill. Then upon going down onto Rose Street to visit the outdoors stores the weather finally gave in and came down in buckets. I still managed to get train tickets to London as well before coming home somewhere close to soaked.
• Today, the students and I got off too a slower start, but the excitement was right off the bat. One group managed to lock themselves out in a way that necessitated breaking the door lock to get them back into their room. After that things were pretty enjoyable with the students all doing Patty's version of the Amazing Race in Edinburgh having to find locations and information all throughout the Old Town and the New Town. That kept the students busy from 10.30a to 5.30p. Leah, the assistant group leader, and I took a more leisurely approach into Edinburgh, stopping at Black Magic Coffee to talk about the schedule for the rest of Edinburgh. After that we wandered about and I showed her a few of the major areas around the Old Town and a bit up into the New Town. I have to remember that there is an outdoor lighted art exhibit in St. Andrew's Square which starts on Tuesday (it was set up today).
• Tomorrow through Wednesday we head through the Highlands and onto the Isle of Skye, giving the students a very different view of just how historic and diverse the society and landscape are.

All of that leads me to a few observations. First, this group has the makings of a good group to be along with for the trip. They have been energetic and have been working well together. Don't get me wrong, there will definitely be speed humps as we go along, but it seems to be coming together pretty well. Second, from all I have seen and done, it is the little things rather than the big ones that change in Edinburgh and Dalkeith. I have found my way around easily and most everything is where I expect it, but there are those few surprises of things torn down, changing ownership, and changing what exists in a given location. All in all though, it is the same place I love and remember. Third, it is definitely time to buckle up because while it is as much as 40 degrees warmer here, the damp is definitely a bone chiller. I have been sleeping with two down comforters to keep warm enough at night and during the day the continuous bouts of rain and drizzle keep it plenty moist, but hey the wet and humidity are fantastic for eliminating dry skin.

Reboot: 2014 Internationl Traveling Classroom

Greetings all,
We arrived successfully at Dalkeith House, home of Wisconsin in Scotland, yesterday. We made it through border control without much hassle and there is a funny story related to that which may appear later. The students struggled mightily to make it beyond dinner time before sleep yesterday, but for the most part I think it was a success.

We start classes this morning for 3 hours and then head to to Edinburgh Castle this afternoon. To that end I won't post more until later today. 

Off we go!