Travelogue
Background
I have had the tremendous good fortune to travel all
over the world during my adult life, for both business and
tourism purposes (often together). I gained the wanderlust mostly
from my mother and her parents. When I was a child, my
grandparents took several month-long international trips to
exotic parts of the world (Africa, South America, India,
Scandinavia). Every Christmas or Thanksgiving, after finishing
the meal or opening the presents, the family would gather in my
grandparents' living room to watch a slide show of the past
year's trip. Grandpa was meticulous about taking pictures and
organizing the slides, all of which still reside in neatly
labeled boxes at my grandmother's estate.
I don't really recall lying there on the floor, looking at all of
these photos, and dreaming of traveling the world myself. I think
the idea of being connected to the wider world just began to sink
in naturally; far-off countries didn't seem as alien and
unreachable as they might to many others. It seemed perfectly
natural to visit other parts of the world, although in reality at
the time, the 1960s, international travel was only just beginning
to become accessible to average Americans. These perceptions were
reinforced by my mother, who had gone to Europe for two long
voyages when she was College age. She used to talk about these
trips a lot, and show pictures, and really romanticized the
continent, especially France and Italy, in my mind.
My family did travel quite a lot, by car, mostly through the
Northeast, with one trip to DC. We also went to Canada several
times, including two trips to Montreal for Expo '67. Crossing the
border and observing bilingualism in Quebec also made a lasting
impression on me.
When I got to High School age, I was immediately exposed to the
International Relations Club at Swampscott High, which had an
exceptional reputation (for a small school) for participating in
Model United Nations, particularly the annual Harvard MUN. Chucky
Finger, a close friend, had attended one or two of these 3-day
role-playing extravaganzas a couple of years earlier, and his
tales of both the daytime diplomacy and the nighttime partying
were tantalizing. I joined, and for three years the intellectual
and social intensity of the 6 Model UN's I attended (3 Harvards,
2 Yales, and a National Invitational in Washington, DC) were the
highlights of my teenage experience.
Because of the times (mid-1970s), I became most caught up in the
Middle East issues at the Model UNs. I represented at various
times Israel, the PLO, Libya, and Iraq, as well as the U.S. and
the Soviet Union. I was quite successful, bringing home some
prestigious awards for my performance. Naturally, this interest,
especially in Arab-Israeli issues, spilled over into school
papers and classes as well. Most of my friends also happened to
be Jewish, and they and their families reinforced an overriding
awareness of and concern for matters in the Middle East.
Also during High School, I was further inspired by a French
teacher, Charles Cunningham. A handful of students had studied
French since 7th grade, and together we formed a small
advanced class, which Mr. Cunningham wound up teaching for three
straight years in High School (there were only 5 of us left by
senior year). We got to be so comfortable and interested, that
the class often became more of a group philosophy session, where
we study the works and ideas of Sartre, Camus, and Beckett, and
listened to tales of the magic of Paris. The class was an oasis
of inspiration in the otherwise mundane experience of suburban
public education. Senior year I also went on an exchange trip
with the Band to Ottawa, my first time out of the country without
my family.
These interests and experiences followed me to (and helped ensure
my acceptance at) Dartmouth College in the Fall of 1977. My
Middle East interest remained paramount, and I eventually
constructed a Middle Eastern studies major within the Asian
Studies Department. I also expanded my interest in French
language and literature, culminating in a 3-month foreign study
program in Toulouse in 1980. Following that trip, I also
had the opportunity to visit with my friend Steve Rosenberg in
Israel, where he was on foreign study, and the two of us traveled
back across Europe together that summer. Although I didn't
get the opportunity to travel extensively again until almost a
decade later, my international interest was firmly entrenched.
Look at any of the following files for details on my travels,
including references to some more extensive narratives, and
(eventually) photographs. Feel free to contact me you
have any interest in any of these voyages, or world travel in
general.