A couple of people in the group have already posted their "getting ready to go" blogs, and I am no exception.  I spent the day Getting Ready, and here are my bags for six weeks.  Actually this includes a bunch of stuff I get to give away immediately at the airport, so the load will be lighter almost immediately.  But you know, Gentle Reader, the cruxy bit is always shoes.  The Right Shoes.  Oh, shirts and pants, whatever, but Shoes.  Each year I travel on an airplane with limited shoeage, I try to find one pair of shoes that will look respectable and be comfortable and go from cobble stones to moors.  I tried some sneakery like things last year that were okay but too informal. I *had* some good Ariat shoes that Delta lost.  :-(  So this year we are going with some Ecco shoes and a tiny pair of Merrel barefoot runners.  Alas, this will be the last song for the Eccos, but there are more.....As Debbie noted in her blog http://debbieswanderlust.blogspot.com, we will be traveling for almost 40 hours to get to where we need to be.  Even in this Day And Age, it takes that long.  Cincinnati-Dayton-Atlanta-London-(wait wait wait)-Vienna.  Cars, trains, and planes.  No boats.  Wouldn't that be cool though, if we had to have a boat in there somewhere?

I have a lot of academic reading on my iPad, but on a piece of paper for when no electronics are available, I have Mary Rose O'Reilly's Radical Presence.  It is about teaching in the moment, a very zen approach. There is a chapter on "Listening Like a Cow."  I think it will be very helpful.  I want to help our students be safely overwhelmed, comforted and nervous, adventurous and safe.  This really is an amazing itinerary. Debbie and I did it all last year, we are doing it again this year, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  Except that I would add Venice.