This trip was with four of the staff from Federal Hocking High School as we are exploring a partnership with DAD, a secondary school in Mendoza. Last year at this time one of the teachers from DAD, Paola Diaz, spent three weeks at FH on a Fulbright program. Then, last March, I visited DAD. From there the teachers have been developing and teaching programs together and we wanted to visit the school to see if we might do more. When we arrived in Mendoza on Monday we were quickly gathered up and taken to an Asado (bar-b-que) at the home of the assistant school director. As they only do here, we spent three hours at the table with the fire crackling away nearby and feasted on a variety of salads, beef, and wines! Three hours here ... read more

We spent days four through six in Iceland touring 'the north.' You always have a sense of foreboding with the people in a nation call part of the country just 'the north,' here for good reason. On Tuesday we spent most of the day just driving to the north, the target being a farmhouse hotel to the west of Aukeryi (the second city of Iceland) where my friend Thor had made a reservation for us. Thor had been the dean of the University of Aukeryi and is also currently doing work in the area, helping the Chinese set up a station to study the Northern Lights. (His current work is with the Icelandic Arctic Institute--they are studying the effects of climate change amongst other things, guess which country no longer sends scientists to their meetings?). For ... read more

We arrived in Iceland at 5 a.m. after an easy flight with WOW Airlines from Pittsburgh. When we landed the scenery let you know immediately you were in parts unknown! For miles around the airport are lava fields, flat, almost barren. Closer inspection reveals that the purple hues are Lupins, stretches of them, planted for conservation reasons and considered by some to be an invasive nuisance. The lava rocks are also coated with green and red lichens and moss, which were are later told is a result of climate change--twenty years ago the rocks were a barren grey. Today, as it is warmer, the ground covering plants are gaining a foothold. We quickly passed through one of the easiest immigration checks ever--"are you staying in Iceland?" "Yes" "Fine, go ahead", passport stamped. We picked up a ... read more

We drove south from San Juan headed to the Valley de Uco, the largest expanse of vineyards in the country. But before we left we thought it was important to leave an offering for safe travel to one of the many shrines to the Difunta Correa. Hope she takes care of us and the car the rest of the way. Clearly she was on our side as writhing a few miles of the offering we found a stand full of ripe melons and picked one up for later. We traveled south on the renowned Ruta 40 yet again, passing through but not stopping at Mendoza. But the smell of the Sunday asados was over powering so we pulled over and picked up a bag of empanadas and then some grilled beef and chicken and had an ... read more

Into every good road trip a little weirdness must fall, and Thursday was the day for us! We left San Augustine knowing we had a bit of a slog from there to San Juan, but such is the case in driving around this country. To break up the drive, we counted on stopping in some of the small towns on the map, not realizing that often they are nothing more than a ghost town. We did find some action in Bermejo, in the form of the perpetual festival of San Expedito, the saint you call on for urgent needs (as in expedite this package--without UPS). We rolled into town and were flagged down by a helpful soul who had us park out of the sun...and then asked for $40AR ($2 US) for the service. Then several ... read more