Hey everyone!!! Day 4 – Thursday - NYC to CT We started out day with an American tradidion...STARBUCKS!!! (Yummmm say's Sarah!). It was a rough start to the day when after we checked out and put our baggage in storage for the day when I realised my phone was no where to be seen ARRRGH. So after raiding out bags in the storage area we had to go and get our room key back, and retrieve the phone, that I had left in the middle of the floor for some unknown reason! Ah well. Dean of course kept his cool [View Full Entry]

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hello!!!! ok so this is my first blog entry. i've never had an online travel blog before so this might take me awhile to get used to. right now i'm just relaxing and enjoying my last night @ home with my family. tomorrow i will be traveling to Rome with my friend Amy to begin what will most definitely be an interesting semester abroad in Florence, Italy. I have traveled to Europe before (France and Ireland) but I have yet to visit Italy. As of right now I dont really have any expectations...I'm trying to go into the whole experience with [View Full Entry]

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Robert here . . . Ilene's not able to spend as much time posting to the blog as she'd like, so I thought I would share some of what she has written to me by email. (Don't forget to look at entries previous to this in case you missed the pix that she did post.) She wrote: Vietnamese class has been shifted to T, F, S, S, so it will be tomorrow before I see my tutor again. And this time it will be conversation, not pronunciation. I listened to the lesson again last night (the digital recorder came in handy). [View Full Entry]

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First, a little update from Ilene . . . She got there, early early a.m. Friday eastern standard time. She's been busy getting set-up errands done, so no blogging from her yet. I'm hoping we'll start to see pix from her soon. She has been in touch with me a lot, though. We've had "IM dates" each of the last 3 days to chat on yahoo messenger. That was the big leap forward in technology on the last trip--on this trip we also have the ability to see and talk to each other with the webcams and microphones on our computers. [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, Ilene posting here: If you are unsure of what I am doing in Vietnam, fear not, dear reader—you’re not alone. People ask me all the time how I got interested in Vietnam, what I do in Vietnam, and what I write about. Here are some pithy soundbites to digest and/or share. What do you do in Vietnam? I travel in Vietnam looking for experiences, people, artifacts, language, images, and sounds that help me question my most familiar ways of thinking and knowing. I also investigate the effects globalization has had on Vietnamese people’s lives—especially [View Full Entry]

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So hey to anyone who is reading this...I only have a few more days left in the states before I head overseas to Prague for the semester. I'm not gonna lie, I'm pretty petrified. I already packed a suitcase and I have most of my things, but I'm still acting like this isn't actually happening. I know it'll be the best experience ever, I just need to get through the flight and get there and be in my apartment. Then I'll stop being nervous. Slezska 45, Prague 2 That's my address. The split up Prague (Praha) into sectors called Prague 1, [View Full Entry]

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Well this is my first entry, and not much to say other then I am leaving, on a jet plane, in about 16 hours from now and I am rather excited/nervous. This will be my travel journal for the next few months, so visit here for pictures, (apparently) videos, and entries about my travels in Europe. I will update as often as I can. Wish me luck... Warmest Regards, Mikolaj "Future World Traveler" Recko The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and, instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are. Samuel Johnson in [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, it's Ilene. Language study procedes apace. I wanted to title this "I like to take pictures" but, alas, I don't know how to say that yet. I can tell you I like to drink coffee: Toi tich uong ca phe. I can also tell you that I like to eat rice: Toi tich an com. However, I do not like to drink soft drinks: Toi khong tich unong nuoc ngot. Enjoy a few photos from my January 2005 trip. This upcoming trip (a mere two weeks away, I realized today) will be my third trip to Vietnam. I've been [View Full Entry]

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Welp, I (and my luggage, thankfully) made it through the first round of take off and landing; three more to go. I'm in Stamford, CT, which is about a 45 minute train ride from The Big Apple. I believe we'll be checking out the Guggeennheeiimm and a bit of shopping tomorrow. That's fairly exciting, considering I'm still partially in tourist-mode, for this is only my third time to NYC. I'm not excited at all about Europe, yet at least. I'm already beginning to miss specific people and I'm sure more will follow soon. I just hope I'll get at least one [View Full Entry]

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Hi All, it's Ilene. The old enthusiasm is returning. *This* will be the time a second language finally sticks. After three years of French in high school a summer in Japan three years of Ancient Greek in college three years of Latin in college another year in Japan one semester of Spanish in graduate school and two previous three week trips to Vietnam none of which I can honestly say has lead to long-term foreign retention, unless you count the swirling polyglot they now produce in my head when I sit dow [View Full Entry]

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