Learning about the world is a crucial part of any education. But what about your own home town? What do you know about it? Whether yours is a huge city or a small town, it has an interesting history waiting to be discovered. You and your children can do the research together and share your findings with the rest of your family and friends. After all, it makes sense for a true wandering educator to be an expert in his own town before exploring the rest of the world!

 

One of the best aspects of traveling is the opportunity to try new cuisines and restaurants.  When we travel, I'm always looking for new restaurants - busy looking for restaurant reviews and figuring out where we should dine! I am also conscious of finding restaurant discounts and stretching our travel budget.

Sometimes in travel you meet a local who shares his soul with you, who paints evocative images of a place and time and invites you to see it too, even if only through words on a page.  In January 2004, thanks to a kid selling pirated books on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam, this happened to me.

I would never meet Bao Ninh in person.  But through his first novel, The Sorrow of War, I met him nonetheless.  Born in 1952, Ninh served in the North Vietnamese army.  Of the five hundred men in his brigade, only he and nine others survived the conflict.

American breakfast"Che cosa hai mangiato per la prima colazione?" (What did you eat for breakfast?)

I don't know if this is a set-up for a joke - but all eyes eagerly await this answer, every time we are asked! With smiles growing as we start with "umm..cereal." Which is true I am a cereal lover, that and our daily cappuccino & fresh squeezed OJ.