Cold Feet

January 7, 2009


We leave in a week. Oh, no. We leave in a week.

I love to travel. Really, I love to travel, but every time I take a trip, the week or so before is so hectic, so emotionally draining, so full of goodbyes and stacks of cat food and bills and unmatched socks and Dramamine and broken suitcase wheels and pathetic memos about work I wanted to do, but didn't---I come to the conclusion that I don't want to go. All I want to do is toast my toes beneath my hot water bottle, curl up on the bed with my cat Gray, and disappear into the second season of The West Wing.

Jo too is crabby and stressed out from school. The floor of her bedroom is a swirling maelstrom of unfolded clothes, books, and clumps of shoes competing for the privilege of walking on the cobblestones of Cadiz or sinking into the sandy beach of Walvis Bay in Namibia. We both wonder how we will survive the week. But we are women of commitment, Johanna and I, and we have made a commitment to board a ship next week in Fort Lauderdale and sail around the world.

This commitment was made over a year ago when I traveled to the University of Virginia to convince the academic dean of the Spring 2009 Semester at Sea voyage that I would be just the person to teach Asian Philosophy, Biomedical Ethics, and Immigration History. Why Spring 2009? Because I am an academic, and academics value sanity over material gain---I was on sabbatical. Jo would be in her junior year of high school: perfect timing for an adventure.

Here is our itinerary: Bermuda for four days of orientation; a chilly North Atlantic crossing to Cadiz, Spain; then to Casablanca, Morroco; Walvis Bay in Namibia on the west coast of Africa; Cape Town; Chennai, India; Bangkok; Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam; the glitter and glitz of Hong Kong; Shanghai; Kobe, Japan; Hawaii; a long trip down to Guatamala; slide through the Panama Canal, and home. Total time of the trip: four months. We leave next week, and will be home in early May. While we are on the water, school is in session. When we dock at each port for four days,,we explore. There will be approximately 670 undergraduates on board from all over the United States, and a faculty of about 60. Some of those faculty have children. Like me.

We had to get permission from our school district to home school Jo. It was a Herculean task to get all of her teachers to help craft IEPS (Individual Educational Plans) for her home schooling, but we finally got approval from the superintendant. I am the designated home schooler, but Jo is going to tackle four months of US History, Environmental Science, Italian, Math B, and English lit all on her own. Well, no, English we will do together because I like reading the books with (and sometimes to) her. We'll be doing Huckleberry Finn and Hamlet on the high seas.

Where will her sisters be while we are gone? And what about Gray? Nan is going to Equador to travel, study Spanish, and work; she's meeting her friend Jessica in Quito in the first week of February. Kate is returning to finish her freshman year at SUNY New Paltz. My winsome Gray is going to stay at home in our little red house in Northport with a friend of Nan's, Ali, who is going to house and cat sit. With great regret, I am leaving Ali my hot water bottle, my warm bed, and my TV.

Ok, ok, I'll admit it: I have not been forthcoming., Last week I sent ahead four boxes of books---I get very anxious without my books---and I snuck in enough toothpaste and kleenix packs for four months, two hot water bottles (one for Jo, and one for me), and the entire seven seasons of The West Wing. If I am to be wrenched from my home next week, I want to be prepared. LH