Porto Fortunately, my departure to Portugal was less eventful than that of mine to Mallorca. It was perhaps unfortunate, however, that my departure would have to begin at 02:45. Not realizing the hours of the first tube departures in the morning, and thinking only of the cheap airfare, I booked without consideration of the logistics at hand to actually get to the airport for a 6:30 flight to Porto. As it turns out, this may have been fortuitous, as had it been any later, I would have had to count on the tube, rather than having to figure out which bus [View Full Entry]

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London I've not seen a dry day in London as yet. My justification for being here was to meet with Dr. Judith Suissa, a professor of education who has done work on Anarchist education. She was kind enough to spend more than four hours obliging my questions, giving me a tour of the "radical East End" of London and then treating me to some Bangledeshi food, which passed favourably. What's more she urged me to pursue a topic of interest in relation to democratic / free schooling that I think will be interesting, unexplored, and largely applicable to the wider realm [View Full Entry]

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Prelude: Willimantic After a year of diving back into the plenary experience of graduate school, my first year of "doctoral college," with its thrill and exhaustion, my parents decided to venture down to Connecticut for a visit. UConn, as it's known here (which is often mixed up with the Yukon - people are either very polite and mention that they didn't know the Yukon had a uni, or ask me what in the hell would make me go up there?)" It's a slip I make frequently. I have the fortune to live in the small town of Willimantic, the nearest actual [View Full Entry]

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While it's technically true that I've been to New York before, it was under conditions that were less than ideal. I had just returned from England where my girlfriend had broken up with me. I missed my connecting flight in Newark, and figured I should go to see the Big Apple. But after taking the train into Penn Station, I managed only a couple of blocks before falling into a lonely drink across the street from Madison Square Garden. It was an uneventful night, and for all intents and purposes I had seen nothing of New York. So all technicalities aside, [View Full Entry]

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A Short Stop in the Bay Area My return to California for the first time following my move back to Canada has proved an interestingly enlightening experience. I have to admit that I've had a difficult time in letting go of California, and the life I was living here during my time as a teacher. I arrived with excitement, full of exuberance and nostalgia, but that sense has faded quickly like the marine fog under the hot afternoon sun. I can't really explain why, but I feel the same way now as when I returned to Calgary in July. I was [View Full Entry]

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Big Mamma, Con-men, Crab Shrapnel, and a Birthday to Remember Bangkok: Soi Cowboy I've been to Bangkok before, but had never managed, or cared enough to make the trip to Soi Cowboy, the lady-boy / stripper district that in many ways defines Bangkok. I told Darren though that I wasn't making an decisions about his only night in Bangkok, but being Canadian, he also didn't want to have to make decisions about his only night in Bangkok. But his friend Grant suggested Soi Cowboy, then Peter and Feyette, the couple we met en route suggested it as well. So we went. [View Full Entry]

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Phnom Penh: My Favourite City in SE ASia I'd heard great things about Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, and wanted badly to make a stop here in the former capital of the Khmer Empire, and the "Pearl" of French Indochina. It didn't take much convincing to get Darren to agree, after he'd heard a few good things himself. It's a fantastic city, dirty as any in the region, but full of so many charming people, wide boulevards, sprawling public spaces, with beautiful temples and monuments throughout. It didn't take long for me to decide that this city was an easy favourite, taking [View Full Entry]

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Hue and the DMZ: Where the History Is Hue is the historic center of Vietnam, and not altogether to far from the geographic one. At its heart lies the imperial city, built in honor of the long line of kings that ruled in the region. The walls are imposing and the scope of the old city looms large, but it's not particularly old by most of the world's standards. It was built in the 19th century. That said, it is still an impressive site that give the impression of an ancient pedigree. We really wanted to see more, but it was [View Full Entry]

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Hanoi-ing Hanoi is a fascinating city full of excitement and moving at the frenetic pace of a town on the move. It's both wonderful and full of annoyances at the same time. The streets are abuzz with constant motion, and you may cross the street amid a flood of scooters wherever you want, so long as you keep a predictable pace; switch it up and you're street paste. On the one hand you get to see amazing things like the man we saw peeing on a city electrical wire - we took a wide berth around him as we walked past. [View Full Entry]

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Semporna Riding in a bus for the first time in SE Asia provides one with wisdom they don't soon forget. Fortunately I have ridden in one before, and I didn't forget. What you find very quickly is that despite the fact that the weather is balmy outside, the temperature in the bus will eventually become Antarctic on the inside of the bus. Dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, you will find that dying of hypothermia near the equator isn't as ironic as it first sounds. So I prepared myself, putting pantlegs on, and dawning my towel as a blanket, and praying [View Full Entry]

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