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Lamb curry
Gabriel will eat anything, anywhere. He's also incredibly accommodating when a camera is pointed his way. People constantly ask what my children are doing for school while we are abroad. "Not much" is one answer. "Everything" is another. The truth is that formal schooling doesn't take up much of our day because there are other things to do and see. The other truth is that my children are very different and are having radically divergent experiences and thus, educations. Our oldest, Ari, hates travel and doesn't see the point of any of it. He would much prefer to be at home, in bed, or with his friends. He has, though, enjoyed taking Dean's English class with the students here. Gabriel loves every new experience and soaks it all in on every level. They are both taking something from this. What the kids take from this long term, I haven't any idea. It is only now that I can see the line traced from the extensive trips taken with my own parents to see how travel played out in my own life. On my ninth birthday my parents put my brother and me in an old station wagon and started a nearly month-long road trip through Mexico, armed with a cooler full of sandwiches, a road map, some
Munich
Ari learns that symbols of Christianity can appear almost anywhere...even a coffee haus. traveler's checks, and about ten words of Spanish. That sense of adventure and exhilaration was breathtaking; so, too, were the difficulties. It was this trip that ignited in me a love of international travel.
But that is a story for another day. Now I contemplate what my children have done or not on our current and past adventures. We are especially mindful of this since it is likely one of the last trips Ari will take with us as a family as he edges towards adulthood. Whatever has happened, I truly believe that travel is the best education. Being citizens of the world, I hope, will help my children develop ethically and intellectually. When we left the Veneto for Germany, Austria and Turkey, the humbling experience of having to learn and relearn basic vocabulary, negotiate public transport and apprehend cultural norms were all broadening parts of travel. In Venice, the safety and familiarity of the known has allowed their independence to blossom. In our home here they do the grocery shopping, go out to eat, visit sites. They travel all over the lagoon with us and with the students, but very often go out alone.
Ari's experiences didn't
include the art and history that I longed for him to take in (though he was certainly exposed to lots of it) but something different: friendships with a totally different group of almost-peers. Just this morning he commented on how different this semester in Venice has been compared to the 2009 semester in terms of the relationships he has made with the students. Gabriel, too, made some significant friendships, yet they were outside the house. He has spent many days on the Lido, traveling on his own to that island where he spends hours with Italian friends, practicing both his language skills and his skateboarding. He has loved every moment of it.
So what else? They ate new foods, learned to say "thank you" in three languages, blew glass, visited mosques, took numerous walking tours, stared at paintings, learned to read metro timetables, found new skate spots. Ari took up coffee like an Italian; Gabriel learned how to buy a rug at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul--a wonderful experience, which we were not allowed to photograph. There was more. I have cataloged some of what they have done through the photos, below. Oh, and--NO JUDGEMENT!!
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