We are grateful

I'm Michelle, a Fulbright participant. I teach elementary music near Dallas, Texas. I am incredibly grateful and excited to meet the professors involved and also the fellow Fulbrighters! I was especially interested in learning everyone's perspective on the subjects we will be studying, and it is wonderful to finally share our excitement with each other.

For recreational reading, I brought along a copy of the 2004 edition of Best American Travel Writing. In the introduction, Pico Iyer discusses the nature of travel writing and remarks that American writers, as opposed to travel writers from, say, Europe or Asia, focus less on the traveler's impact on the world and more on the world's impact on the traveler. That is to say, Iyer felt that American travel writers seem to have a more self-important view of their adventures.

I thought about this as we began today's pre-departure seminar. As we went around our group today and introduced ourselves, each one of us mentioned how incredibly excited and grateful we are to participate in this adventure. Surely, this seminar will change us individually in many ways.

But there was no self-importance here; there was a palpable sense of awe and humility and even magic. There were several guest speakers today, and even with all we learned we were similarly amazed at how much information we will be learning and absorbing, and we were all filled with respect and wonder for the beautiful country we will visit and subsequently see through newly enlightened eyes.

- Michelle