My son Patrick, with nine other Carnegie-Mellon University students, visited Qatar over Spring Break. You can read all about their adventures on www.qatarburgh.com. I’ve never been to the Middle East and I would guess the probability I would ever travel there is 100% against. Travel belongs to the young. When I was Patrick’s age, I worked for a consulting company that sent me all over the country. I’ve been in every state except for Hawaii and Mississippi. As Mark Twain once said, “You have to be a masochist to travel.” As I get older, those words become more and more true. However, I encourage my children and my students to travel NOW. It’s the best form of education I can think of (other than reading).
Hey, good for your boy. I went to their site and enjoyed all the entries. I’d heard that people in the middle east love their Toyotas. I only wish there were more pics of the gals in your son’s group–they looked kinda cute…
Agree with reading and travel. I also like to talk to foreigners who live in the USA. Once they feel comfortable, I ask them what they like and dislike about us and our country. The former is usually heart-warming. The latter, though, is always interesting, and often I leave the encounter with a new perspective and a lot to things to ponder.
Of course I meant to say “a lot of” instead of “a lot to” in the final sentence.
If you’d like to see more Qatar photos, check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickgage/.
A friend of ours son is teaching in Myanmar. This after a year in Pakistan. Although we’ve been all over Europe, I’ve never ventured beyond. Good for our kids for being less boundaried.
My children have traveled way more than I did when I was young. Other than the years when I worked for that consulting company, I’ve been pretty much a home-body.
Being a Navy brat, I traveled extensively when I was young, and was still doing so until I was in my early thirties. Nowadays, I think of a trip to the supermarket as an onerous trek.
Travel is torture to me now.