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.
